How much does Clifton Foundation give?

Clifton Foundation reported 45 grants totaling $123,055 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 35 and 45 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Clifton Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Philanthropy (20%), Education (18%), Health (18%).

Who are Clifton Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Waco Family Practice Foundation ($178k), Caritas of Waco ($168k), Culver Educational Foundation ($100k).

Does Clifton Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 8% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Clifton Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Clifton Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Waco Foundation, Cooper Foundation, Margaret Cb & S Spencer N Brown Foundation Inc.

Where is Clifton Foundation based?

Clifton Foundation is based in TX.

Clifton Foundation

Clifton Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Clifton Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$123k

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$21k

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$235kEducation$222kHealth$218kHuman Services$214kCommunity Improvement$100kArts & Culture$85kFood & Nutrition$49kReligion$30kOther$0

02FY2024 · 45 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k43 grants · $92k
$10k–50k2 grants · $31k

$1,000

Median grant

States reached

$3.7M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
CARITAS OF WACO	$21,000
CULVER EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION	$10,000
WACO CHAMBER FOUNDATION	$9,000
THE GREATER WACO UNITED FUND FOUNDATION	$6,365
UNITED WAY OF WACO-MCLENNAN COUNTY	$6,365
VANGUARD FOUNDATION	$6,000
CENTRAL TEXAS SENIOR MINISTRIES	$5,000
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE	$5,000
DR PEPPER MUSEUM AND FREE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE	$5,000
THE WACO FOUNDATION	$5,000
THE WACO FOUNDATION	$5,000
PROVIDENCE FOUNDATION	$2,500
TSTC FOUNDATION	$2,500
UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS INC DEPT WS	$2,500
NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION	$2,500

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $184k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, 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.

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

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.0M · 47 repeat orgs$49k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +61% since the first grant, against +49% for those funded once.

47 repeat relationships: 33 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.0M

$32k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+61%

+49%

Still filing today

68%

71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $17k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesReligionHealthOther

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

WF
WACO FAMILY PRACTICE FOUNDATION
5× · 2017–2023 · $178k · revenue +298%
Culver Educational Foundation
8× · 2017–2024 · $100k · revenue +73%
DR PEPPER MUSEUM AND FREE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
8× · 2017–2024 · $53k · revenue +481%

Funded once

SP
ST PAUL'S AME CHURCH
one grant, 2023 · $13k
WC
Waco Cultural Arts Festgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +26%
CT
CROSS TIES MINISTRIES--TALITHA KOUM INSTITUTE
one grant, 2017 · $2k

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.

Dallas International University

As a christian university, we provide education and research opportunities preparing global leaders to partner with local communities.

Education

Texas College

To ensure that the student body experiences balanced intellectual, psychological, social and spiritual development, aimed at enabling them to become active productive members of society where they live and work.

Education

The University of TexasTexas a&M Investment Management Company

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…

Education

Texas a&M Research Foundation

To facilitate research and development within the texas a&m university system and selected other entities.

Education

Dallas College Foundation Inc

Dallas college foundation enhances the level of achievement and excellence of dallas college by providing scholarships, eliminating barriers that prevent students from attending and graduating, and supporting innovation.

Education

Creative Waco

Creative waco's mission is to grow and support a thriving cultural and creative community in waco and mclennan county, texas.

Arts & Culture

Baylor Oral Health Foundation

The baylor oral health foundation was established to foster and support the activities and program of the texas a&m university college of dentistry (the college) to provide financial support for excellence at the college, and to advance…

Health

The Association of Former Students of Texas a&M University

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.

Education

Furman University

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.

Education

Houston Christian University

The mission of houston christian university is to provide a learning experience that instills in students a passion for academic, spiritual, and professional excellence as a result of our central confession, "jesus christ is lord."

—

Texas a&M-Corpus Christi Foundation

For the benefit of texas a&m university - corpus christi

Education

Dallas Citizens Council

To lead and serve in the moments that matter the most for the people of dallas.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Waco Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Museum of the Bible. 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

49 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. 49 of the 70 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

49/49

Grantees still filing

38/49

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$365,070Human Services$191,500Health$182,750Education$174,550Philanthropy$166,420Arts & Culture$83,000Community Improvement$38,300

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.

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.

Waco FoundationTX42.8× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Waco Foundation · Cooper Foundation · Margaret Cb & S Spencer N Brown Foundation Inc · Baylor University · Bernard & Audre Rapoport Foundation · United Way of Waco-McLennan County · Fm and Gloria Young Family Foundation · The McClane Brown Family Foundation · Magnolia Foundation · The Fentress Foundation · Hobbs Foundation · Bowen Family 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 Clifton Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Clifton Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

8report 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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Clifton Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Clifton 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 Clifton’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