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What percentage of donations does the Tunnel to Towers Foundation allocate to administrative costs in 2025?
Executive Summary
The available records do not report a definitive percentage for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s administrative costs in 2025; the most recent public filings and charity analyses cover fiscal years through 2023 and 2022 and show a range between 7% and roughly 9–9.6% depending on how overhead is measured. CharityWatch and the Foundation’s own financial summaries emphasize a 93% program-to-overhead ratio (7% overhead) for fiscal 2022, while the Foundation’s 2023 Form 990-derived calculation yields an approximate 9.2% administrative share when combining management/general and salary-related lines and a separate figure reported as 9.6% overhead for 2023 in one summary [1] [2] [3] [4]. No source in the provided dataset discloses an explicit 2025 administrative-cost percentage, so any 2025 figure would be an extrapolation beyond the available filings [4] [3].
1. Conflicting snapshots: Why 7% and 9% both appear in public accounts
CharityWatch’s analysis and several summaries present the Tunnel to Towers Foundation as spending 7% of cash expenses on overhead and 93% on programs for fiscal 2022, a framing that positions the charity as highly efficient by common nonprofit benchmarks [1] [2]. That 7% figure is rooted in CharityWatch’s calculation methodology applied to the foundation’s audited statements and Form 990 for the year ended December 31, 2022; it focuses on cash expense categories typically classified as overhead. In contrast, the foundation’s publicly available Form 990 for the 2023 tax year—examined line-by-line in a filing summary—shows management and general and salary-related expenses that, when combined and compared to contributions, yield an approximate 9.2% share of donations for those administrative-type costs, and another summary reports 9.6% overhead for 2023, illustrating that differing accounting classifications and aggregation choices produce different percentages [2] [3] [4]. The divergence underscores how definition and aggregation drive headline overhead percentages.
2. What the 2023 Form 990 actually shows and why it matters
The 2023 Form 990 data compiled in the available filing lists $359,387,269 in contributions and grants and identifies $19,646,142 labeled as management/general plus $13,273,459 in salaries/compensation lines; combining those yields roughly $32.9 million, or about 9.2% of contributions, as a practical proxy for administrative-type costs in that year [3]. This method is a conservative approach that groups management, general, and certain compensation items often considered overhead; it intentionally errs on the side of including more expense categories so readers see a broader view of non-program spending. The presence of both the CharityWatch 7% [5] and the Form 990–derived ~9.2% [6] figures demonstrates that year-to-year variation and classification choices materially affect any single “overhead” number and that relying on a single headline percentage without reviewing the underlying filings can be misleading [1] [3].
3. Foundation messaging versus third-party evaluators: different lenses, possible agendas
The Foundation and advocacy-oriented summaries repeatedly describe the organization as keeping fundraising and administrative costs “at a minimum” and emphasize a 93% program allocation as a performance signal; these claims align with charity marketing aims to reassure donors and encourage giving [7] [2]. Charity evaluators like CharityWatch corroborate a low overhead ratio for the 2022 fiscal year, which supports the favorable portrayal but uses specific analytical conventions that can differ from IRS Form 990 line-item aggregations [1]. The Form 990-based calculation that produces approximately 9.2% is less promotional and more forensic, but it still relies on decisions about which expense lines to include. Readers should interpret these figures understanding that advocacy messaging tends to highlight the most favorable metric, while independent filings can show a somewhat higher administrative share [7] [1] [3].
4. The bottom line: No direct 2025 figure — what that means for donors
None of the provided sources contain a stated percentage for administrative costs in 2025; the dataset’s latest concrete numbers are fiscal 2022 ratios and the 2023 Form 990 filing, so a true 2025 figure cannot be confirmed from these documents [4] [3] [2]. Donors seeking an authoritative 2025 overhead percentage must await the foundation’s audited financial statements or its IRS Form 990 covering the 2025 fiscal year, or contact the foundation directly for interim financial reporting. Meanwhile, the available evidence suggests a range: the foundation has reported or been evaluated at about 7% overhead [5], while Form 990 line-item aggregation gives about 9–9.6% [6]—a reasonable working band for assessing recent administrative intensity until 2025 filings are released [1] [3] [4].
5. How to verify and what to ask next if you need precision for 2025
To verify 2025 administrative costs, request the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s 2025 audited financial statements or the IRS Form 990 for the fiscal year that ends in 2025, and ask for the foundation’s definition of “overhead” and the expense categories included in its program-versus-overhead split; these specifics determine whether the figure reported is comparable to CharityWatch’s methodology or a Form 990 line-item aggregation [3] [1]. Comparing the foundation’s own program spending disclosures with independent evaluator reports and the raw Form 990 lines will show whether differences are due to accounting classification, timing, or legitimate changes in spending priorities; until those 2025 documents appear, any precise percentage for that year is an extrapolation beyond the sourced record provided here [7] [2].