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Arizona · Public charity

Desert Financial Foundation

To promote the financial health of our community through education, scholarships, grants to non-profit programs, and fundraising efforts.

$1.2M
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
11
Itemized grants FY2024
13
Organizations funded FY2023
31%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Itemized, FY2024
$1.2M
The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2024
$27,505
Largest grant, FY2024
$791,423
Organizations funded a year
5 to 13
FY2018 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
1
Total assets, FY2024
$1.1M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 31% of the organizations Desert Financial Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 4% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $37k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23
EducationPhilanthropyHealthOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2024still arriving11$1.2M0%
FY202313$1.0M31%
FY202210$948k20%
FY202112$999k58%
FY20205$794k60%
FY20187$95kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Health$3.7MEducation$1.2MEmployment$45kCrime & Legal$25kHuman Services$15kInternational$15kCommunity Improvement$15k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2018 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation$2,971,48362%
Arizona State University$393,5004n/a
University of Arizona$123,7504n/a
Northern Arizona University Foundation$122,50540%
Grand Canyon University$120,00040%
Laptops 4 Learning$75,102212%
Yavapai College Foundation Inc$60,75040%
East Valley Institute of Technology Education Foundation Inc$60,000410%
Maricopa County Community College District Foundation$57,00030%
Coconino Community College Foundation$49,00032%
Show all 22 grantees
All grantees of Desert Financial Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation$2,971,48362%
Arizona State University$393,5004n/a
University of Arizona$123,7504n/a
Northern Arizona University Foundation$122,50540%
Grand Canyon University$120,00040%
Laptops 4 Learning$75,102212%
Yavapai College Foundation Inc$60,75040%
East Valley Institute of Technology Education Foundation Inc$60,000410%
Maricopa County Community College District Foundation$57,00030%
Coconino Community College Foundation$49,00032%
St Joseph the Worker$45,00031%
Desert Financial Foundation$45,00031%
West-Mec Alliance$30,000214%
Native American Connections Inc$30,00020%
Local First Arizona Foundation$15,00011%
International Rescue Committee INC$15,00010%
Duet Partners in Health & Aging Inc$15,00011%
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona$15,00011%
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Inc$13,00020%
New Pathways For Youth$10,0001n/a
Smith Chason Collegewest Coast Ultra Sound Institute$8,0001n/a
University of Phoenix - All Campuses$6,0001n/a

Plus 1 recipient with no EIN on record ($750k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Desert Financial Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPhoenix Children's Hospital Foundation: $2,971,483 over 6y, 1.7% of budgetNorthern Arizona University Foundation: $122,505 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetGrand Canyon University: $120,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLaptops 4 Learning: $75,102 over 2y, 12% of budgetYavapai College Foundation Inc: $60,750 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetEast Valley Institute of Technology Education Foundation Inc: $60,000 over 4y, 10% of budgetMaricopa County Community College District Foundation: $57,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetCoconino Community College Foundation: $49,000 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetSt Joseph the Worker: $45,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetDesert Financial Foundation: $45,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetWest-Mec Alliance: $30,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetNative American Connections Inc: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLocal First Arizona Foundation: $15,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetInternational Rescue Committee INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDuet Partners in Health & Aging Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetFree Arts for Abused Children of Arizona: $15,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetEmbry-Riddle Aeronautical University Inc: $13,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 17.

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.

Arizona Community FoundationAZ22.5× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Arizona Community Foundation · Desert Financial Credit Union · Valley of the Sun United Way · Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust · Virginia G Piper Charitable Trust · American Express Foundation · The Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation · Phoenix Suns Charities Inc · Burton Family Foundation · Thunderbirds Charities · The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation · The Kemper & Ethel Marley Fdn

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.

Compare Desert Financial Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Desert Financial Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Desert Financial 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.

About Desert Financial Foundation

How much does Desert Financial Foundation give?
Desert Financial Foundation reported 11 itemized grants totaling $1,157,928, out of $1,232,637 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 13 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2023.
What does Desert Financial Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2024, its largest causes are Health (74%), Education (24%), Employment (1%).
Who are Desert Financial Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2018 to FY2024: Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation ($3.0M), Arizona State University ($394k), University of Arizona ($124k).
Does Desert Financial Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 31% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Desert Financial Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Arizona Community Foundation, Desert Financial Credit Union, Valley of the Sun United Way.
Where is Desert Financial Foundation based?
Desert Financial Foundation is based in AZ.

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 23 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Desert Financial’s filings →

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