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Dobyns Educational Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Dobyns Educational 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.

$9k
Granted FY2021
5
Grants FY2021
3
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2021.

Education$14kInternational$9kArts & Culture$2kHealth$2kFood & Nutrition$1kPhilanthropy$300Public Benefit$300Civil Rights$300
02FY2021 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$115k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MA MARITIME ACADEMY$5,000
AFRICAN WOMEN RISING$1,500
SAVE THE CHILDREN$1,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD$500
INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE$500
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 (FY20–21, $2k) 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%FOOD FROM THE HEART: $300 → 14%AFRICAN WOMEN RISING: $2k → 14%AFRICAN WOMEN RISING: $500 → 14%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

NY
MA
CT
CA
TN
DC
AL
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

61%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$17k · 10 repeat orgs$11k to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2021, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
14

Total granted

$17k
$6k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+28%

Still filing today

40%
29%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 41% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21
InternationalEducationHuman ServicesReligionPhilanthropyCrime & LegalOther
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

  • Save The Children Federation Inc
    5× · 2017–2021 · $6k · revenue +21%
  • AW
    AFRICAN WOMEN RISING
    2× · 2020–2021 · $2k · revenue +367%
  • CL
    CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2018–2020 · $900 · revenue +14%

Funded once

  • KM
    KING MCNAMARA AND MORIARTY
    one grant, 2018 · $1k
  • FB
    FOOD BANK
    one grant, 2020 · $500
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2017 · $500
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
American Law Institute

The institute's mission, as set out in its certificate of incorporation, is to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to…

Crime & Legal
2
Institute of Current World Affairs Inc
—
3
Indigenous Peoples Rights Inc

To lead and coordinate the global initiative to address and prevent criminalization, violence, and impunity against indigenous peoples towards strengthening their collectives, solidarity, and actions.

Human Services
4
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
5
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

Enhance the ability of actec members to provide the most efficient and highest quality services to their clients; develop qualified trust and estate counselors; improve and reform probate, trust and tax laws, procedures, and standards of…

Community Improvement
6
Parliamentarians for Global Action

Parliamentarians for global action (pga) is a non-partisan ngo network of legislators from all regions of the world acting in their individual capacity to advocate for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law; peace and human security;…

International
7
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

—
8
American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through advocacy and lobbying.

—
9
Claremont Lincoln University

Delivers affordable, accessible, and relevant higher education programs.

Education
10
American Civil Liberties Union Inc

As noted in its articles of incorporation, the mission of the aclu is "to maintain and advance civil liberties, including, without limitation, the freedoms of association, press, religion and speech, and the rights to the franchise, to due…

—
11
World Liberty Congress Inc

The corporation seeks to unite leaders and pro-democracy movements from authoritarian countries by supporting efforts to ensure free and fair elections, uphold the rule of law, facilitate respect for human rights, and promote the…

Civil Rights
12
International Crisis Group

Crisis group works to prevent and resolve deadly conflict around the world by informing and influencing the perceptions and actions of policymakers and other key conflict actors. to this end, we endeavour to talk to all sides and provide…

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Amnesty International of the Usa Inc; the most unlike its peers is Grand Circle Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 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. 9 of the 25 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
8/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MA MARITIME ACADEMY: $5,000 · OtherMA MARITIME ACADEMYPLANNED PARENTHOOD: $1,900 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOODKING MCNAMARA AND MORIARTY: $1,400 · OtherKING MCNAMARA AND MORIARTYIndividual grant recipient: $1,100 · OtherIndividual grant recipientKCET: $900 · OtherKCETIndividual grant recipient: $800 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $800 · Other+9 more: $3,400 · Other+9 moreSave The Children Federation Inc: $6,000 · InternationalSave The Children Federatio…AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC: $900 · InternationalAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF TH…AFRICAN WOMEN RISING: $2,000 · Human ServicesAFRICAN W…FOOD FROM THE HEART INC: $300 · Human ServicesFOOD FROM…INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE: $2,000 · ReligionCALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY: $900 · EducationMARINE MILITARY ACADEMY INC: $400 · EducationSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: $300 · Crime & LegalGRAND CIRCLE FOUNDATION INC: $300 · Philanthropy
Other$15,300International$6,900Human Services$2,300Religion$2,000Education$1,300Crime & Legal$300Philanthropy$300

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 budgetSave The Children Federation Inc: $6,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetAFRICAN WOMEN RISING: $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetINSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE: $2,000 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY: $900 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC: $900 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMARINE MILITARY ACADEMY INC: $400 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: $300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFOOD FROM THE HEART INC: $300 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

  • Who funds Save The Children Federation Inc ↗
  • Who funds AFRICAN WOMEN RISING ↗
  • Who funds INSTITUTE OF WORLD CULTURE ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC ↗
  • Who funds MARINE MILITARY ACADEMY INC ↗
  • Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds FOOD FROM THE HEART INC ↗
  • Who funds GRAND CIRCLE FOUNDATION 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.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 30%
  • Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
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 25 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2021, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Dobyns Educational’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