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Pat Tillman Foundation at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Pat Tillman Foundation

In 2002, pat tillman proudly put his nfl career with the arizona cardinals on hold to serve his country.

$1.4M
Granted FY2021
66
Grants FY2021
28
States reached
$55k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2021.

Education$6.3MReligion$15kCrime & Legal$11kHealth$10k
02FY2021 · 66 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 66 grants below total $1,237,500, the rows itemized in this filing. The $1,418,588 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $181,088 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k6 grants · $41k
  • $10k–50k57 grants · $1.0M
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $163k
$15,000
Median grant
28
States reached
$6.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA$55,000
HARVARD UNIVERSITY$54,500
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY$53,000
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$49,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY$46,500
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA$38,000
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY$38,000
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON$34,000
UCLA$33,000
ASU FOUNDATION$31,000
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA$28,500
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY$26,500
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY$24,000
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY$23,000
EMORY UNIVERSITY$23,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 78% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: $42k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $61k → 11%TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF PENN: $45k → 22%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $50k → 8%SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: $31k → 14%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $49k → 17%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $63k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $61k → 13%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $33k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: $63k → 13%THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BURSAR: $53k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: $32k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: $38k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $45k → 11%TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF PENN: $33k → 22%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $47k → 8%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $46k → 17%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $53k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $55k → 13%GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $54k → 14%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $33k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: $35k → 13%THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY BURSAR: $40k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: $35k → 15%MASSACHESETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLO: $48k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $32k → 11%TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF PENN: $33k → 22%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $39k → 8%UC REGENTS: $36k → 11%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $38k → 17%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $51k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $54k → 13%GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $53k → 14%MASSACHESETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLO: $45k → 8%UCLA: $33k → 14%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $40k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $42k → 13%GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $33k → 13%GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $38k → 14%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $78k → 8%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $60k → 8%JOHNS HOPKINS (SAIS): $32k → 14%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $55k → 8%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $48k → 8%GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $54k → 14%GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $32k → 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

VT
NH
WA
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NM
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL
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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$4.4M · 61 repeat orgs$666k to everyone else

61 repeat relationships: 31 still active in FY2021, 30 since wound down; 26 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

61
26

Total granted

$4.4M
$346k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+47%
+49%

Still filing today

44%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $320k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21
EducationRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2017–2021 · $214k · revenue +47%
  • Vanderbilt University
    5× · 2017–2021 · $164k · revenue +74%
  • ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2017–2021 · $124k · revenue +196%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS FAYETTEVILLE
    one grant, 2018 · $31k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
    one grant, 2017 · $25k
  • EV
    EDWARD VIA VIRGINIA COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINEgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +83%
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
Lehigh University

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…

Education
2
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
3
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
4
William Marsh Rice University

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…

Education
5
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
6
Washington University

The washington university is a co-educational, nondenominational university with a long and distinguished history of teaching, research and (cont'd on schedule o)

Education
7
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
8
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
9
Seton Hall University

Seton hall university is a catholic institution of higher education

—
10
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
11
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Georgetown University; the most unlike its peers is Wake Forest University. 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

60 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. 60 of the 122 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
59/60
Grantees still filing
57/60
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $347,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTAUniversity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center: $245,000 · OtherUniversity of Oklahoma Health Sciences CenterTEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $234,500 · OtherTEXAS A&M UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $177,500 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONUNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA: $145,000 · OtherTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $143,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $142,000 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO: $119,500 · Other+56 more: $1,614,300 · Other+56 morePresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $373,000 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard CollegeGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $214,000 · EducationGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITYTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $179,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW …THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $175,500 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNI…Vanderbilt University: $163,600 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $160,500 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $152,500 · EducationARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $123,600 · EducationYale University: $121,500 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $114,942 · Education+46 more: $1,315,850 · Education+46 moreBROWN UNIVERSITY: $56,000 · Community ImprovementNorthwestern University: $43,500 · Recreation & Sports
Other$3,167,800Education$3,093,992Community Improvement$56,000Recreation & Sports$43,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $373,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $214,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $179,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $175,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetVanderbilt University: $163,600 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $160,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $152,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $123,600 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetYale University: $121,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $114,942 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: $96,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK FOUNDATION INC: $93,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $83,750 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $67,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of San Francisco: $60,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $56,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $55,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $44,100 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $43,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBAYLOR UNIVERSITY: $43,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $41,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSUFFOLK UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEmory University: $39,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DENVER: $37,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLIBERTY UNIVERSITY INC: $36,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGEISINGER COMMONWEALTH SCH OF MED: $36,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCreighton University: $33,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFordham University: $32,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $31,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of the Incarnate Word: $27,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $26,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEDWARD VIA VIRGINIA COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNew York University: $24,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: $22,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAPPALACHIAN SCHOOL OF LAW: $22,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSt Mary's University: $21,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $17,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMidwestern University: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY INC: $11,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN: $11,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $11,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND: $11,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWILKES UNIVERSITY: $11,000 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 President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
  • Who funds GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
  • Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Vanderbilt University ↗
  • Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
  • Who funds ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Yale University ↗
  • Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds University of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds University of San Francisco ↗
  • Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗

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.

National Collegiate A…Tulsa Community Found…Folds of Honor Founda…American Chemical Soc…University of Pittsbu…American Heart Associ…Kpmg US Foundation IncThe Trustees of Colum…Johns Hopkins Univers…Association of Univer…National Geographic S…Yale University
National Collegiate Athletic AssociationIN27.5× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Collegiate Athletic Association · Tulsa Community Foundation · Folds of Honor Foundation · American Chemical Society · University of Pittsburgh · American Heart Association Inc · Kpmg US Foundation Inc · The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York · Johns Hopkins University · Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc · National Geographic Society · Yale University

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 Pat Tillman Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Pat Tillman Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Simmons University: 1% of income from government
  • Suffolk University: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
4report 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 122 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $1.5M of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2021, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Pat Tillman’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