FAQ: MacArthur Charitable Spend

Charitable spend or payout is the sum of all Foundation spending for charitable purpose, which includes grants, matching gifts, program related investments outlays (PRI outgoing payments) and the charitable portions of administrative and capital spending. This term is interchangeable with payout or distribution. This often refers to the IRS payout requirement for private foundations, or the 5 percent required minimum distribution.

Under Set It at Six, we are committed to a payout that is at least 6 percent for 2025 and 2026. We have described efforts under Set it at Six in various ways, but note that grantmaking, giving, and charitable gifts describe one part of our charitable spend. 

By contrast, endowment spend is the sum of all Foundation cash outflow in support of Foundation operations, including all charitable and investment spend, impact investments, (which include PRIs and mission-related investments) and excise and other taxes. 

Using estimated and projected 12-month average assets ending December 31 of the calendar year:

• 2025 estimated charitable spend was $619 million, which includes $538 million of grants and excludes $28 million of PRIs; including PRIs our charitable spend was $647 million. The payout rate is 7.1 percent including PRI outlays, or 6.8 percent excluding PRIs.
• 2025 estimated endowment spend is $696 million, or 7.6 percent.
• 2025 original budget was $457 million, or 5 percent, including PRIs.
• Approved total charitable spend for 2026 is $576 million, which includes $484 million of grants and excludes $46 million of PRIs. Estimated payout for 2026 is 6.5 percent including PRIs, or 6.0 percent excluding PRIs.
• 2026 projected total endowment spend is $660 million, or 6.9 percent.

We include PRIs when referring to payout as it would be reported on our 990-PF tax return. Disbursements and repayments of PRIs can be unpredictable particularly when PRIs take the form of equity investments or guarantees. For this reason, we track charitable payout both with and without PRIs. For Set it at Six, we are planning to achieve a 6 percent payout without the additional calculation of PRIs.

Budget guidelines are set based on MacArthur’s average investment assets over three years (12 quarters) prior to June 30 of the current year, i.e. for budget year 2027, that period is July 1, 2023-June 30, 2026. The baseline is set at 5.25 percent, which is above the required minimum distribution.

Our fiscal year is Jan 1-Dec 31. For reporting on our payout rate, we compare our payout to this 12-month period’s average asset value. This is closely aligned with IRS reporting but is different from how we calculate the target charitable spend according to the budget guidelines, which looks at a three-year average.

We use "estimate" to describe spending for actual figures (both dollar amounts and percentages), when the 2025 financials are unaudited. The audited financial statements for 2025 will be available by the end of June, and the 2025 Form 990-PF will be ready by mid-November.