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· Private foundation

Dhanam Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$12M
Granted FY2020
47
Grants FY2020
5
States reached
$4.6M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

61% of Dhanam Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to National Philanthropic Trust, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 29 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year Dhanam Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 25 organizations, $12M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

15
’19
25
’20
23
’21
24
’22
23
’23
29
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.

Philanthropy$54MEducation$30MScience & Tech$6.8MInternational$5.1MPublic Benefit$3.0MRecreation & Sports$2.9MArts & Culture$2.5MEnvironment$2.3MOther$0
02FY2020 · 47 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k9 grants · $7k
  • $10k–50k19 grants · $366k
  • $50k–250k12 grants · $1.2M
  • $250k+7 grants · $11M
$25,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$254M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BMO CHARITABLE FUND PROGRAM$4,628,379
BMO CHARITABLE FUND PROGRAM$2,871,618
EXPLORATORIUM$1,000,000
ASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION$1,000,000
MAGIC BUS USA$500,000
AFRICAN PARKS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA$255,000
AGASTYA USA$250,000
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA$235,000
ANITA BORG INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN AND TECHNOLOGY$170,000
IFRE INC$150,000
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY$103,600
WOODSIDE-PORTOLA VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION FOUNDATION$100,000
IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION$100,000
EXPLORATORIUM$100,000
SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK$75,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY19–24, $3.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 7% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $500k → 8%INDIASPORA: $25k → 10%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $350k → 8%INDIASPORA: $25k → 10%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $350k → 8%INDIASPORA: $25k → 10%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $250k → 8%INDIASPORA: $25k → 10%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $100k → 8%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $100k → 8%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $100k → 8%SAVELIFE FOUNDATION USA: $120k → 17%IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION: $50k → 8%GIVE FOUNDATION INC: $1.0M → 8%SACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $15k → 8%SACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $15k → 8%SACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $15k → 8%SACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $15k → 8%SACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $15k → 8%SACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $15k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

IL
NY
MA
PA
CA
VA
DC
HI
GA
TX

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

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

About 29% of Dhanam Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

Dhanam Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 3.3% directed abroad (not shown)

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 foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$42M · 40 repeat orgs$4.3M to everyone else

40 repeat relationships — 29 still active in FY2020, 11 since wound down; 25 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call). Read against FY2020, 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

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

40
4

Total granted

$42M
$300k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+56%
+67%

Still filing today

75%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.8M went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureInternationalHuman ServicesPhilanthropyEducationPublic Safety & DisasterOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • IM
    IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION
    6× · 2019–2024 · $1.8M · revenue +283%
  • AU
    AGASTYA USA
    4× · 2020–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +45% · 83% of their budget
  • MB
    MAGIC BUS USA
    5× · 2019–2024 · $1.5M · revenue +37% · 35% of their budget

Funded once

  • IR
    International Rescue Committee INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $150k · revenue +67%
  • ML
    MK LEVEL PLAYING FIELD INSTITUTE (aka SMASH)
    one grant, 2019 · $125k
  • AM
    American Museum of Natural History
    one grant, 2019 · $25k · revenue +13%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Observer Research Foundation America

Organization mission the observer research foundation america orf america is an independent, non-partisan, and nonprofit organization in washington dc dedicated to addressing policy challenges facing the united states, india, and their…

International
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
4
Iisc Foundation

The specific purpose, mission, and activity of the corporation is to secure funding for promoting education, research, technology development, startup incubation, acceleration, and translational research at the indian institute of science…

Education
5
The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International
6
Nalanda 20

Improve excellence and access in higher education. Current focus is on India. Thus, Nalanda 2.0's current focus is to make India's higher education system world-class by building a world-class multidisciplinary research university,…

Education
7
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech
8
Akshaya Patra Foundation (Usa)

The mission of the foundation is to simultaneously address childhood hunger and malnutrition and to promote education for children throughout india.

Food & Nutrition
9
Ucsf Foundation Investment Company

The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.

Education
10
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
11
Activate Global Inc

Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. activate partners with u.s. based funders, research institutions, and other pillars of the hard technology community to help entrepreneurial…

Environment
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.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Anita Borg Institute for Technology and the most unlike its peers is Makerghat Usa. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyEnvironmental Conservation …Local Food System Organizat…Immigrant Worker SupportPolicy Research and AdvocacyVolunteer Fire & Ems Servic…Faith-Based Liberal Arts Co…Christian Missionary Organi…Community Foundations
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 28 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%2%<5yr14%11%5–10yr19%19%10–20yr16%32%20–35yr13%15%35–55yr16%21%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%3%5–10yr19%8%10–20yr16%76%20–35yr13%2%35–55yr16%11%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/55
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,510

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

05the grantee network

55 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 55 of the 74 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
54/55
Grantees still filing
36/55
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST — $42,016,706 · PhilanthropyNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUSTAGASTYA USA — $1,680,000 · Philanthropy+5 more — $181,000 · PhilanthropyBMO CHARITABLE FUND PROGRAM — $10,499,997 · OtherBMO CHARITABLE FUND PROGRAMSTANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION — $8,011,500 · OtherSTANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF…GLOBAL IMPACT (CO-DEVELOP FUND) — $1,000,000 · OtherANITA BORG INSTITUTE FOR TECHNOLOGY — $1,017,380 · OtherMONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · OtherREINVENT STOCKTON FOUNDATION — $883,000 · Other+34 more — $4,036,688 · Other+34 moreTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $18,435,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES …UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — $1,520,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN…COLLEGE TRACK — $750,000 · Education+3 more — $711,600 · EducationTHE EXPLORATORIUM — $3,985,000 · Arts & CultureTHE EXPLO…THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION — $3,000,000 · Arts & CultureTHE BARAC…ASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO — $2,335,000 · Arts & CultureASIAN ART…+4 more — $185,000 · Arts & CultureIIT MADRAS FOUNDATION — $1,800,000 · Human ServicesGIVE FOUNDATION INC — $1,000,000 · Human ServicesSAVELIFE FOUNDATION USA — $120,000 · Human Services+3 more — $225,000 · Human ServicesAFRICAN PARKS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA — $2,738,500 · Recreation & SportsMAGIC BUS USA — $1,525,000 · InternationalCARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE — $350,000 · InternationalINDIA COMMUNITY CENTER INC — $225,000 · InternationalINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS — $150,000 · InternationalInternational Rescue Committee INC — $150,000 · International+2 more — $20,000 · International
Philanthropy$43,877,706Other$26,448,565Education$21,416,600Arts & Culture$9,505,000Human Services$3,145,000Recreation & Sports$2,738,500International$2,420,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST — $42,016,706 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $18,435,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTHE EXPLORATORIUM — $3,985,000 over 5y, 2.3% of budgetTHE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION — $3,000,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetAFRICAN PARKS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA — $2,738,500 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO — $2,335,000 over 6y, 2.6% of budgetIIT MADRAS FOUNDATION — $1,800,000 over 6y, 12% of budgetAGASTYA USA — $1,680,000 over 4y, 83% of budgetMAGIC BUS USA — $1,525,000 over 5y, 35% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — $1,520,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetANITA BORG INSTITUTE FOR TECHNOLOGY — $1,017,380 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetMONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetGIVE FOUNDATION INC — $1,000,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetREINVENT STOCKTON FOUNDATION — $883,000 over 3y, 3.6% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $767,900 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetCOLLEGE TRACK — $750,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetCONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION — $500,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMAKERGHAT USA — $391,600 over 3y, 100% of budgetCARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE — $350,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetINTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL IMPACT INC — $300,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetINDIA COMMUNITY CENTER INC — $225,000 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetTHE AMERICAN INDIA FOUNDATION — $175,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS — $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetInternational Rescue Committee INC — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK — $140,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSTANFORD HEALTH CARE — $135,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMK LEVEL PLAYING FIELD INSTITUTE — $125,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetSAVELIFE FOUNDATION USA — $120,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetHAMILTON FAMILIES — $100,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetINDIASPORA — $100,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetWOODSIDE-PORTOLA VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION FOUNDATION INC — $100,000 over 1y, 41% of budgetPRO PUBLICA INC — $90,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE — $90,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MARSHALL PROJECT INC — $60,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetPRATHAM USA — $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPUENTE DE LA COSTA SUR — $50,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetKUKIO HOOMANA FUND — $50,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetLA COCINA — $50,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budget18 Reasons — $50,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetGO2 For Lung Cancer — $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetHINDU COMMUNITY AND CULTURAL CENTER — $40,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetOpenGrowthorg — $36,000 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetMAITRI — $35,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetHAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $35,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Museum of Natural History — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION — $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGLOBAL FUND FOR CHILDREN — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Silicon Valley Commun…Gs Donor Advised Phil…The San Francisco Fou…Bright Funds Foundati…The Goldman Sachs Cha…The Ayco Charitable F…Jewish Community Fede…Shg FoundationNational Philanthropi…Morgan Stanley Global…Wadhwani Charitable F…Motwani Jadeja Family…
Silicon Valley Community FoundationCA28.6× affinity17 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · The San Francisco Foundation · Bright Funds Foundation · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Shg Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Wadhwani Charitable Foundation · Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Dhanam Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    12report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 74 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines