· Private foundation
James Lee Sorenson Family 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k24 grants · $23k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $15k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $450k
- $250k+3 grants · $2.1M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS | $1,592,540 |
| University of Utah | $250,000 |
| University of Utah | $250,000 |
| Utah Sports Commission Foundation | $200,000 |
| The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS | $150,000 |
| New Venture Fund | $100,000 |
| Religious Family History Corp | $15,000 |
| Choice Humanitarian | $5,000 |
| Junior Achievement of Utah | $3,000 |
| Choice Humanitarian | $2,500 |
| International Rescue Committee | $1,000 |
| Huntsman Cancer Institute University of Utah | $1,000 |
| UNICEF USA | $1,000 |
| Danielle Byron Henry Migraine Foundation | $500 |
| The Skatepark Project | $500 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–23, $233k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 43% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
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
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +48% since the first grant, against +20% for the ones you funded once.
15 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
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 FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- USUtah Sports Commission Foundation3× · 2020–2024 · $206k · revenue +76%
- UFUTAH FOOD BANK2× · 2020–2024 · $126k · revenue +53%
- TRTHE ROAD HOME2× · 2020–2023 · $126k · revenue +48%
Funded once
- TOTHE ORRIN G HATCH FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $250k · revenue -63%
- AIAMERICAN IDEA FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2020 · $200k · revenue -9%
- UWUnited Way of Utahone grant, 2020 · $125k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Actionaid is an international network building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice. actionaid usa is the u.s. branch of actionaid international, which works in…
Utah foundation's mission is to produce objective, thorough and well- reasoned research and analysis that promotes the effective use of public resources, a thriving economy, a well-prepared workforce and a high quality of life for utahns.…
Heal utah's mission is to protect utah's environment and its people by promoting clean air, clean energy, and comprehensive solutions to radioactive and toxic waste.
Project drawdown's mission is to drive meaningful climate action by advancing science-based solutions and strategies. project drawdown's work is focused on three pillars: science - advancing science-based climate solutions and strategies;…
Pathfinder expands access to sexual and reproductive health services, opening the door to opportunities for women and all individuals to thrive-economically, educationally, and civically. driven by our country-led leadership and local…
Utah's promise (up) is committed to 100% of kids and families thriving. we unify leaders, partners, communities and systems to achieve that promise.
Utah Humanities collaborates with libraries, museums, historical societies, schools, colleges, and cultural and civic groups; provides capacity-building opportunities for volunteers and professionals in the cultural sector; presents…
USA for UNHCR protects and supports refugees by mobilizing resources, elevating awareness, and driving action through a network of engaged supporters.
To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
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…
Our mission is to increase access to food across utah through advocacy, outreach, and education. utahns against hunger is utahs only state-wide anti-hunger non-profit organization working on public policy and advocacy for federal nutrition…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Waterorg and the most unlike its peers is Face It Foundation. 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.
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 32 years old; the field is 11. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 29% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
64 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. 64 of the 84 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND ↗
- Who funds THE ORRIN G HATCH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Utah Sports Commission Foundation ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN IDEA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds UTAH FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds THE ROAD HOME ↗
- Who funds THE SOLA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Stand With Ukraine Inc dba To Ukraine With Love ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds CROSSROADS OF THE WEST COUNCIL INC BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA 590 ↗
- Who funds Junior Achievement of Utah & Idaho ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDREN'S CENTER UTAH ↗
- Who funds SAFFRON KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds SALT CONTEMPORARY DANCE INC ↗
- Who funds The Leonardo ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR HUMANITARIAN OUTREACH AND INTERCULTURAL EXCHANGE ↗
- Who funds GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds RELIGIOUS FAMILY HISTORY CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds WOMENS RETREAT HOUSE ↗
- Who funds AMANAKI FO'OU ↗
- Who funds NO POOR AMONG US ↗
- Who funds Adopt-A-Native Elder ↗
- Who funds BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds UNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF ↗
- Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
- Who funds PANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE OCEAN CLEANUP FOUNDATION ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Sorenson Legacy Foundation · The Community Foundation of Utah · Larry H Miller and Gail Miller Family Foundation · George S and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation · C Scott & Dorothy E Watkins Charitable Foundation · Kennecott Utah Copper Visitors Center Charitable Foundation · Ssir Cares Inc · doTERRA Healing Hands Foundation · McCarthey Family Foundation · Making a Difference Foundation · Edwards Lifesciences Foundation · Crewe Endowment 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 James Lee Sorenson Family 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to James Lee Sorenson Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to James Lee Sorenson Family 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.