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Delta Air Lines Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Delta Air Lines Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$20M
Granted FY2025still arriving
30
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$3.8M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$37MInternational$12MArts & Culture$8.9MPublic Safety & Disaster$8.3MHealth$6.9MCommunity Improvement$5.5MHuman Services$2.9MFood & Nutrition$800kOther$0
02FY2025 · 30 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $800k
  • $250k+23 grants · $19M
$400,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$24M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DELTA EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFTS TO COLLEGESUNIVERSITIES VIA BONTERRA$3,811,670
DELTA AIR TRANSPORT HERITAGE MUSEUM INC$2,000,000
GLOBAL CITIZEN$1,125,000
OPERATION HOPE$1,000,000
MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY$1,000,000
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GEORGIA CLAYTON CO$1,000,000
AMERICAN RED CROSS$1,000,000
MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY$1,000,000
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOUNDATION$1,000,000
CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA FOUNDATION$1,000,000
WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN$1,000,000
CLAYTON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION$1,000,000
NEW COMMON SCHOOL FOUNDATION$500,000
SPELMAN COLLEGE$500,000
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB METRO ATLANTA - CLAYTON COUNTY$400,000
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 (FY20–25, $10.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, 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%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1.0M → 14%YMCA OF GREATER NEW YORK: $250k → 17%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1.0M → 14%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1.0M → 14%YMCA OF GREATER NEW YORK: $250k → 17%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1.0M → 14%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1.0M → 14%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1.0M → 14%WESTSIDE FUTURE FUND: $1.1M → 13%WESTSIDE FUTURE FUND: $1.1M → 13%WESTSIDE FUTURE FUND: $1.1M → 13%YMCA OF METRO ATLANTA: $100k → 13%YMCA OF METRO ATLANTA: $100k → 13%YMCA OF METRO ATLANTA: $100k → 13%YMCA OF METRO ATLANTA: $100k → 13%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

WA
MN
MI
NY
MA
NJ
DC
AL
GA
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 11% of Delta Air Lines Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 54% of the giving stays in GA; by stated purpose, 40%.

Delta Air Lines Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 7.3% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$77M · 37 repeat orgs$8.2M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +19% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

37 repeat relationships: 20 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

37
7

Total granted

$77M
$5.8M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+19%
0%

Still filing today

76%
57%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.4M went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesInternationalPhilanthropySocial ScienceOther
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

  • TU
    THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOUNDATION
    6× · 2020–2025 · $9.6M · revenue +160%
  • AN
    American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches
    6× · 2020–2025 · $6.0M · revenue +38%
  • WF
    WESTSIDE FUTURE FUND INC
    3× · 2021–2023 · $3.3M · revenue +219%

Funded once

  • SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
    one grant, 2020 · $2.2M · revenue +22%
  • MG
    MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2024 · $1.3M · revenue 0% · 34% of their budget
  • CM
    CYBERGRANTS - MATCHING GRANTS
    one grant, 2020 · $1.1M
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
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
2
Augustana College

Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…

Education
3
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
4
University of Virginia Investment Management Company

The university of virginia investment management company (uvimco) is organized to invest funds on behalf of the rector and visitors of the university of virginia (the university or uva) and university-associated organizations (uaos).

Education
5
President and Fellows of Harvard College

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

Education
6
Boston Architectural College

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

—
7
University of Virginia Foundation

To provide administrative services to university of virginia (university) entities, university associated organizations, or other entities involved in activities which support the university. to engage in matters pertaining to real…

Education
8
Morehouse School of Medicine

Leading the creation and advancement of health equity we exist to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities, increase the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce, and address primary health care…

Education
9
Atlantic University Inc

Provide post-secondary education of excellence.

Education
10
Golden Gate University

Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…

Education
11
Unc Health Foundation Inc

At unc health foundation, we inspire philanthropic support for unc health and unc school of medicine that transforms healthcare and provides hope to the people of north carolina and communities around the world.

Education
12
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Grady Health Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Smithsonian Institution. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

37 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. 37 of the 53 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
37/37
Grantees still filing
22/37
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DELTA EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFTS TO COLLEGESUNIVERSITIES VIA BONTERRA: $5,900,213 · OtherDELTA EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFTS TO COLLEGE…DELTA EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFTS TO COLLEGESUNIVERSITIES VIA CYBERGRANTS: $5,288,560 · OtherDELTA EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFTS TO COLLEGE…CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA FOUNDATION: $4,500,000 · OtherCHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA FOUNDAT…MIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: $2,750,000 · OtherMIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITYJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GEORGIA CLAYTON CO: $2,000,000 · OtherJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GEORGIA CLAYTON COOPERATION HOPE INC: $2,000,000 · OtherOPERATION HOPE INCCYBERGRANTS - MATCHING GRANTS: $1,077,227 · Other+19 more: $7,017,639 · Other+19 moreTHE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOUNDATION: $9,600,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA …THE NEW COMMON SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $3,000,000 · EducationTHE NEW COMMON SCHOOL FOUN…Spelman College: $2,000,000 · EducationSpelman CollegeAUBURN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $1,500,000 · EducationAUBURN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATI…Emory University: $1,500,000 · EducationEmory UniversityMIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,250,000 · EducationMIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVE…CLAYTON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC: $1,000,000 · Education+2 more: $150,000 · EducationGLOBAL POVERTY PROJECT INC: $11,025,000 · Social ScienceGLOBAL POVERTY…American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $6,000,000 · Human ServicesAmerican Nati…WESTSIDE FUTURE FUND INC: $3,300,000 · Human ServicesWESTSIDE FUTU…YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER NEW YORK: $500,000 · Human ServicesYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF METROPOLITAN ATLANTA (1361): $400,000 · Human ServicesDELTA AIR TRANSPORT HERITAGE MUSEUM INC: $5,000,000 · Arts & CultureDELTA AIR T…SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $2,222,222 · Arts & CultureSMITHSONIAN…National Monuments Foundation Inc: $300,000 · Arts & Culture+4 more: $916,667 · Arts & Culture+4 moreWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $2,000,000 · InternationalJunior Achievement of Georgia: $600,000 · InternationalTHE CARTER CENTER INC: $200,000 · InternationalTHE GRADY HEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $2,050,000 · PhilanthropySHEPHERD CENTER FOUNDATION INC: $166,667 · Philanthropy+1 more: $50,000 · Philanthropy
Other$30,533,639Education$20,000,000Social Science$11,025,000Human Services$10,200,000Arts & Culture$8,438,889International$2,800,000Philanthropy$2,266,667

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetGLOBAL POVERTY PROJECT INC: $11,025,000 over 5y, 5.5% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOUNDATION: $9,600,000 over 6y, 1.5% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $6,000,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetDELTA AIR TRANSPORT HERITAGE MUSEUM INC: $5,000,000 over 2y, 45% of budgetWESTSIDE FUTURE FUND INC: $3,300,000 over 3y, 25% of budgetTHE NEW COMMON SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $3,000,000 over 6y, 15% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $2,222,222 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE GRADY HEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $2,050,000 over 5y, 3.6% of budgetOPERATION HOPE INC: $2,000,000 over 2y, 3.1% of budgetSpelman College: $2,000,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $2,000,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetAUBURN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $1,500,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetEmory University: $1,500,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMIDDLE GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,250,000 over 1y, 34% of budgetATLANTA COMMUNITY FOOD BANK INC: $800,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetAgnes Scott College: $750,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetWellspring Living Inc: $600,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetJunior Achievement of Georgia: $600,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER NEW YORK: $500,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF METROPOLITAN ATLANTA (1361): $400,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetGeorgia Historical Society: $400,000 over 3y, 4.3% of budgetATLANTA POLICE FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 over 3y, 4.3% of budgetNational Monuments Foundation Inc: $300,000 over 3y, 33% of budgetTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND: $300,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC: $250,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSCIENCE MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA: $250,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetThe Martin Luther King Jr Center For Nonviolent Social Change Inc: $200,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetTHE CARTER CENTER INC: $200,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetATLANTA BELTLINE PARTNERSHIP INC: $166,667 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetGEORGIA AQUARIUM INC & SUBSIDIARY: $166,667 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY IN ATLANTA INC: $166,667 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetSHEPHERD CENTER FOUNDATION INC: $166,667 over 2y, 97% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF NORTH GEORGIA FOUNDATION INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORTH GEORGIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 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.

Georgia Power Foundat…THDF II Inc DBA The H…Publix Super Markets …Charities Aid Foundat…The Coca-Cola Foundat…The Winston-Salem Fou…Hertz Douglas J Famil…Southern Company Char…Chick-fil-A Foundatio…Tull Charitable Found…The Arthur M Blank Fa…National Philanthropi…
Georgia Power Foundation IncGA21.2× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Georgia Power Foundation Inc · THDF II Inc DBA The Home Depot Foundation & Homer Fund · Publix Super Markets Charities Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Coca-Cola Foundation Inc · The Winston-Salem Foundation · Hertz Douglas J Family Foundation · Southern Company Charitable Foundation Inc · Chick-fil-A Foundation Inc · Tull Charitable Foundation Inc · The Arthur M Blank Family Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Delta Air Lines Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Delta Air Lines Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 Delta Air Lines Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Delta Air Lines 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 53 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

    Play a game based on Delta Air Lines’ 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