At the first board meeting of the fiscal year held in October, the trustees vote on the grants and administrative budget recommended by the Planning and Finance Committee. The Committee uses a spending formula that assures that the budget remains steady from year to year regardless of the vicissitudes of the market value of the Corporation’s portfolio.

A portion of the total grants budget is allocated to each program and unspent funds from previous fiscal years are held in reserve in the 21st Century Fund.

The trustees delegated the authority to approve grants up to $50,000 to the president. These grants are reported to the board in each Agenda Book.

Usually Corporation grants support individual projects of universities or other national or international nonprofit organizations and are referred to as project support grants. Occasionally, grants support the total programmatic and administrative operations of an organization and are referred to as general support grants. The Corporation makes grants to individuals through the Carnegie Scholars program.

Under its charter, the Corporation may spend up to 7.4 percent of the funds allocated for grants each year for the benefit of people in countries that are or have been part of the British Commonwealth; the rest of the funds must be spent for the benefit of people living in the United States. Grants that use “Commonwealth” funds are identified with a (C) in board resolutions and in the lists of program commitments in the last chapter of the Agenda Book.

Counsel determined that the Corporation might also make grants in other countries for projects that will advance and diffuse knowledge in the United States.