How much money did the Eric Trump Foundation report raising for St. Jude and where do filings show those funds were disbursed?

1. The foundation’s public claim and the St. Jude confirmation

Eric Trump and the foundation distributed statements and materials saying they had raised millions for St. Jude, and St. Jude officials confirmed in a letter that the Eric Trump Foundation "had raised — or helped raise through affiliated groups — $16.3 million" since the foundation’s founding ^[1]. The foundation and its spokespeople have also emphasized low reported expense ratios and defended use of affiliated events and venues as cost-effective fundraising ^{[5] [3]}.

2. What tax filings and public records actually show the foundation gave

A review of publicly available tax records from 2007 to 2016 shows that the charity itself directly donated about $8.7 million to St. Jude over that period, a figure significantly lower than the $16.3 million the foundation and St. Jude letter referenced as "raised or helped raise" ^[2]. Separately, filings and media reporting identified a $2.9 million donation in 2016 listed as coming from the Eric Trump Foundation ^{[3] [4]}. Together, those specific records and filings underpin the discrepancy between amounts the foundation claims to have "raised" and the amounts its tax returns report as direct grants ^{[2] [3]}.

3. Where filings show money went besides St. Jude

Forbes and other reporting from detailed IRS filings found that while the foundation did send substantial sums to St. Jude, it also redirected more than $500,000 to other charities and paid tens of thousands to Trump-owned properties for event costs — for example, filings showed $59,085 spent on the 2012 golf invitational at Trump National and roughly $145,000 paid to Trump family for-profit properties across years covered ^{[6] [5] [7]}. Those payments to related businesses and grants to other nonprofits — some with links to Trump interests — were documented in filings and became focal points for questions about donor expectations and potential self-dealing ^{[3] [6]}.

4. Why the tallies differ and competing narratives

The gap between $16.3 million and what tax returns show stems from different accounting and framing: St. Jude’s letter and foundation statements count money "raised or helped raise" (including funds that flowed directly to St. Jude from events or affiliated groups without passing through the foundation’s books), while IRS returns record only grants the foundation itself disbursed out of its bank-account-controlled funds — hence the $8.7 million figure for direct grants 2007–2016 ^{[1] [2]}. The foundation has said relevant donors were informed when gifts would be redirected and defended its expense ratios, while reporters and nonprofit experts flagged inconsistencies between donor-facing promises and where some dollars ultimately landed ^{[6] [3]}.

5. Bottom line: reported raises vs. documented disbursements

The most defensible short answer is this: the Eric Trump Foundation and St. Jude cited $16.3 million as the total the foundation "raised or helped raise" for the hospital ^[1], but publicly available tax records show about $8.7 million in direct grants from the foundation to St. Jude for 2007–2016 and include a documented $2.9 million donation in 2016; filings and reporting also document more than $500,000 re-granted to other charities and tens of thousands paid to Trump-owned businesses for event services ^{[2] [3] [6] [7]}. Reporting limitations: public filings and news investigations explain how the counting differs, but they do not produce a single reconciled ledger that traces every dollar across every entity and year ^{[2] [8]}.