Wealthy interests in Ohio and America entrench power in the name of philanthropy, report says

Wealthy interests are socking a growing amount of money into tax-subsidized philanthropic accounts. Meanwhile, many of the wealthiest foundations are barely paying out the minimum required amount to charities whose needs are exploding, a new report says.

At the same time, many billionaire contributors are doing little to oppose laws that shred the social safety net, it said. Nor are many speaking out against attacks on democracy, it added.

But some charitable foundations are showing solidarity with groups that have found themselves under attack — including an Ohio voting-rights group that was subject to a statewide FBI search earlier this year, it said. 

Overall, the report says, much of modern American philanthropy isn’t helping the poor, it’s really helping the rich entrench their wealth, the report, Gilded Giving 2026, by the Institute for Policy Studies says.

“For many extremely wealthy Americans, philanthropy — ostensibly a form of generosity — has become part of that defense of extreme wealth,” it said. 

“Philanthropy is definitionally a phenomenon of wealth inequality: Someone with resources to spare chooses how and where to deploy them,” it said. “But whatever good charity, voluntarism, or institutional giving can do is undercut by our tax code, which turns philanthropy into a vehicle for defending wealth and status.”

More billions

Assets of the 144 charitable foundations with $1 billion or more grew from $420 billion in 2020 to $597 billion in 2024 — a 42% increase, the report’s analysis of IRS data said. 

Meanwhile, charitable grants grew from $25 billion to $34 billion over the same period — a comparable, 36% increase, it said.

However, the report said, the median annual payout by the foundations was 5.1% — barely above the IRS requirement that the foundations’ annual payouts and administrative costs total more than 5% of their assets.

Also, the Institute for Policy Studies analysis said, the rules allow foundations that pay more than 5% in a given year to pay less than others. Some foundations connected with booming corporations seem focused on giving just the bare minimum, it said.

“The nation’s now-largest foundation, the Lilly Endowment, reached a 5% payout in 2025 for the first time since 2009,” the report said. “Their payout was just 3% in 2024 and 3.4% in 2023. Their assets have more than doubled in value since 2022 due to the popularity and proliferation of GLP-1 drugs.” 

It’s important to note that the GLP-1 maker, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., and the Lilly Endowment are separate legal entities, but they are connected.

“The Lilly Endowment was created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his two sons, J.K. Lilly Jr. and Eli Lilly, who also headed the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company,” Influence Watch reports. “Although the endowment and the company are legally separate, the endowment remains a substantial shareholder in the company.”

The Lilly Endowment said it didn’t agree with the Institute for Policy Studies’ characterization of its giving.

“A private foundation such as Lilly Endowment is required under federal tax law to make eligible charitable expenditures that equal or exceed 5% of the average fair market value of the foundation’s investment assets during a given year, subject to adjustments as provided in that law,” Judith Cebula, the endowment’s communications director, said in an email.

“This amount, which is determined by a complex calculation, must be paid over a two-year period including the year of the calculation and the following 12 months. The amount varies each year based on the value of Lilly Endowment’s investment assets. Lilly Endowment has always exceeded its required payout.”

Strong tax incentives, mild courage

Others note that as the extremely wealthy sock money into foundations, they get big tax breaks for doing so — a de-facto tax subsidy.

“Higher-income individuals generally save more taxes by giving to charity than those with lower incomes for two reasons: they have higher marginal tax rates, and they are more likely to itemize deductions and take advantage of the tax savings,” the Tax Policy Center reports.

A 2019 academic paper by two tax experts said those subsidies can be big — as high as 74%.

As tax-exempt contributions accumulated in billion-dollar foundations, a critical mass of rich-and-powerful givers did little to stop President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the report said. 

That law gave $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% of Americans while slashing a similar amount from Medicaid and federal food assistance. In other words, it gave additional cuts to billionaires giving tax-free donations to charitable organizations while slashing resources to a group that would seem the most likely object of their charity.

Not only does it accuse many billionaire philanthropists of failing to protect struggling Americans, the Institute for Policy Studies report said they capitulated to authoritarian attacks on charitable organizations that fight hate and promote democracy.

For example, charitable organizations affiliated with financial services giants Fidelity, Vanguard, and Charles Schwab earlier this year blocked contributions to the Southern Poverty Law Center after the Trump Justice Department indicted the anti-hate watchdog on charges of committing financial crimes.

Criticized by independent organizations as politically motivated, the poverty law center has asked that the charges be dropped on grounds of vindictive prosecution.

“The administration has continued to ramp up pressure on funders and nonprofits to curtail activities it now defines as ‘illegal’, even absent any new statutes,” the report said.

“This has the effect of instilling fear among funders, and caution in supporting groups and programs targeted by the executive branch and fiery Congressional hearings.”

Some foundations fight back

The Institute for Policy Studies report said that some foundations have come to the defense of groups it sees saw as victims of Trump’s anti-democratic attacks.

FBI agents in June conducted a statewide sweep targeting the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a group that promotes voting rights — particularly those of historically disenfranchised groups.

When it did, the head of one foundation, Democracy Fund President Joe Goldman, put it in the context of the administration’s other actions.

“They are a coordinated effort to raise the cost of every part of the democratic process, from running a nonprofit to registering a neighbor to showing up on Election Day,” the report quoted him as saying.

“President Trump (has) raised the specter of widespread election fraud and manipulation, while his administration dismantles the institutions responsible for identifying and preventing threats. The only reasonable conclusion is that manufactured fears of fraud are being used to expand political control over elections.”