Which foundations funded Project 2025 and what amounts did each give between 2022–2024?
Executive summary
Project 2025 was funded not by a single, transparent pot but by a web of conservative family foundations, donor-advised funds and the Heritage Foundation itself; public reporting identifies several large foundations and specific grants between 2022–2024 but does not provide a comprehensive, line‑by‑line ledger [1] [2]. Key named funders include the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Barre Seid’s Marble Freedom Trust, Scaife family foundations, the Uihlein network, the Dunn Foundation and a cluster of donor‑advised funds and financial firms, with reported multi‑million dollar flows to Project 2025 advisory groups and allied organizations [1] [3] [4] [2].
1. Major family foundations and the headline totals reported
Investigations aggregating IRS filings and grant data say six billionaire‑linked networks steered more than $120 million toward organizations that authored or advised Project 2025 between roughly 2020–2023, with the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation accounting for about $52.9 million, Barre Seid’s Marble Freedom Trust about $22.4 million, and Scaife family foundations roughly $21.5 million — figures reported in analyses that compiled Form 990 disclosures and related filings [1]. Those same compilations also attribute roughly $13 million of giving to Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein to groups tied to Project 2025, though these totals span multiple recipient entities rather than a single “Project 2025” line item [1] [3].
2. The Dunn Foundation, WL Amos Sr and other named foundation grants
Reporting in The Guardian extracted discrete grant amounts tied to Project 2025 adjacencies: the Dunn Foundation is identified as giving $250,000 to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CPI) and $25,000 to the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) in 2022, then increasing CPI support to $2.5 million and giving another $25,000 to AAF in 2023; the WL Amos Sr Foundation reportedly made smaller, targeted gifts such as $10,000 to AAF, $55,000 to CPI‑affiliated American Moment and six‑figure gifts — including $300,000 and $200,000 — to CPI and Heritage affiliates in 2023 [4]. Those dollar figures are concrete examples of how specific family foundations funded organizations that fed into Project 2025’s infrastructure rather than direct line‑item “Project 2025” grants [4].
3. Single large grants flagged by watchdog reporting
Investigative outlets singled out particular large grants tied to Project 2025 allies: DeSmog reported a single $27.1 million donation in 2022 to Turning Point Legal (an organization linked to Project 2025 advisors) and documented millions more routed to allied groups via the Bradley and Scaife networks, emphasizing that much of this money supports a constellation of organizations that produced Project 2025 deliverables [3] [1]. Those reports treat the money as funding the advisory ecosystem for Project 2025 rather than funding a single Heritage‑run product.
4. Donor‑advised funds and financial intermediaries — the shadow channel
Analyses by The Lever and others show a parallel flow through donor‑advised funds and financial firms: donor‑advised funds had donated more than $18 million to the Heritage Foundation since 2020, and four major donor‑advised fund sponsors (Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab and the National Philanthropic Trust) collectively gave about $4.3 million to Heritage in 2023 (up from $2.7 million in 2022), illustrating how indistinct channels inflate the challenge of attributing precise 2022–2024 totals to named foundations alone [2].
5. The Heritage Foundation’s own spending and limits of the public record
Heritage both led Project 2025 and reported substantial internal spending: the organization has been reported to have spent $22 million preparing staffing recommendations and in 2022 disclosed $1.67 million in grants that included roughly $965,000 directed to organizations on Project 2025’s advisory board — figures that are the clearest publicly reported Heritage line items for 2022 activity [5] [6]. However, multiple sources caution that because donations were routed through many nonprofits, donor‑advised funds and family foundations across years, there is no single, publicly available master accounting that lists every foundation payer and an exact 2022–2024 dollar total to “Project 2025” specifically [1] [2].
Conclusion: what is known and what remains opaque
Public reporting identifies numerous foundations and large grants that financed organizations central to Project 2025 — notably the Bradley, Marble Freedom Trust, Scaife, Uihlein networks, Dunn Foundation and WL Amos Sr — and documents multi‑million gifts and targeted grants between 2022–2023, while donor‑advised funds and intermediary vehicles added millions more to Heritage and allied groups; but no single source provides a comprehensive, verified list of every foundation donor and the exact sums they gave to “Project 2025” in 2022–2024, so the full picture remains partially opaque [1] [3] [4] [2] [6].