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Dhanam Foundation at a glance

· 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 it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its 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 it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 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

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

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
EXPLORATORIUM$100,000
IIT MADRAS FOUNDATION$100,000
WOODSIDE-PORTOLA VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION FOUNDATION$100,000
SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK$75,000
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 (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. Its 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
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

IL
NY
MA
PA
CA
VA
DC
HI
GA
TX
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 29% of Dhanam Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Dhanam Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 3.3% 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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has 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
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

  • 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%
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
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.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Anita Borg Institute for Technology; 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.
05the grantee network

55 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. 55 of the 74 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)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
54/55
Grantees still filing
36/55
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and 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 Rescue Committee INC: $150,000 · InternationalINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: $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 grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's 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 Rescue Committee INC: $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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 budgetWOODSIDE-PORTOLA VALLEY FIRE PROTECTION FOUNDATION INC: $100,000 over 1y, 41% of budgetHAMILTON FAMILIES: $100,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetINDIASPORA: $100,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetSACRED HEART COMMUNITY SERVICE: $90,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetPRO PUBLICA INC: $90,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MARSHALL PROJECT INC: $60,000 over 6y, 0.1% 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 budgetPRATHAM USA: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% 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 budgetHAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $35,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMAITRI: $35,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetAmerican Museum of Natural History: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.8% 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.

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

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 Dhanam Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Dhanam 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%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
    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.

    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 74 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Dhanam’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