· Private foundation
John and Deborah Gillis Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k31 grants · $159k
- $10k–50k17 grants · $227k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $18,598 |
| Individual grant recipient | $18,175 |
| Individual grant recipient | $16,062 |
| Individual grant recipient | $15,966 |
| Individual grant recipient | $15,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $14,853 |
| Individual grant recipient | $14,448 |
| Individual grant recipient | $13,905 |
| Individual grant recipient | $12,740 |
| Individual grant recipient | $12,011 |
| Individual grant recipient | $11,878 |
| Individual grant recipient | $11,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $11,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,763 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,706 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +15% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.
33 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 33 since wound down; 48 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $386k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Southern Methodist University4× · 2021–2024 · $37k · revenue +18%- COCOLLEGE OF THE OZARKS4× · 2021–2024 · $32k · revenue +45%
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY4× · 2021–2024 · $31k · revenue +15%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $87k
- MUMIDTOWN URBAN STUDENT HOUSINGone grant, 2022 · $53k
- OSOkahoma State Universityone grant, 2023 · $30k
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.
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.
Florida southern college (florida southern or the college) is committed to educational excellence and is a selective comprehensive, private, united methodist affiliated college with a strong liberal arts core and signature programs. (see…
As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…
Howard payne university is a christ-centered academic community dedicated to excellence by developing and equipping the whole person for intellectual inquiry, personal and professional integrity, and service to god and humanity.
Charleston southern university (csu) is a private, four-year co-educational institution organized under the laws of the state of south carolina as a non-profit organization and sponsored by the south carolina baptist convention. the…
Coker university is a student-centered, comprehensive university. it is dedicated to providing every student an academic curriculum based upon a uniformly excellent liberal arts core that enhances the structured development of key personal…
In partnership with the church, the purpose of william jessup university is to educate transformational leaders for the glory of god.
John brown university (jbu) provides christ-centered education that prepares students to honor god and serve others by developing their intellectual, spiritual, and professional lives. (continued on schedule o)jbu serves traditional…
Wake Forest University, a 501(c)(3) institution of higher education, is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. The organization is comprised of seven constituent parts: Wake…
Belhaven university prepares students academically and spiritually to serve jesus christ in their careers, in human relationships, and in the world of ideas.
Regent University serves as a center of Christian thought and action to provide excellent education through a Biblical perspective and global context equipping Christian leaders to change the world.
Lubbock christian university is a christ-centered, academic community of learners, transforming the hearts, minds, and hands of students for lives of purpose and service.
The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…
How this is measured
13 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. 13 of the 136 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
Open a dossier: Folds of Honor Foundation · Tulsa Community Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization John and Deborah Gillis Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John and Deborah Gillis Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Southern Nazarene University: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to John and Deborah Gillis Foundation?
Find your warmest path to John and Deborah Gillis 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.
Play a game based on John and Deborah Gillis’ filings →