· Private foundation
Bearden Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k14 grants · $67k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $53k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CAMP FOR ALL | $25,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON | $14,250 |
| TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY | $13,250 |
| POST UNIVERSITY | $9,000 |
| SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY | $9,000 |
| BOWDOIN COLLEGE | $8,500 |
| PRARIE VIEW A&M UNIVERSITY | $7,500 |
| UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON - VICTORIA | $7,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $4,000 |
| TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY | $3,750 |
| TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY | $3,750 |
| UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS | $3,250 |
| UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON - CLEAR LAKE | $3,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS | $3,000 |
| HOUSTON APARTMENT FOUNDATION INC | $2,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY23–24, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +25% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.
35 repeat relationships — 11 still active in FY2024, 24 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $21k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
Camp For All Foundation5× · 2020–2024 · $60k · revenue +476%- RFRAZORBACK FOUNDATION INC4× · 2019–2023 · $45k · revenue +95%
- BCBowdoin College4× · 2021–2024 · $29k · revenue +25%
Funded once
- UOUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTAone grant, 2019 · $8k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWAone grant, 2019 · $7k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2019 · $6k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Uatx is a nonprofit dedicated to building a liberal arts university committed to freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse. to maintain these principles, the university will be fiercely independent financially,…
To build relationships with alumni and friends in order to secure private funds and other resources for the benefit of the university of southern mississippi (usm). the foundation receives, invests and distributes private gifts in support…
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
South texas college of law houston provides a diverse body of students the opportunity to obtain an exceptional legal education, preparing graduates to serve their community and profession with distinction.
To strengthen the association of former students, promote the interests and welfare of texas a&m university, perpetuate ties of affection and esteem formed in university or college days, and serve the student body.
To provide broader recognition of the state's top achievers in medicine, engineering and science, and to build a stronger identity for texas as an important destination and center of achievement in these fields.
Embry-riddle is the world leader in aviation and aerospace higher education. its mission is to teach the science, practice and business of aviation and aerospace, preparing students for productive careers and leadership roles in business,…
To generate superior long-term investment returns to support The University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems as they provide world-class teaching, push the boundaries of discovery, and achieve excellence in patient healthcare for…
The mission of hardin-simmons university is to be a community dedicated to providing excellence in education enlightened by christian faith and values.
The texas medical association (tma), the nation's largest and one of the oldest state medical societies, represents over 59,000 physicians and medical students dedicated to enhancing the health of all texans. in collaboration with 110…
Wayland baptist university exists to educate students in an academically challenging, learning focused and distinctively christian environment for professional success and service to god and humankind.
Preserving the sport of hunting through education, conservation, and the promotion of our hunting heritage.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is St Edwards University and the most unlike its peers is The Dartmouth Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 35 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 10% of your grantees by number, and just 5% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
20 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 20 of the 64 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Camp For All Foundation ↗
- Who funds RAZORBACK FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Bowdoin College ↗
- Who funds THE DARTMOUTH INC ↗
- Who funds St Edwards University ↗
- Who funds FORT SMITH BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds HOUSTON SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Beloved and Beyond ↗
- Who funds St Mary's University ↗
- Who funds SOUTH AFRICA PARTNERS INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Bearden Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- South Africa Partners Inc — 42% of income from government
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.