The world of grantmaking foundations is constantly changing. A small foundation launched in 2022 can grow to a be an influential and significant foundation in just a few years. Likewise, a very large foundation today, may not even exist in five years. For this reason, we constantly emphasize the importance of foundation research.  This article was last updated in 2016 and is overdue for an update (Check back for an update in 2023). From the original 2010 version of this list of 20 foundations, only six foundations were still ranked as top twenty grant makers.  That means 14 of the foundations listed below are NEW as of 2016 to this list.

Your ministry will likely continue or develop a need to count on foundation grant support for your programs and projects. Yet funding is not always easy to come by. This makes expanding your grant writing capacity all-important. You need a strategy. The following are four key components of an effective strategy.

Many Christian ministries and churches decide they will give grant writing a shot and see what happens. There approach is not planned or deliberate but rather a haphazard approach that does not account for the complexities and specificity of grant development. Grant writing is not hard, but it is very specific.