# Funders A **funder** is an organization that funds research — a government agency, foundation, or charity. OpenAlex tracks about 45,000 funders, and each connects to the [works](/entities/works/) it funded and to the specific [awards](/entities/awards/) (grants) that funded them. A funder's OpenAlex ID looks like `F4320332161`; fetch one at [`api.openalex.org/funders/F4320332161`](https://api.openalex.org/funders/F4320332161) (the US National Institutes of Health). ## How we build it ### Where funders come from Funders are [native entities](/entities/native/): OpenAlex decides which real-world organizations count as distinct funders and mints an ID for each. The funder list is grounded in the [Crossref Open Funder Registry](https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/) — Crossref's canonical list of research funders, each with a stable Funder DOI (e.g. `10.13039/100000002` for the NIH) — and enriched with names, homepages, logos, and country from [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) and [ROR](https://ror.org/). Those registries are also where the external IDs in [`ids`](#ids) come from: the Crossref funder ID and DOI, plus ROR and Wikidata IDs where they exist. ### How funders connect to works OpenAlex doesn't observe funding directly; it reads it off the works. When a [work's](/entities/works/) metadata (from Crossref, a funder's own grant records, or other sources) names a funder or a grant, OpenAlex matches that mention to a funder in this list and to the specific [award](/entities/awards/) if one is identified. Roll-up counts live on the funder: [`works_count`](#works_count) is how many works name this funder, [`awards_count`](#awards_count) is how many distinct grants OpenAlex has recorded for it, and [`cited_by_count`](#cited_by_count) sums citations across those works. See [Awards](/entities/awards/) for how individual grants are built. ### Roles Like [publishers](/entities/publishers/), a funder can be the same real-world organization as an [institution](/entities/institutions/) or a publisher — a university that both funds and hosts research, for instance. [`roles`](#roles) links those alter egos together. ### Failure modes Because funders are inferred and matched, they can be wrong: a funder mentioned only by a noisy free-text string may not match (so a work that *was* funded shows no funder), two records for one funder may not yet be merged, or a small funder may be absent from the source registries and so missing here. These are [curatable](/entities/curations/). ## Fields This is the canonical dictionary of every field on a **funder** object. Fields shared with other entities ([`id`](/entities/common-fields/#id), [`ids`](/entities/common-fields/#ids), [`display_name`](/entities/common-fields/#display_name), [`works_count`](/entities/common-fields/#works_count), [`cited_by_count`](/entities/common-fields/#cited_by_count), [`summary_stats`](/entities/common-fields/#summary_stats), [`counts_by_year`](/entities/common-fields/#counts_by_year), [`created_date`](/entities/common-fields/#created_date), [`updated_date`](/entities/common-fields/#updated_date)) are documented once on [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/); funder-specific notes are below. ### `id` *String.* The [OpenAlex ID](/entities/overview/#the-openalex-id-scheme) for this funder, e.g. `https://openalex.org/F4320332161`. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#id). ### `ids` *Object.* All known external identifiers for this funder, as URIs or bare values. Funder keys: `openalex`, `ror`, `wikidata`, `crossref` (the [Crossref funder registry](https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/) ID), and `doi` (the Funder DOI). See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#ids). ### `display_name` *String.* The funder's name, e.g. `National Institutes of Health`. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#display_name). Filterable and searchable; not available as a `group_by`. ### `alternate_titles` *List.* Other names the funder is known by, including acronyms (`NIH`) and names in other languages. ### `description` *String.* A short description of the funder, usually pulled from [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) (e.g. "US government medical research agency"). ### `country_code` *String.* The [ISO 3166-1 alpha-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2) code of the country the funder is based in. Unlike a [publisher's](/entities/publishers/#country_codes) list, a funder has a single home country. ### `is_global_south` *Boolean.* Whether the funder is based in the [Global South](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_South). Filterable and groupable — handy for equity analyses. ### `awards_count` *Integer.* The number of distinct [awards](/entities/awards/) (grants) OpenAlex has recorded for this funder. ### `homepage_url` *String.* The URL of the funder's homepage. ### `image_url` *String.* A URL to the funder's logo or a representative image (usually from [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/)). ### `image_thumbnail_url` *String.* Like [`image_url`](#image_url), but scaled down for a thumbnail (a `width` parameter is appended). ### `works_count` *Integer.* The number of works that name this funder. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#works_count). ### `cited_by_count` *Integer.* Total citations received across all works this funder funded. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#cited_by_count). ### `summary_stats` *Object.* Precomputed bibliometric indicators (`2yr_mean_citedness`, `h_index`, `i10_index`) over the funder's works. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#summary_stats). ### `counts_by_year` *List.* Works and citations per year for roughly the last ten years; funder rollups also carry `oa_works_count` per year. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#counts_by_year). ### `roles` *List.* The other OpenAlex entities that are the *same real-world organization* — each a `{ role, id, works_count }` object where `role` is one of `funder`, `institution`, or `publisher`. See [Roles](#roles). Filter on `roles.id`. ### `created_date` *String.* The date this funder was added to OpenAlex (`YYYY-MM-DD`). See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#created_date). ### `updated_date` *String.* The [ISO 8601](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) UTC timestamp of the last change to this funder object. See [Common fields](/entities/common-fields/#updated_date). ## In the API The Funders endpoint is at [`api.openalex.org/funders`](https://api.openalex.org/funders). Fetch a single funder by ID — [`/funders/F4320332161`](https://api.openalex.org/funders/F4320332161) — or a list, and [filter](/api/filtering/), [search](/api/searching/), [sort](/api/sorting/), [group](/api/grouping/), and [page](/api/paging/) over the fields above. To find the works a funder funded, filter [works](/entities/works/) on `funders.id`; for the individual grants, see [awards](/entities/awards/). For the full list of endpoints see the [endpoints index](/api/endpoints/).