Who are the largest donors to the Heritage Foundation and how much did each give in 2022-2023?

1. The headline numbers: Heritage’s revenue and what public filings disclose

Heritage’s IRS-derived total revenue is reported at about $101 million in 2023 (down from roughly $107 million in 2022), and most of that revenue is described as coming from contributions, gifts and grants, with investment income making up a small portion—figures summarized in public reporting of its tax filings ^{[1] [5] [2]}.

2. What the sources do identify as large donors or donor networks

Investigations and watchdogs point to recurring conservative donor vehicles and family foundations as principal sources of major funding to Heritage and related Project 2025 activity: DeSmog’s analysis finds Scaife family foundations gave about $4.1 million to the Heritage Foundation “since 2022,” and it documents six wealthy donor networks (including links to Koch-aligned funding) that funneled large sums into Project 2025 advisory groups—these networked flows suggest substantial, if sometimes indirect, support for Heritage’s 2022–2023 work ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Donor-advised funds and dark‑money intermediaries complicate a clear top‑donor list

Heritage has long received money through donor-advised funds such as DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, vehicles described in reporting as major intermediaries for conservative philanthropy; because donor-advised funds and similar conduits report grants but not always the original sources, tracing precise 2022–2023 gift amounts back to named individuals or families is limited in public records ^{[1] [4]}.

4. What watchdog databases add — and what they cannot show

Conservative Transparency and OpenSecrets offer transaction logs and organizational profiles that can surface some donor-recipient links and political activity, but these datasets explicitly exclude many opaque or ‘dark money’ flows and do not provide a validated ranked list of Heritage’s largest donors for 2022–2023 in dollar terms ^{[6] [7] [8]}.

5. Examples of large gifts from prior years that illustrate funding patterns

Historical donations illuminate the scale possible: a widely reported $26 million gift to Heritage in 2016 from the Davis family shows philanthropic capacity to give single-digit to double-digit millions to the institution, but that specific large gift was not part of 2022–2023 reporting and therefore cannot be counted toward those years ^[9].

6. Conflicting narratives, agendas, and what they mean for interpreting donor lists

Different outlets emphasize different donors according to investigative priorities and political perspective—environmental and progressive outlets focus on fossil-fuel–aligned funders and the Scaife/Koch nexus, while conservative fundraising pages and Heritage’s own donor appeals highlight broad grassroots and member giving; those framing choices reflect implicit agendas and affect which donors get spotlighted in public debate ^{[3] [10]}.

7. Conclusion — what can be stated with confidence and where the record is thin

It is certain Heritage reported about $101 million revenue in 2023 and that donor-advised funds and conservative family foundations are important funders ^{[1] [5] [2] [4]}. What cannot be stated with confidence from the supplied sources is an authoritative ranked list of “largest donors” with exact amounts for 2022–2023: that level of donor-by-donor detail is obscured by intermediaries, incomplete public databases, and the absence of a single disclosed donor ledger in the material provided ^{[6] [7] [8]}.