President John Palfrey notes that MacArthur’s charitable spending exceeded 7 percent in 2025 as we met our commitments to do more for a nonprofit sector facing a funding crisis.
In early 2025, federal funding cuts threatened to harm our communities through slashing investment in public safety, health, arts, media, the environment, and many other sectors. While private dollars cannot replace public funding for social good, the charitable sector was called to do more. We responded. And, with many of our peers, we stepped up meet the moment.
On February 25, 2025, we committed to increase our payout to at least six percent in calendar years 2025 and 2026. Our update in August 2025 shared some of the actions we took, including: uniting in advance with charitable foundations and philanthropic organizations to protect our freedom to give, disbursing more funds flexibly and quickly, and offering trainings and resources for nonprofits. Today, in the spirit of integrity and accountability, I am sharing an update with our financials for the 2025 year.
- Our original budgeted amount of charitable spending for 2025 was $457 million, corresponding to a 5 percent rate.
- I can now share that in 2025 our actual charitable spending is estimated at $647 million, or a rate of 7.1 percent.
Put another way: our charitable payout was about $190 million more than we had anticipated in 2025 given the crisis in the nonprofit sector.
Looking Ahead
In the first months of 2026, the challenges to our sector and to democracy have escalated. We are still called to defend the nonprofit sector and the communities we support. So, the work continues: to uphold rights and liberties, to advance peace and justice, to enhance creativity and knowledge.
For 2026, we intend again to exceed 6 percent in total charitable spending given the stress that continues to face our grantee partners. Our approved budget for this year is $622 million of charitable payout.
For those who are curious about the math and how the numbers add up, learn more in our MacArthur Charitable Spend FAQ.
We encourage our philanthropic peers to join us in spending more than the IRS minimum of 5 percent especially during this crisis period, and we applaud our peers who are doing more and modeling accountability.
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