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Challenger Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Challenger Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.5M
Granted FY2025still arriving
10
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$500k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0190% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Health$6.8MEducation$3.6MPhilanthropy$250kSocial Science$75kRecreation & Sports$65kYouth Development$55kEnvironment$25kOther$0
02FY2025 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $50k–250k7 grants · $425k
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.1M
$75,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$24M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
University of Michigan$500,096
Cristo Rey Network$300,000
The Episcopal Academy$250,000
Fordham University$100,000
Brookings Institution$75,000
Bucks County Dragon Boat Association$50,000
Travis Manion Foundation$50,000
Hebrew Seniorlife Inc$50,000
Horizons Greater Philadelphia Inc$50,000
Catholic Schools Foundation Inc$50,000
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 (FY22–23, $50k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%Comprehensive Youth Development: $25k → 17%Comprehensive Youth Development: $25k → 17%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

IL
MI
NY
MA
PA
RI
CA
DC
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.

51%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$5.6M · 10 repeat orgs$5.3M to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
6

Total granted

$5.6M
$4.4M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+52%

Still filing today

70%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 34% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $975k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationPhilanthropyEnvironmentSocial ScienceHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • EA
    Episcopal Academy
    4× · 2022–2025 · $485k · revenue +24%
  • TM
    Travis Manion Foundation
    3× · 2022–2025 · $200k · revenue +33%
  • FU
    Fordham University
    2× · 2023–2025 · $200k · revenue +21%

Funded once

  • MG
    MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2023 · $3.0M
  • FU
    Fordham University (Visa Stock)
    one grant, 2019 · $1.2M
  • IC
    INNER CITY SCHOLARSHIP FUND INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $70k · revenue +52%
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
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
2
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
3
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
4
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
5
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
6
Cristo Rey Brooklyn High School

Cristo rey brooklyn is a catholic high school partnering with families of all creeds to educate deserving young people from underserved communities to become men and women of faith, purpose, and service. by integrating a rigorous…

—
7
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
8
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
9
Hampden-Sydney College

Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.

Education
10
Roger Williams University

At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…

Education
11
The Peak School

The peak school seeks to ignite a passion for learning, to develop students of diverse talents and backgrounds who think critically and act with integrity, and to graduate compassionate, confident, capable students who will embrace their…

Education
12
Mastery Charter High School

All students learn the academic and personal skills they need to be truly prepared for postsecondary success and able to pursue their dreams.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cristo Rey Network; the most unlike its peers is Bucks County Dragon Boat Association. 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

14 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. 14 of the 21 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/14
Grantees still filing
5/14
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Mass General Hospital (Stock): $3,259,546 · OtherMass General Hospital (Stock)MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $3,000,000 · OtherMASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITALFordham University (Visa Stock): $1,200,232 · OtherFordham University (Visa Stock)Fordham University (Stock): $1,183,089 · OtherFordham University (Stock)University of Michigan: $500,096 · Other+6 more: $275,000 · OtherEpiscopal Academy: $485,000 · EducationEpiscopal …CRISTO REY NETWORK: $300,000 · EducationCRISTO REY…Fordham University: $200,000 · EducationFordham Un…CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 · EducationTravis Manion Foundation: $200,000 · PhilanthropyHebrew Senior Life Inc: $50,000 · PhilanthropyTHE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: $75,000 · Social ScienceBUCKS COUNTY DRAGON BOAT ASSOCIATION: $65,000 · Recreation & SportsCOMPREHENSIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT INC: $50,000 · Human ServicesBOWMAN'S HILL WILDFLOWER PRESERVE ASSOCIATION: $25,000 · Environment
Other$9,417,963Education$1,035,000Philanthropy$250,000Social Science$75,000Recreation & Sports$65,000Human Services$50,000Environment$25,000

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 budgetUniversity of Michigan: $500,096 over 1y, 79% of budgetEpiscopal Academy: $485,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetCRISTO REY NETWORK: $300,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetTravis Manion Foundation: $200,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetFordham University: $200,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHORIZONS GREATER PHILADELPHIA INC: $85,000 over 2y, 9.0% of budgetTHE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: $75,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetINNER CITY SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $70,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBUCKS COUNTY DRAGON BOAT ASSOCIATION: $65,000 over 2y, 43% of budgetCATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetHebrew Senior Life Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCOMPREHENSIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetClaremont McKenna College: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBOWMAN'S HILL WILDFLOWER PRESERVE ASSOCIATION: $25,000 over 1y, 2.1% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA3.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile 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 Challenger Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Challenger Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Hebrew Senior Life Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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.

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 21 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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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