New Jersey · Private foundation
John & Polly Sparks 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.
- $3.1M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 64
- Grants FY2025
- 67
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 18%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $20,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $500,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 50 to 67
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 9
- Total assets, FY2025
- $75M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 18% of the organizations John & Polly Sparks Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 8% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $270k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 63 | $3.1M | 16% |
| FY2024 | 67 | $3.3M | 18% |
| FY2022 | 60 | $3.1M | 40% |
| FY2020 | 58 | $3.3M | 26% |
| FY2019 | 50 | $3.3M | 26% |
| FY2018 | 53 | $3.2M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2018 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christian City Inc | $4,019,172 | 6 | 19% |
| Step Up on Second Street Inc | $2,090,000 | 4 | 4% |
| The Grady Health Foundation Inc | $1,660,000 | 6 | 3% |
| Emory University | $1,088,331 | 3 | 0% |
| Morehouse School of Medicine | $590,000 | 3 | 0% |
| American Psychological Foundation | $527,000 | 5 | 10% |
| Our House Inc | $245,000 | 6 | 2% |
| Head Strong Project Inc | $220,000 | 4 | 1% |
| Must Ministries Inc | $205,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Passion for Haiti Foundation Inc | $190,000 | 6 | 78% |
Show all 90 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 37 recipients with no EIN on record ($3.7M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
John & Polly Sparks Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 79 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: The Imlay Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater Atlanta Inc · The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc · Tuw Thomas H Pitts · Georgia Power Foundation Inc · Tr Uw Charles I Branan · Atl Fdn-W Peters Main · Betty and Davis Fitzgerald Foundation Inc · The Waterfall Foundation Inc · Ryan Ida Alice Tuw Main · Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia · THDF II Inc DBA The Home Depot Foundation & Homer Fund
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to John & Polly Sparks Foundation?
Find your warmest path to John & Polly Sparks 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.
About John & Polly Sparks Foundation
- How much does John & Polly Sparks Foundation give?
- John & Polly Sparks Foundation reported 64 grants totaling $3,138,302 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 50 and 67 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does John & Polly Sparks Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2025, its largest causes are Housing & Shelter (29%), Health (18%), Education (4%).
- Who are John & Polly Sparks Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2018 to FY2025: Christian City Inc ($4.0M), Step Up on Second Street Inc ($2.1M), The Grady Health Foundation Inc ($1.7M).
- Does John & Polly Sparks Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 18% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does John & Polly Sparks Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as John & Polly Sparks Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Imlay Foundation Inc, United Way of Greater Atlanta Inc, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc.
- Where is John & Polly Sparks Foundation based?
- John & Polly Sparks Foundation is based in NJ.
Play a game based on John & Polly Sparks’ filings →