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Mark & Bette Morris Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Mark & Bette Morris 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.

$2.3M
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$1.1M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Animals$7.1MHuman Services$2.6MPhilanthropy$2.1MEducation$1.3MArts & Culture$1.0MPublic Benefit$709kReligion$617kHealth$410kOther$0
02FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k5 grants · $113k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $803k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.4M
$100,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$38M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Friends of the Topeka Zoo$1,100,000
Kansas Children's Service League$300,000
Kansas Children's Discovery Center$205,000
Greater Kansas City Community Found$200,000
YWCA of NE KS$200,000
Oregon Community Foundation$100,000
First United Methodist Church$98,000
Individual grant recipient$35,000
Stormont Vail Hospital Foundation$30,000
CASA of Shawnee County$20,000
Street Dog Coalition$15,000
KU Endowment Association$12,500
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 (FY17–24, $2.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Happy Bottoms: $5k → 5%Hope Center: $5k → 15%Visionary Women: $5k → 14%Visionary Women: $5k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $360k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $300k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $300k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $300k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $290k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $260k → 14%Kansas Children's Service League: $260k → 14%Aldersgate Village: $200k → 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
OR
CA
CO
MO
KS
NC
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.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$13M · 41 repeat orgs$1.8M to everyone else

41 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 32 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

41
49

Total granted

$13M
$1.6M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+25%
+35%

Still filing today

49%
51%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $200k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesAnimalsHealthPhilanthropyOther
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

  • MA
    MORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATION
    5× · 2017–2022 · $4.9M · revenue +73%
  • KC
    KANSAS CHILDRENS SERVICE LEAGUE
    7× · 2017–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +43%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF THE TOPEKA ZOO INC
    2× · 2021–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +158%

Funded once

  • TG
    THE GOW SCHOOL
    one grant, 2022 · $250k · revenue -29%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2017 · $220k
  • UM
    UNITED METHODIST HOMES INC
    one grant, 2018 · $200k · revenue -46%
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
The Ku Endowment Charitable Gift Fund

To strengthen the University and communities that have touched the lives of KU alumni and friends, the mission of The KU Endowment Charitable Gift Fund is to receive and administer gifts and bequests to further the charitable objectives of…

Philanthropy
2
Kansas City Art Institute

The mission of KCAI is to educate artists and designers while honoring the distinct journeys of students. We forge a vibrant community that equips them to become leaders who leverage the creative process to transform the future.

Education
3
Kansas Wesleyan University

Kansas wesleyan university is a liberal arts college that promotes and integrates academic excellence, spiritual development, personal well-being, and social responsibility.

Education
4
Columbia College

Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.

Education
5
Park University

Park university's mission is to transform lives through accessible, student-centered, quality higher education.

Education
6
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
7
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
8
University of Kansas Memorial Corporation

The memorial unions function as a concessionaire to the university of kansas for the purpose of operating various enterprises within the kansas union building, the burge union, the debruce center, residential dining halls, and other…

Education
9
The Principle Foundation

To promote inspired benevolence in accordance with the teachings of christian science.

—
10
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education
11
The Common Application Inc

The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…

Education
12
Cultivate Kansas City Inc

Grow food, farms and community in support of a sustainable, healthy and local food system.

Food & Nutrition
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Topeka Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Unatti Foundation. 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

49 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. 49 of the 94 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)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
48/49
Grantees still filing
33/49
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATION: $4,882,500 · AnimalsMORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATIONFRIENDS OF THE TOPEKA ZOO INC: $1,125,000 · AnimalsFRIENDS OF THE TOPEKA ZOO INC+1 more: $10,000 · AnimalsFriends of Topeka Zoo: $1,080,000 · OtherFriends of Topeka ZooFriends of Free State Capitol: $584,000 · OtherFriends of Free State CapitolFirst United Methodist Church: $564,000 · OtherFirst United Methodist ChurchOAK HILL SCHOOL: $337,000 · OtherOAK HILL SCHOOLTHE GOW SCHOOL: $250,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $220,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $210,500 · OtherYWCA of NE KS: $200,000 · Other+55 more: $1,540,729 · Other+55 moreKANSAS CHILDRENS SERVICE LEAGUE: $2,070,000 · Human ServicesKANSAS CHILDREN…UNITED METHODIST HOMES INC: $200,000 · Human ServicesUNITED METHODIS…+3 more: $20,000 · Human ServicesTOPEKA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1,625,000 · PhilanthropyTOPEKA COMMUNI…Greater Kansas City Community Foundation: $381,350 · PhilanthropyGreater Kansas…THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $125,000 · PhilanthropyTHE OREGON COM…+2 more: $15,000 · PhilanthropyKANSAS CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTER INC: $424,000 · Arts & CultureKansas State Historical Society Inc: $75,000 · Arts & Culture+8 more: $72,350 · Arts & CultureThe Kansas University Endowment Association: $167,500 · EducationTrinity University: $133,000 · EducationTOPEKA COLLEGIATE SCHOOL INC: $100,000 · EducationWASHBURN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $30,000 · EducationOPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC: $25,000 · Education+2 more: $5,000 · EducationSENT INC: $150,000 · Community Improvement
Animals$6,017,500Other$4,986,229Human Services$2,290,000Philanthropy$2,146,350Arts & Culture$571,350Education$460,500Community Improvement$150,000

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 budgetMORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATION: $4,882,500 over 5y, 12% of budgetKANSAS CHILDRENS SERVICE LEAGUE: $2,070,000 over 7y, 2.0% of budgetTOPEKA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1,625,000 over 4y, 8.6% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE TOPEKA ZOO INC: $1,125,000 over 2y, 6.0% of budgetKANSAS CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTER INC: $424,000 over 5y, 14% of budgetGreater Kansas City Community Foundation: $381,350 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetOAK HILL SCHOOL: $337,000 over 6y, 2.3% of budgetTHE GOW SCHOOL: $250,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetUNITED METHODIST HOMES INC: $200,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetThe Kansas University Endowment Association: $167,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSENT INC: $150,000 over 1y, 10.0% of budgetCAPPER FOUNDATION: $141,500 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetTrinity University: $133,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $125,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTOPEKA COLLEGIATE SCHOOL INC: $100,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetKansas State Historical Society Inc: $75,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetTOPEKA RESCUE MISSION INC: $60,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetCASA OF SHAWNEE COUNTY INC: $50,000 over 3y, 6.0% of budgetDOWNTOWN TOPEKA FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 5.1% of budgetTHE VILLAGES INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTHEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP INC: $47,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $40,050 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSTORMONT-VAIL FOUNDATION: $35,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetWASHBURN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC: $25,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY STUDIES: $22,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetSTARLIGHT THEATRE ASSOCIATION OF KANSAS CITY INC: $18,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetINTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOUNDATION INC: $17,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetARMAND HAMMER MUSEUM OF ART AND CULTURAL CENTER INC: $15,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetVALOR PARTNERS FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetCenter for Humane Technology: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetVISIONARY WOMEN: $10,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetKANSAS CITY PET PROJECT: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSundance Institute: $8,350 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE FILM COLLABORATIVE INC: $5,350 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE EARTH SPECIES PROJECT: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHAPPYBOTTOMS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetThe Children's Mercy Hospital: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOPE CENTER INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetYOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NORTHEAST KANSAS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCRISTO REY KANSAS CITY SISTERS OF CHARI TY OF LEAVENWORTH HIGH SCHOOL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMUSEUM ASSOCIATES: $3,650 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUnatti Foundation: $3,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetNORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART FOUNDATION: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCARY ACADEMY: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% 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 MORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds KANSAS CHILDRENS SERVICE LEAGUE ↗
  • Who funds TOPEKA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF THE TOPEKA ZOO INC ↗
  • Who funds KANSAS CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds Greater Kansas City Community Foundation ↗
  • Who funds OAK HILL SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds THE GOW SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds UNITED METHODIST HOMES INC ↗
  • Who funds The Kansas University Endowment Association ↗
  • Who funds SENT INC ↗
  • Who funds CAPPER FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Trinity University ↗
  • Who funds THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds TOPEKA COLLEGIATE SCHOOL INC ↗
  • Who funds Kansas State Historical Society Inc ↗
  • Who funds TOPEKA RESCUE MISSION INC ↗
  • Who funds CASA OF SHAWNEE COUNTY INC ↗
  • Who funds DOWNTOWN TOPEKA FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds THE VILLAGES INC ↗
  • Who funds THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP INC ↗
  • Who funds THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC ↗
  • Who funds STORMONT-VAIL FOUNDATION ↗

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.

Topeka Community Foun…Greater Kansas City C…Lewis Humphreys Chari…Bnsf Railway Foundati…The Sunderland Founda…Schwartz FoundationBlanche Bryden Founda…Wmr Family Foundation…Constance M Cooper Ch…One Gas Foundation IncIma FoundationRedbud Foundation
Topeka Community FoundationKS25.9× affinity10 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Topeka Community Foundation · Greater Kansas City Community Foundation · Lewis Humphreys Charitable Trust · Bnsf Railway Foundation · The Sunderland Foundation · Schwartz Foundation · Blanche Bryden Foundation · Wmr Family Foundation 045351-000 Co Wilmington Trust Company · Constance M Cooper Charitable Foundation · One Gas Foundation Inc · Ima Foundation · Redbud 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 Mark & Bette Morris Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mark & Bette Morris Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • The Oregon Community Foundation: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 94 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Mark & Bette Morris Family’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