How much does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation give?

Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation reported 90 grants totaling $581,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 59 and 78 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (35%), Education (14%), Civil Rights (12%).

Who are Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: The Center for Reproductive Rights Inc ($192k), Depaul University ($130k), Natural Resources Defense Council Inc ($127k).

Does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 26% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable 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 Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Raikes Foundation, Seattle Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust.

Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation

Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable 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.

$581k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$45k

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Environment$999kEducation$417kCivil Rights$337kHealth$329kAnimals$179kArts & Culture$152kHuman Services$134kFood & Nutrition$125kOther$0

02FY2025 · 90 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k67 grants · $204k
$10k–50k23 grants · $378k

$4,000

Median grant

States reached

$7.0M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS	$45,000
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY	$30,000
NORTHWOODS ALLIANCE	$25,000
WILDERNESS WATCH	$25,000
LAND O'LAKES ARTS	$22,000
TROUT UNLIMITED	$20,000
NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL	$19,000
NATIONAL ABORTION FEDERATION	$16,000
ACLU FOUNDATION	$15,000
FEED OUR RURAL KIDS	$15,000
YELLOWSTONE TO YUKON CONSERVATION	$15,000
BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE	$15,000
NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION	$12,500
NATURE CONSERVANCY	$12,500
CHICAGO SCHOLARS FOUNDATION	$10,500

02The need

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 (FY20–25, $32k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 30% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

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

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.5M · 99 repeat orgs$242k to everyone else

99 repeat relationships: 66 still active in FY2025, 33 since wound down; 22 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.5M

$151k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%

+23%

Still filing today

71%

68%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $92k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentEducationHealthCivil RightsAnimalsHuman ServicesOther

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

DU
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
6× · 2020–2025 · $130k · revenue +7%
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC
6× · 2020–2025 · $127k · revenue +26%
WW
WILDERNESS WATCH INC
6× · 2020–2025 · $119k · revenue +28%

Funded once

UO
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
one grant, 2022 · $30k
UO
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE FOUNDATION INCgraduated
one grant, 2024 · $27k · revenue +48%
LO
LAND O LAKES COMMUNITY PLAYGROUND INC
one grant, 2022 · $8k · revenue -98%

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.

The Water Research Foundation

The purpose of the water research foundation (wrf) is a definitive research organization to advance the science of all things water to better meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. to engage exclusively in…

Environment

The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International

American Flood Coalition Inc

To drive transformational adaptation to protect communities across the country from higher seas, stronger storms, and more frequent flooding.

Environment

American Water Works Association

To promote public health, safety, and welfare through the improvement of the quality and quantity of drinking water and the development and furtherance of understanding of the problems relating thereto.

Public Benefit

Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International

National Association of Clean Water Agencies

Nacwa is the national voice of public clean water utilities, shaping water policy, convening a vibrant peer network, and empowering water leaders.

—

Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

—

Wildearth Guardians

Wildearth guardians works to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the american west.

Unclassified

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

To sustain, restore, and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.

Animals

Native Plant Trust Inc

The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.

Environment

American Gas Association

American gas association's (the association) mission is to develop and advocate for informed, innovative, and durable policy that fulfills our nation's energy needs, environmental aspirations and economic potential. we are committed to…

—

Friends of the Earth

Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Denver Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Feed Our Rural Kids 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

116 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. 116 of the 162 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

115/116

Grantees still filing

77/116

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,439,810Environment$482,250Education$384,500Civil Rights$245,500Health$156,080Food & Nutrition$90,000Human Services$85,500

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.

Raikes FoundationWA15.1× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Raikes Foundation · Seattle Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Tides Foundation · The Russell Family Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · AbbVie 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 Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

7get no government money at all

29report 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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Mary and Charles Sethness Charitable 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 Mary and Charles Sethness’ 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