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Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable 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.

$5.7M
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$5.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0196% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$5.9MHuman Services$5.3MInternational$1.1MReligion$968kHealth$605kArts & Culture$525kPhilanthropy$446kCommunity Improvement$100kOther$0
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $12k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $60k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $151k
  • $250k+2 grants · $5.5M
$25,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$203k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA FOUNDATION$5,000,000
ARIZONA JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY$500,000
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND$100,000
MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION - THE LARRY FITZGERALD FIRST DOWN FUND$51,000
JEWISH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION OF GREATER PHOENIX$25,000
TEEN LIFELINE$15,000
GOOTTER-JENSEN FOUNDATION$10,000
VALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER$10,000
TEMPLE CHAI ASSOCIATION$6,700
STARRY FOUNDATION$5,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–23, $5.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, 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%TUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER: $275k → 15%PHOENIX SUNS CHARITIES: $5.0M → 11%CORTNEY'S PLACE: $1k → 11%COURTNEY'S PLACE: $1k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICE INC: $13k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICES: $13k → 11%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

MN
MI
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
VA
MD
AZ
NC
DC
LA
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.

49%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$7.3M · 18 repeat orgs$7.7M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against +27% for those funded once.

18 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2024, 12 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

18
49

Total granted

$7.3M
$7.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%
+27%

Still filing today

56%
61%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $20k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthReligionHuman ServicesEducationInternationalPhilanthropyOther
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

  • University of Arizona Foundation
    2× · 2023–2024 · $5.1M · revenue +12%
  • AJ
    Arizona Jewish Historical Society
    2× · 2021–2024 · $510k · revenue ×17
  • VO
    VALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $273k · revenue +13%

Funded once

  • PS
    PHOENIX SUNS CHARITIES INC
    one grant, 2023 · $5.0M · revenue -61% · 61% of their budget
  • EH
    Ethiopia Health Aid Inc
    one grant, 2023 · $1.0M · revenue -94% · 94% of their budget
  • TJ
    TUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $275k · revenue +56%
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
University of Southern California Hillel Foundation

To create an informed, celebratory and satisfying jewish community for students at the university of southern california, to deepen jewish identity through social, intellectual and spiritual participation, to offer diversified…

—
2
Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

Hillel of Colorado seeks to engage, empower, and work with Jewish college students to create Jewish communities at University of Denver, Colorado State University, Auraria Campus, Colorado School of Mines and other front range…

—
3
The University of Iowa Louis Shulman Hillel Foundation

The mission of Iowa Hillel is to enhance the lives of Jewish students at the University of Iowa, so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world. Iowa Hillel envisions a world for our students where they find a community here at Iowa…

—
4
Hillel At Washington University in St Louis

The mission of hillel at washington university in st louis is to be a catalyst for jewish life among college students in st louis. we connect students with one another and with jewish culture and traditions through service and social…

—
5
Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

KU Hillel's mission is to connect Jewish students to each other and to their Judaism, to inspire and equip the next generation of Jewish leaders, and to build a thriving Jewish community on campus.

—
6
Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life at the University of Washington

The mission of Hillel at the University of Washington (Hillel UW) is to inspire students and young adults (ages 18-35) to explore, embrace, and celebrate Jewish life and identity.

—
7
American University Hillel Inc

To enrich the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world.

—
8
Hillel 818

Hillel 818 is the campus hub for all things Jewish at Cal State Northridge, Pierce College, LA Valley College, and throughout the San Fernando Valley. We empower our 6,000+ Jewish students to forge lasting friendships, grow as leaders,…

—
9
Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life At the Penn State University

To enrich the lives of jewish and undergraduate students so that they may enrich the jewish people and the world. penn state hillel's student leaders, professionals, and lay leaders are dedicated to creating a pluralistic, welcoming, and…

—
10
Hillel Foundation At the University of Rhode Island

The mission of uri hillel is to enrich the lives of jewish students at the university of rhode island so that they may enrich the jewish people and the world.

—
11
B'nai Brith Hillel Foundation At Princeton

Cjl partners with students and other members of the princeton community to sustain and grow a welcoming, multi-faceted and pluralistic jewish community that is fully-integrated into the fabric of campus life and which provides personally…

—
12
Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life

Hillel of Buffalo serves the jewish community at the NYS University at Buffalo and encourages the participation of jewish students and faculty from all area colleges and universities. It is Hillel of Buffalo's mission to foster jewish…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hillel of San Diego; the most unlike its peers is Ethiopia Health Aid 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

45 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. 45 of the 72 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
45/45
Grantees still filing
32/45
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PHOENIX SUNS CHARITIES INC: $5,000,000 · Human ServicesPHOENIX SUNS CHARITIES INCTUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $275,000 · Human Services+2 more: $27,000 · Human ServicesUniversity of Arizona Foundation: $5,100,000 · EducationUniversity of Arizona Foundation+2 more: $30,000 · EducationArizona Jewish Historical Society: $510,000 · OtherArizona Jewish Histori…VALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $272,500 · OtherVALLEY OF THE SUN JEWI…USC FOUNDATION: $250,000 · OtherUSC FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO: $250,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN…Claremont McKenna College: $250,000 · OtherClaremont McKenna Coll…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $175,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN…UC RIVERSIDE HEALTH FOUNDATION: $150,000 · Other+41 more: $1,155,500 · Other+41 moreEthiopia Health Aid Inc: $1,000,000 · InternationalJEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC: $100,000 · International+1 more: $25,000 · InternationalBARROW NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION: $150,000 · HealthCALIFORNIA HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION: $100,000 · HealthGOOTTER-JENSEN FOUNDATION: $80,000 · Health+3 more: $25,000 · HealthTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $106,000 · PhilanthropyTHE JEWISH FEDERATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA INC: $100,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION OF GREATER PHOENIX: $60,000 · PhilanthropyHouston Hillel: $25,000 · ReligionTHE NORTH 34TH STREET FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE: $25,000 · ReligionCONGREGATION B'NAI B'RITH HILLEL: $25,000 · ReligionNeighborhood Ministries Inc: $25,000 · ReligionHILLEL AT THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES: $25,000 · Religion
Human Services$5,302,000Education$5,130,000Other$3,013,000International$1,125,000Health$355,000Philanthropy$266,000Religion$125,000

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 budgetUniversity of Arizona Foundation: $5,100,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetPHOENIX SUNS CHARITIES INC: $5,000,000 over 1y, 61% of budgetEthiopia Health Aid Inc: $1,000,000 over 1y, 94% of budgetArizona Jewish Historical Society: $510,000 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetTUCSON JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $275,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetVALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $272,500 over 4y, 1.8% of budgetClaremont McKenna College: $250,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetBARROW NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION: $150,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $106,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetTHE JEWISH FEDERATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThurgood Marshall Center Trust Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetJEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGOOTTER-JENSEN FOUNDATION: $80,000 over 7y, 5.7% of budgetJEWISH COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION OF GREATER PHOENIX: $60,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetHillel at Davis and Sacramento: $25,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetJEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICE INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHILLEL AT CSI INC: $25,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetHILLEL AT UCLA: $25,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHILLEL OF SAN DIEGO: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetHouston Hillel: $25,000 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetTHE NORTH 34TH STREET FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE: $25,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetCONGREGATION B'NAI B'RITH HILLEL: $25,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetHILLEL AT BARUCH INC: $25,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetBNai Brith Hillel Foundation at the University of Connecticut: $25,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetNORTH CAROLINA HILLEL FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetNeighborhood Ministries Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCHECKERED FLAG RUN FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetHUNTER HILLEL FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetHILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE: $25,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetSanta Cruz Hillel Foundation: $25,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetHILLEL AT THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES: $25,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetB'NAI B'RITH HILLEL FOUNDATION AT QUEENS COLLEGE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetRutgers Hillel Corporation: $25,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY HILLEL ADVISORY: $25,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetHillels of Georgia Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTeen Lifeline Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTARRY FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetPHOENIX COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCORTNEYS PLACE: $2,000 over 2y, 0.2% 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.

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.

Maccabee Task Force F…Hillel the Foundation…Arizona Community Fou…Seed the Dream Founda…Jewish Community Foun…Jewish Community Foun…Rosenbluth Family Cha…Israel on Campus Coal…Friedel Family Founda…The Arthur M Blank Fa…United Jewish Appeal-…American Express Foun…
Maccabee Task Force FoundationNV36.8× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maccabee Task Force Foundation · Hillel the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life · Arizona Community Foundation · Seed the Dream Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Phoenix · Rosenbluth Family Charitable Foundation · Israel on Campus Coalition Inc · Friedel Family Foundation · The Arthur M Blank Family Foundation · United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York Inc · American Express 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 Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    3get no government money at all
    9report 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 Penny and Robert Sarver Charitable Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Penny and Robert Sarver 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.

    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 72 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 Penny and Robert Sarver’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