Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Our Funding

Pew Research Center is a not-for-profit research organization. Most of our funding comes from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which believe knowledge is key to solving today’s most challenging problems. We also receive support from other philanthropists and institutions that share our commitment to high-quality, fact-based research.  

We operate independently from all of our funders. Our leadership and staff decide what we study. We choose the topics, design the research, gather the results, and publish the data. No funder or outside group influences our work.  

This funding model lets us study people’s views and behaviors without an agenda. It gives us the resources to apply our skills where they matter most, listen to all people and views, and hire top experts to lead our work.  

Since we are funded from charitable dollars, our research is a public good, and we make it available free of charge to anyone interested.  People use it to form their own opinions and make informed decisions. We do not propose solutions, take policy positions, or do consulting or contract work. We are not funded by any government entity or political party. Pew Research Center is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. 

As documented in our IRS Form 990, our activities are largely funded through grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems by improving public policy, informing the public and invigorating civic life. Pew is an independent nonprofit organization — the sole beneficiary of seven individual trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by two sons and two daughters of Sun Oil Company founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary Anderson Pew.

About The Pew Charitable Trusts

For more than six decades, The Pew Charitable Trusts has developed creative ideas and taken calculated risks — leading to policies that have improved people’s lives in tangible ways around the globe. As the country and the world have evolved, Pew has remained dedicated to its founders’ emphasis on innovation. Today, The Pew Charitable Trusts is a global research and public policy organization, still operated as a nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization dedicated to serving the public. As part of that mission, Pew Research Center generates a foundation of facts that can enrich the public dialogue and support sound decision-making.

How you can support the Center

Pew Research Center is seeking opportunities to partner strategically with philanthropists and institutional funders who share our commitment to impartial research and data that drive discussion and support decision-making. Read more about partnering with Pew Research Center or contact our partnerships team.  

If you value the materials you receive from Pew Research Center, please consider supporting our work by making a donation.

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