· Private foundation
Melvin and Sylvia Kafka Foundation co Sara Suchman
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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| American Jewish World Service | $3,500 |
| National Immigrant Justice Center | $3,250 |
| American Friends of Combatants for Peace | $3,250 |
| Individual grant recipient | $3,058 |
| HIAS | $3,000 |
| Center for Constitutional Rights | $2,250 |
| Carolina Abortion Fund | $2,250 |
| Southern Documentary Fund | $2,250 |
| Doctors without Borders | $2,250 |
| Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust | $2,000 |
| Americans United for Separation of Church and State | $2,000 |
| National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector | $1,000 |
| The American Bar Foundation | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those 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 +43% since the first grant, against +33% for those funded once.
12 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 7 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, 46% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC8× · 2017–2025 · $28k · revenue +98%- HIHIAS INC8× · 2018–2025 · $21k · revenue +114%
FRACTURED ATLAS INC4× · 2019–2024 · $12k · revenue +43%
Funded once
- SVSchool Volunteers of Bridgeportone grant, 2019 · $5k
EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVEgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue +85%- AALIGHTgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue +33%
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.
Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.
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…
To drive transformational adaptation to protect communities across the country from higher seas, stronger storms, and more frequent flooding.
Southern coalition for social justice partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities across the south to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights. through an intersectional and…
A nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to enhancing international peace and security in the 21st century, thereby retaining its focus on nuclear weapons but expanding to include other present emerging security threats.
To contribute to the full enjoyment of human rights in the americas through effective use of the tools of the inter-american system and international human rights law
To strenghten people's ability to guarantee their individual and collective right to a healthy environment, via the development, implementation, and effective enforcement of national and international law.
Common future is a network of pioneering leaders across the u.s. and canada who work deeply within their communities to create alternative approaches to business, philanthropy, and investing. we envision an economy that has transitioned…
Educational & charitable. to provide legal and scientific information to public interest attorneys and scientists in numerous countries.
American foreign service association (afsa) is both the principal advocate for the long-term institutional wellbeing of the professional career foreign service and responsible for safeguarding the interest of afsa members. (continued on…
Using legal advocacy to make advances in science and technology safer for people and the planet.
To support the work of the amercian civil liberties union of louisiana through litigation, public education and limited lobbying in support of civil liberties.
How this is measured
22 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. 22 of the 29 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.
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds HIAS INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS ↗
- Who funds FRACTURED ATLAS INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD COMMUNITY LAND TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC ↗
- Who funds PALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUND ↗
- Who funds Human Kindness Foundation ↗
- Who funds CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD SERVICE INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF COMBATANTS FOR PEACE INC ↗
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds NC WARN INC ↗
- Who funds ALIGHT ↗
- Who funds CAROLINA ABORTION FUND ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN DOCUMENTARY FUND ↗
- Who funds EMPOWERMENT INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HIGHLANDER RESEARCH & EDUCATION CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CENTER FOR MONTESSORI IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR ↗
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: Shared Visions Foundation Inc · Triangle Community Foundation Inc · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Melvin and Sylvia Kafka Foundation co Sara Suchman funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Melvin and Sylvia Kafka Foundation co Sara Suchman. Bigger dots raise more.
- Hias Inc: 88% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Melvin and Sylvia Kafka Foundation co Sara Suchman’s filings →