Fact check: What is the average donation amount received by families of fallen first responders from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation in 2025?

1. Why the headline question cannot be answered from the provided documents

The direct question—an average payment amount to families in 2025—is unsupported by the supplied excerpts because none of the documents include transaction-level or beneficiary-level disbursement data. The available texts describe organizational status, program ratios, and fundraising efficiency, but they omit aggregate payout totals to defined beneficiary groups or counts of families served in 2025, which are both necessary to compute an average. The absence of per-family disbursement figures means an arithmetic average cannot be derived from the documented financial summaries or press materials ^{[3] [4] [5]}.

2. What the supplied financial metrics do tell us about organizational spending

The documents consistently report a high program allocation—93%—which indicates that the majority of reported expenditures are designated for programs and services rather than overhead, at least according to the foundation’s published financial breakdowns. A separate historical metric notes a cost-to-raise-$100 figure of $5 based on 2022 data, providing a fundraising-efficiency snapshot but not beneficiary payout detail. These metrics illuminate organizational priorities and fiscal efficiency but remain insufficient to disclose how funds translate into per-family assistance in 2025 ^{[4] [5]}.

3. The public-facing content and press material offer context but not sums

Press releases and event summaries in the supplied set describe activities, partnerships, and programmatic initiatives that signal an operational focus on supporting first responders and their families. However, these narrative documents typically highlight stories, program launches, and outcomes without publishing comprehensive financial roll-ups by beneficiary type or per-family distributions, leaving a gap between program descriptions and quantifiable per-recipient payments in 2025 ^{[6] [3]}.

4. What specific data elements are missing that would be required to compute an average

To calculate an accurate average donation received by families of fallen first responders in 2025, two essential data points are missing from the provided materials: the total dollar amount disbursed to that beneficiary category in 2025, and the count of distinct families who received those disbursements during the same period. Neither of these discrete figures appears in the supplied analyses; without both, any computed per-family figure would be speculative rather than evidence-based ^{[3] [5]}.

5. How organizational disclosures cited here partially inform, but do not resolve, the question

The supplied disclosures—organizational status as a 501(c)^[1] and program and fundraising efficiency ratios—are useful for assessing stewardship and overhead but do not map uniquely onto beneficiary-level payouts. High program percentages suggest robust program funding, yet they do not reveal allocation by program or by recipient category. Consequently, transparency claims in the documents describe practices and aggregated shares but stop short of documenting beneficiary payment averages for 2025 ^{[3] [4]}.

6. Plausible explanations for the absence of per-family averages in public materials

Organizations often present summary financials and program narratives for stakeholder audiences while withholding granular beneficiary payment tables due to privacy, administrative complexity, or reporting conventions. The supplied materials follow that pattern: program percentages and fundraising metrics are publicized, while individual or categorical disbursement breakdowns are not included in the excerpts. This reporting choice can create the appearance of transparency while leaving specific accountability questions—like per-family averages—unanswered by the public record presented ^{[4] [6]}.

7. Practical next steps to obtain the precise figure if needed

To determine the 2025 average donation amount to families of fallen first responders, the missing data must be requested or sourced: specifically, an itemized 2025 disbursement schedule or beneficiary report and a count of unique 2025 recipient families. The supplied materials do not contain those items, so further documentary requests or publicly filed reports would be required to produce a verifiable average. The current evidence set is clear: no reliable average can be calculated from the documents provided ^{[3] [5]}.