Peter G Peterson Foundation
ActivePhilanthropy & VoluntarismMakes PRIsFunds Individuals
NEW YORK, NYWebsite
About Peter G Peterson Foundation
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation concentrates its giving on public policy and governance issues — especially fiscal responsibility, budget process reform, and public engagement around long-term economic challenges — while also funding targeted public-interest health and national security initiatives. It tends to back nonpartisan research institutes, policy advocacy organizations, and initiatives that build public understanding or institutional capacity (e.g., election administration, healthcare cost transparency, and affordable medicines). Grants are large and strategic, often directed to a small set of repeat grantees and multi-year initiatives rather than many small awards.
Focus Areas
Federal fiscal policy, budget process reform, and public education on national debt issuesNonpartisan voter administration and election-system improvement initiativesHigher-education–based student engagement on fiscal issues (college civic engagement networks)Healthcare affordability and system transparency (cost-growth targets, health system tracker, insulin affordability)Global nuclear security and capacity-building for nuclear policy leaders
Who They Fund
college students
About Peter G Peterson Foundation
The Peter G Peterson Foundation’s grantmaking is built around a small set of large, repeat awards to policy organizations working on federal fiscal policy, election administration, healthcare affordability, and nuclear security. One of its clearest patterns is sustained support for the Election Trust Initiative, which received multiple $5 million grants to support nonpartisan efforts to improve how elections are administered in the United States. Another major line of work is fiscal policy and budget process reform, where the foundation has backed the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget with multimillion-dollar grants for policy research, outreach, and public engagement. The foundation also funds initiatives that translate research into public-facing tools and networks. Its support for Net Impact’s Up to Us initiative is aimed at college students and peer engagement on America’s fiscal challenges, while its healthcare work includes grants to build state cost-growth targets and expand the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker. Nuclear security is another recurring area, with support for research on nuclear materials security and leadership networks for experts and policymakers. Across these areas, the foundation favors national-scale organizations and multi-year initiatives rather than broad small-grant distribution.
What Peter G Peterson Foundation Funds
Fiscal policy is the foundation’s core area of support. It gave $4,082,051 in 2024 to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to advance responsible fiscal policy and budget process reform through policy research, outreach, and public engagement, and it followed with another $3,631,455 in 2025 for the same purpose. In civic engagement, the foundation backed Net Impact with $3,350,000 in 2024 to execute Up to Us, a nationwide initiative for college students, and later awarded $1,077,000 in 2025 for the same program. Healthcare affordability is another visible thread. The Milbank Memorial Fund received $1,810,000 in 2025 to help states develop and implement cost growth targets, while the University of Washington received $1,080,000 in 2024 to create a nationwide dataset of U.S. healthcare expenditures and value at the county level. Nuclear security appears through support for Nuclear Threat Initiative, including a $3,000,000 grant in 2024 to improve global nuclear security through research and leadership networks.
How Peter G Peterson Foundation Gives
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$30.1M
Total Assets
$1.2B
Total Revenue
$65.8M
Total Expenses
$58.8M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $20K and $225K, with a median of $71K.
25th Percentile
$20K
Median
$71K
75th Percentile
$225K
Geographic Reach
National19 states funded
About 11% of grants go to recipients in DC.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Leadership
MICHAEL A PETERSON
DIRECTOR, CHAIRMAN & CEO
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