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Dean Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Dean 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.

$1.0M
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0188% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$1.9MReligion$1.7MScience & Tech$500kHealth$100kCommunity Improvement$100kOther$0
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$28M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY$1,000,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%LITERACY THROUGH MULTSENSORY: $25k → 17%CRISWELL COLLEGE: $100k → 14%EAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $500k → 16%HOWARD PAINE UNIVERSITY: $200k → 17%WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS: $100k → 13%LITERACY THROUGH MULTISENSORY: $25k → 17%DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY: $1.0M → 14%DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY: $300k → 14%DALLAS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY: $300k → 14%BONTON ENTERPRISES FUND: $100k → 14%INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH: $373k → 14%INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH: $127k → 14%THE HOCKADAY SCHOOL: $100k → 14%DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $500k → 14%DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $300k → 14%SCOTTISH RITE HOSPITAL: $100k → 14%DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $200k → 14%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.
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.

71%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.1M · 3 repeat orgs$1.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +25% for those funded once.

3 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
9

Total granted

$3.1M
$1.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%
+25%

Still filing today

100%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHealthScience & TechOther
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

  • DT
    Dallas Theological Seminary
    3× · 2020–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +39%
  • DB
    DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2020–2022 · $1.0M · revenue +31%
  • IF
    INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH
    2× · 2022–2023 · $500k · revenue -25%

Funded once

  • ET
    EAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2021 · $500k · revenue -9%
  • HOWARD PAYNE UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2021 · $200k · revenue +25%
  • CC
    CRISWELL COLLEGE
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +23%
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
Dallas International University

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

Education
2
Hardin-Simmons University

The mission of hardin-simmons university is to be a community dedicated to providing excellence in education enlightened by christian faith and values.

Education
3
Erskine College and Theological Seminary

Erskine College exists to glorify God as a Christian academic community where students are equipped to flourish as whole persons for lives of service through the pursuit of undergraduate liberal arts and graduate theological education.

Education
4
Houghton University

Houghton university provides an academically challenging, christ-centered education in the liberal arts and sciences to students from diverse traditions and economic backgrounds and equips them to lead and labor as scholar-servants in a…

Education
5
Greenville College

Greenville college d/b/a greenville university empowers students for lives of character and service through a transforming christ-centered education in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.

Education
6
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."

—
7
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
8
Evangel University

Evangel is a comprehensive christian university that is committed to excellence in educating and equipping students to become spirit empowered servants of god who will impact the church and society globally.

Education
9
Union University

Union university provides christ-centered education that promotes excellence and character development in service to church and society.

Education
10
California Baptist University

A private institution of higher education, offering both undergraduate and graduate courses to students.

Education
11
Dordt University

As an institution of higher education committed to the reformed christian perspective, dordt university equips students, alumni, and the broader community to work effectively toward christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary…

Education
12
North Greenville University

North greenville university exists to glorify god by cultivating graduates who are equipped to serve as transformational leaders for church and society.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is East Texas Baptist University; the most unlike its peers is Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children. 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

8 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. 8 of the 12 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Dallas Theological Seminary: $1,600,000 · EducationDallas Theological SeminaryDALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $1,000,000 · EducationDALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITYEAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $500,000 · EducationEAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITYHOWARD PAYNE UNIVERSITY: $200,000 · EducationHOWARD PAYNE UNIVERSITY+2 more: $200,000 · Education+2 moreINSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH: $500,000 · Science & TechINSTITUTE FOR…BONTON ENTERPRISES FUND: $100,000 · OtherWYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS INC: $100,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $25,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $25,000 · OtherTEXAS SCOTTISH RITE HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN: $100,000 · Health
Education$3,500,000Science & Tech$500,000Other$250,000Health$100,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDallas Theological Seminary: $1,600,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetDALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $1,000,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetEAST TEXAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY: $500,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH: $500,000 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetHOWARD PAYNE UNIVERSITY: $200,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCRISWELL COLLEGE: $100,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTEXAS SCOTTISH RITE HOSPITAL FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOCKADAY SCHOOL: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% 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.

Natl Christian Charit…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Natl Christian Charitable Fdn IncGA10.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Dean Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Dean Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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 Dean Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Dean 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 12 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record but names no grant recipient in the published copy, so the figures above are from FY2024, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Dean’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