Washington Grants for Nonprofits
Learn more about grants for Washington state with Inside Philanthropy. Find a curated list of top Washington funders below and use the search tool for Grant Finder. Become a member.
Funding landscape and giving trends in Washington State
Grants for Washington state are more abundant and diverse than in other Northwestern states. Washington, with Seattle at its economic center, in addition to having a major tech presence, holds significantly more philanthropic assets than most other states in the region. According to Candid, almost 5,000 private grantmakers made grants focused on Washington state in 2019. The combined value of their grants for Washington amounted to more than $2 billion that year.
Many grantmakers for Washington nonprofits are members of the regional association Philanthropy Northwest. Similarly, Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington also focus on the inter-state area, but on a smaller scale of philanthropic giving. Washington grantmakers’ top funding priorities include education, health and medical research, human services, philanthropy and nonprofit leadership, immigration, and community and economic development. Subsequent grantmaking interests also include mental health, substance use, and homelessness, as these issues increasingly impact life in Washington. Social justice and equity are also evolving priorities for many Washington state grantmakers, with these commitments informing the way they give for across other funding focus areas.
Washington’s top funders include a mix of private, public, corporate and community foundations. The Gates Foundation, headquartered in Seattle, makes grants globally, as well as locally across Washington. The philanthropic arms of major corporations Boeing and Starbucks are also important grantmakers in Washington. Other top funders of Washington grants for nonprofits include the Group Health Community Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Washington Research Foundation, United Way of King County, Norcliffe Foundation, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Kuni Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Satterberg Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, and the Legal Foundation of Washington.
