· Private foundation
Carl & Caroline Swanson Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $15k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $200k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $51k
- $250k+3 grants · $1.3M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COLORADO STATE UNIV FOUNDATION | $800,000 |
| CORBETT MEDICAL FOUNDATION | $275,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $250,000 |
| FOOD BANK FOR THE HEARTLAND | $51,000 |
| NATIONAL SNAFFLE BIT FOUNDATION | $40,000 |
| RANCHING HERITAGE ASSOCIATION | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| OMAHA EQUISTRIAN FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| AMERICAN QUARTER HOURSE FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| REINING HORSE SPORTS FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $15,000 |
| OHIO QUARTER HORSE FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| TIBETAN TERRIER HEALTH & WELFARE FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| ERIKA'S LIGHTHOUSE | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 66% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 5% of Carl & Caroline Swanson Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +97% since the first grant, against +58% for those funded once.
21 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 2 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CSCOLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION7× · 2018–2024 · $5.2M · revenue +25%
- CMCORBETT MEDICAL FOUNDATION7× · 2018–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +866% · 38% of their budget
- FBFOOD BANK FOR THE HEARTLAND3× · 2022–2024 · $216k · revenue +29%
Funded once
- CSCOLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FUNDone grant, 2018 · $450k
- EVEQUINE VET EDUCATION PROGRAMone grant, 2022 · $30k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2018 · $15k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The national horse show association of america, ltd. was founded in 1883 and reorganized in 1972 as a nonprofit corporation. the association was organized to advance equestrian sports in the united states.
Founded in 1994, the foundation for the horse is governed and stewarded by equine veterinarians. our mission to improve the health and welfare of horses is supported by the expertise of many world-renowned caregivers and researchers,…
The NCHA Charities Foundation is organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes as a supporting organization to the National Cutting Horse Association; and is organized and operated to encourage, promote and develop the Cutting…
The corporation is formed to promte and encourage public interest in agricultural and ranching through reining horse shows and programs; to develop standards and performance and judging of reinging horses; to encourage the development and…
The ncha promotes and celebrates the cutting horse, whose origin on western ranches allows us to support ranching and its western heritage. by establishing rules for the conduct of cutting horse shows, ncha strives to give cutters a level…
The harness racing museum & hall of fame is dedicated to comprehensive, active and authoritative support and promotion of the standardbred racing through documentation and preservation of the history and traditions of this american-born…
How this is measured
13 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 13 of the 28 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CORBETT MEDICAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK FOR THE HEARTLAND ↗
- Who funds OMAHA EQUESTRIAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds REINING HORSE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Ranching Heritage Association ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Erikas Lighthouse A Beacon of Hope for Adolescent Depression ↗
- Who funds OHIO QUARTER HORSE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NAP EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds National Collegiate Equestrian Association ↗
- Who funds NEBRASKA HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds TIBETAN TERRIER HEALTH AND WELFARE FOUNDATION ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Carl & Caroline Swanson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Carl & Caroline Swanson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Carl & Caroline Swanson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Carl & Caroline Swanson Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
Play a game based on Carl & Caroline Swanson’s filings →