Breakdown of Вчера я отправил большие пожертвования известным фондам.
я
I
большой
big
известный
famous
вчера
yesterday
Questions & Answers about Вчера я отправил большие пожертвования известным фондам.
How do we form the dative plural for известным фондам?
The masculine noun фонд gets the standard dative plural noun ending -ам, becoming фондам. The adjective известный (famous) gets the standard hard dative plural adjective ending -ым, becoming известным.
Why is известным фондам in the dative case to begin with?
The verb отправить (to send) takes a direct object (what is being sent) and an indirect object (the recipient). In Russian, the recipient of an action—the "to whom" or "to what"—always takes the dative case.
Why doesn't the direct object большие пожертвования (large donations) change its endings for the accusative case?
It actually is in the accusative case! However, because donations are inanimate objects (things, not people or animals), the accusative plural endings look exactly the same as the nominative plural endings.
Why use the perfective verb отправил instead of the imperfective отправлял?
The perfective aspect is used here to show a single, completed action in the past. The speaker successfully finished sending the donations yesterday.