· Private foundation
Dennis & Ellin Murphy 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
96% of Dennis & Ellin Murphy Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to University Of Notre Dame Du Lac, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 6 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Dennis & Ellin Murphy Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $49k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k16 grants · $29k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $20k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST | $10,000 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $10,000 |
| SACRED HEART SCHOOLS | $5,000 |
| ESSENTIAL PREGNANCY SERVICES | $4,000 |
| ST ROBERT BELLARMINE SCHOOL | $3,500 |
| SIENA FRANCIS HOUSE | $2,500 |
| CHILDRENS SCHOLARSHIP FUND | $2,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| RUSH OFFICE OF PHILANTHROPY | $1,000 |
| CATHOLIC CHARITIES | $1,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| TACOMA HUMANE SOCIETY | $1,000 |
| ST JOSEPH SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM AT NOTRE DAME | $1,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| ST BERNADETTE CATHOLIC CHURCH | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $36k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +43% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
28 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, 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
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MUMarquette University7× · 2017–2025 · $55k · revenue +46%
- CFCUES FUND4× · 2020–2023 · $38k · revenue +21%
- EEEPS ESSENTIAL PREGNANCY SERVICES INC8× · 2017–2025 · $26k · revenue +161%
Funded once
- MHMARIAN HIGH SCHOOLone grant, 2017 · $10k
- CCCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF HOUSTONone grant, 2017 · $10k
- CCCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF NAPLESone grant, 2017 · $10k
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.
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.
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…
To strengthen the University and communities that have touched the lives of KU alumni and friends, the mission of The KU Endowment Charitable Gift Fund is to receive and administer gifts and bequests to further the charitable objectives of…
Children's physicians delivers the highest quality pediatric primary care while supporting education and research.
The council of indepependent nebraska colleges foundation exists to provide operating funds and scholarship support for students attending nebraska's independent institutions of excellence.
Support the mission and social services programs of catholic charities of the archdiocese of omaha, inc.
Provides a means whereby the resources, expertise, and knowledge of the pediatric specialty physicians can be marshaled to develop, promote, and make available to patients from omaha, ne and the surrounding area, pediatric, academic, and…
The mission of the osteopathic founders foundation is to support osteopathic medical education, to enhance the public's understanding of osteopathic medicine, and to improve the health of the community through projects consistent with the…
Benedictine University is an inclusive academic community dedicated to teaching and learning, scholarship and service, truth and justice, as inspired by the Catholic intellectual tradition, the social teaching of the Church, and the…
Our mission is to lead the world in transforming lives to create a healthy future for all individuals and communities through premier educational programs, innovative research and extraordinary patient care.
The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.
The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.
Loyola University New Orleans, a Jesuit and Catholic institution of higher education, welcomes students of diverse backgrounds and prepares them to lead meaningful lives with and for others; to pursue truth, wisdom, and virtue; and to work…
How this is measured
31 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. 31 of the 108 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds University of Notre Dame du Lac ↗
- Who funds Marquette University ↗
- Who funds OMAHA DISCOVERY TRUST ↗
- Who funds CUES FUND ↗
- Who funds EPS ESSENTIAL PREGNANCY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND OF OMAHA ↗
- Who funds NEW CASSEL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BETHLEHEM HOUSE ↗
- Who funds SIENA FRANCIS HOUSE ↗
- Who funds EDUCATE UGANDA ↗
- Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF VENICE INC ↗
- Who funds East End Hospice Inc ↗
- Who funds POTOMAC FALLS BAND BOOSTERS INC ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK FOR THE HEARTLAND ↗
- Who funds ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF OMAHA NEBRASKA INC ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Charles and Mary Heider Family Foundation · The Lozier Foundation · Cl Werner Foundation · D F Dillon Foundation · The Hawks Foundation · Greater Horizons · Donald a & Joan M Cimpl Foundation · Robertson Family Foundation · Dr C C and Mabel L Criss Memorial · Eagle Foundation · Richard Brooke Foundation · Seline Family Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Dennis & Ellin Murphy Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Dennis & Ellin Murphy Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
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