Friends and partners of Elevate, it’s time for an annual tradition – our look back at the previous year by-the-numbers!
Last year brought change and uncertainty throughout the nonprofit sector – from the continued proliferation of AI tools and billionaire philanthropists making transformative grants through open calls, to a turbulent presidential election, an overall decline in nonprofit revenues, and specific risks to programs that support marginalized groups.
Here at Elevate, 2024 was indeed a milestone year. Here are a few of the key data points that shaped our year.
We raised our one billionth dollar and hit the 100+ million mark for the 4th year running
The headline this year is of course the grant dollars we secured to support our nonprofit partners. This summer, we hit a major milestone: raising $1 billion in grant funding since Elevate’s founding in 2013. In a press release, Elevate’s Founder and CEO, Alayna Buckner said, “This achievement is a testament to the hard work, skill, and dedication of our staff. But at the end of the day, this milestone belongs to the nonprofits we serve and the work they are doing in their communities.”
Of course, we didn’t stop there! In 2024, Elevate’s clients secured $133,638,544 in grant funding with our support. This is not only the highest annual total in Elevate’s history, but it also marks the 4th consecutive year we’ve raised over $100 million in total. That’s a lot of funding going to support housing, health services, education, grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, climate change mitigation, reproductive justice, and much more. To hit that high mark, we submitted 3,148 total deliverables (LOIs, proposals, and grant reports) last year.
The average and median grant award is (slightly) up; the overall win rate is (slightly) down
Digging into the total dollars raised a bit further, the average grant awarded to Elevate clients in 2024 was an impressive $147,703, and the median award was $30,550. This is up somewhat from last year’s average grant award of $131,172 and median of $30,000.
At the same time, our average win rate – that is, the percentage of grants that were ultimately awarded – is slightly down in 2024, following a recent trend. Elevate’s win rate in 2024 was 49%, as compared with 56% in 2023 and 65% in 2022. Prior to 2022, Elevate’s win rate remained steadily in the 50% range for several years. What remains true is that this is well above the national average win rate of 18%.
As we continue to track data and make sense of the past four years in our sector, our CEO Alayna Buckner hypothesizes that perhaps Elevate’s outlier win rates in 2022 specifically reflects the impact of excess dollars flooding into the sector due to COVID along with relaxed philanthropic expectations at that time. If this is true, it would mirror other changes that Elevate and our clients are seeing, where philanthropy adapted in 2021 and 2022 to the global pandemic, but began to return to previous trends starting in late 2023 and all of 2024.
Hundreds of organizations across the sector trust Elevate to support their grants programs
In total, Elevate partnered with 143 nonprofit organizations in 2024, including 110 nonprofits that engaged us for our signature Comprehensive Grant Writing Services with an average client tenure of over 4 years.
Our partners include nonprofits large and small, working across the country in a wide range of issue areas. Among those organizations we worked with last year, 4 serve an international audience and 25 have a national reach. Our clients are headquartered in 54 cities across 18 states, and the top 3 cities where Elevate clients are headquartered include Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and New York.
Elevate partner organizations have annual budgets ranging from $400,000 to $1.8 billion, with a median annual budget of $5 million. And the top 3 issue areas in which Elevate clients work are:
- Health, Human Services, and Housing
- Education and Training
- Advocacy, Policy, and Organizing
None of this is possible without our talented staff!
Of course, none of the major successes outlined here would be possible without Elevate’s talented team of grant professionals. Elevate employs 67 individuals who work remotely from 26 states across the U.S. This includes 15 staff in the Director or Senior Director role, 20 Grant Writers and Grant Specialists, and 8 Project Coordinators, as well as a team of managers and support staff who work behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly.
Elevate invests in staff development and wellbeing. Last year, staff took advantage of their annual professional development fund to the tune of $15,295 invested in learning and professional growth. And 5 staff took advantage of a 4-week paid sabbatical, a benefit offered to tenured staff to support opportunities for travel, personal growth, reflection, and more.
As we enter 2025, we’re both cautious and optimistic about what is to come. While change and uncertainty will undoubtedly continue, we remain true to our founding values. Specifically, at Elevate we believe that progress is possible, and nonprofits make the world better.
Click here to access our 2024 Elevate By the Numbers infographic, and review our 2023 By the Numbers and 2022 By the Numbers blog posts.
If you’re interested in exploring whether Elevate is the right partner to support your organization’s grant program in 2025, we’d love to hear from you!
