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Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$15M
Granted FY2021
61
Grants FY2021
15
States reached
$12M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

91% of Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Schwab Charitable Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 28 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 36 organizations, $15M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

11
’17
0
’18
0
’19
0
’20
36
’21
24
’22
19
’23
28
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0179% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Philanthropy$90MArts & Culture$20MEducation$3.8MHealth$1.2MScience & Tech$413kSocial Science$366kCommunity Improvement$301kInternational$255kOther$0
02FY2021 · 61 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k16 grants · $34k
  • $10k–50k22 grants · $513k
  • $50k–250k20 grants · $1.7M
  • $250k+3 grants · $13M
$30,000
Median grant
15
States reached
$1.2B
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Schwab Donor Advised Fund$12,176,953
University of Texas at Austin$553,645
Amarillo College$300,000
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland$176,000
New Mexico School for the Arts$110,000
Individual grant recipient$103,155
Chicago Shakespeare Theater$100,000
Individual grant recipient$100,000
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab$100,000
RootED Alliance$100,000
Flagstaff Arts Council$100,000
Santa Fe Opera$100,000
American Enterprise Institute$91,000
Los Angeles County Museum of Art$80,000
CNM Ingenuity Deep Dive$76,650
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY23–24, $78k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CASA OF POLK COUNTY: $3k → 13%THINK NEW MEXICO: $40k → 12%THINK NEW MEXICO: $35k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IA
OH
PA
NJ
CA
CO
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
DC
OK
LA
TX
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

70%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$20M · 43 repeat orgs$8.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +39% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.

43 repeat relationships: 25 still active in FY2021, 18 since wound down; 122 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

43
25

Total granted

$20M
$385k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%
+12%

Still filing today

53%
24%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 32% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.2M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationHealthInternationalHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • CS
    CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER
    3× · 2021–2024 · $575k · revenue +108%
  • SS
    SITE SANTA FE
    4× · 2021–2024 · $310k · revenue +238%
  • GA
    GOLDEN APPLE FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING
    3× · 2022–2024 · $300k · revenue +77%

Funded once

  • MO
    MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
    one grant, 2017 · $125k · revenue +0%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2019 · $40k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2017 · $40k
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.

04Its field

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.

1
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

See schedule osfmoma believes the art of our time is vital and shares it with passion and purpose, and that art and the creative process can open minds and help build a better world. for that reason, we assemble unparalleled collections,…

Arts & Culture
2
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
3
Museum of Arts and Design

To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.

Arts & Culture
4
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

The museum of contemporary art san diego invites all audiences to experience our world, our region, and ourselves through the prism of contemporary art.

Arts & Culture
5
California Institute of Contemporary Art
—
6
Kadist Collection Manager Inc
Arts & Culture
7
Clyfford Still Museum

Home to the art and legacy of the american painter clyfford still, we invite all to explore the potential of individual creative endeavor.

Arts & Culture
8
San Diego Museum of Art

To inspire, educate and cultivate curiosity through great works of art.

Arts & Culture
9
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute

Munson-williams-proctor arts institute (mwpai) is a fine arts center dedicated to serving diverse audiences by advancing the appreciation, understanding, and enjoyment of the arts. the art institute aims to promote interest and…

Arts & Culture
10
The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.

Education
11
Kimbell Art Foundation
Arts & Culture
12
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Museum of Contemporary Art; the most unlike its peers is Rooted Alliance Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

82 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. 82 of the 196 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
82/82
Grantees still filing
54/82
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $90,200,000 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC+3 more: $55,500 · PhilanthropySchwab Donor Advised Fund: $14,822,466 · OtherSchwab Donor Advised…Individual grant recipient: $1,000,000 · OtherSHIRLEY RYAN ABILITYLAB FKA REHABILITATION INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $1,000,000 · Other+122 more: $4,300,949 · Other+122 moreCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER: $574,700 · Arts & CultureTHE SANTA FE OPERA: $425,000 · Arts & CultureSITE SANTA FE: $310,000 · Arts & CulturePORTLAND ART MUSEUM: $250,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM ASSOCIATES: $230,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CLEVELAND: $176,000 · Arts & CultureWHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: $169,844 · Arts & CultureGEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM: $150,000 · Arts & CultureASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER: $150,000 · Arts & CulturePHOENIX ART MUSEUM: $145,000 · Arts & Culture+39 more: $1,423,460 · Arts & CultureCOLLEGIATE EDU-NATION: $1,000,000 · EducationNEW MEXICO SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS - ARTS INSTITUTE: $415,000 · EducationTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $200,000 · EducationEMPOWER SCHOOLS INC: $200,000 · EducationOklahoma State University Foundation: $111,200 · EducationROOTED ALLIANCE INC: $100,000 · Education+7 more: $205,000 · EducationAMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH: $341,000 · Social ScienceNGAGE NEW MEXICO: $300,000 · Community ImprovementMASS DESIGN GROUP LTD: $200,000 · InternationalMYRIAD USA INC: $50,000 · International+1 more: $5,000 · International
Philanthropy$90,255,500Other$21,123,415Arts & Culture$4,004,004Education$2,231,200Social Science$341,000Community Improvement$300,000International$255,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $90,200,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetCOLLEGIATE EDU-NATION: $1,000,000 over 1y, 61% of budgetCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER: $574,700 over 3y, 2.7% of budgetTHE SANTA FE OPERA: $425,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetNEW MEXICO SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS - ARTS INSTITUTE: $415,000 over 4y, 3.6% of budgetAMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH: $341,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetSITE SANTA FE: $310,000 over 4y, 2.3% of budgetNGAGE NEW MEXICO: $300,000 over 1y, 28% of budgetGOLDEN APPLE FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING: $300,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetPORTLAND ART MUSEUM: $250,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetMUSEUM ASSOCIATES: $230,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $200,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetEMPOWER SCHOOLS INC: $200,000 over 1y, 4.1% of budgetMASS DESIGN GROUP LTD: $200,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CLEVELAND: $176,000 over 1y, 8.1% of budgetWHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: $169,844 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGEORGIA O'KEEFFE MUSEUM: $150,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetASIA SOCIETY TEXAS CENTER: $150,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetPHOENIX ART MUSEUM: $145,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $125,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetRHIZOME COMMUNICATIONS INC co NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $123,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetOklahoma State University Foundation: $111,200 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSANTA FE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL LTD: $108,166 over 4y, 2.0% of budgetRehabilitation Institute of Chicago: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFLAGSTAFF ARTS COUNCIL INC: $100,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetROOTED ALLIANCE INC: $100,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetBUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY: $100,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetParallel Studios Inc: $80,000 over 3y, 14% of budgetTHINK NEW MEXICO: $75,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetELECTRONIC ARTS INTERMIX INC: $64,200 over 2y, 4.4% of budgetSNOW CITY ARTS FOUNDATION: $56,108 over 2y, 6.6% of budgetCORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS: $55,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMOVING ARTS ESPANOLA INCORPORATED: $50,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMYRIAD USA INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE DALLAS FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNevada Museum of Art: $40,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetBRAIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $40,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY: $40,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTUCSON MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORIC BLOCK INC: $35,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetAMERICAN MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE: $30,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSMARTHISTORY INC: $30,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetBARD COLLEGE: $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $26,011 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFIGGE ART MUSEUM: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetWriters Theatre Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Terra Foundation for …Santa Fe Community Fo…The Andrew W Mellon F…Gale Family FoundationThe Abeles FoundationNew Mexico Humanities…Los Alamos National L…Helen Frankenthaler F…Thornburg FoundationAlbuquerque Community…Marshall L and Perrin…Pnm Tnmp Foundation
Terra Foundation for American ArtIL28× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Terra Foundation for American Art · Santa Fe Community Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Gale Family Foundation · The Abeles Foundation · New Mexico Humanities Council · Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation · Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Inc · Thornburg Foundation · Albuquerque Community Foundation · Marshall L and Perrine D McCune Charitable Foundation Inc · Pnm Tnmp Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%5%19%42%75%funder's share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →median 35%
  • Utec Inc: 46% of income from government
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • The Morris Museum Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Portland Art Museum: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
24report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Carl & Marilynn Thoma 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 196 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Carl & Marilynn Thoma’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home