· Private foundation
Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable
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, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| PROJECT ZAWADI INC | $30,000 |
| DAYSTAR US | $30,000 |
| ARIZONA MUSICFEST | $25,000 |
| THE PHOENIX SYMPHONY | $25,000 |
| MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MUSEUM | $25,000 |
| THE MARVELWOOD SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| ARIZONA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART | $10,000 |
| SCOTTSDALE ARTS | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY24–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 1 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, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- PZPROJECT ZAWADI INC2× · 2024–2025 · $60k · revenue +2%
- AMARIZONA MUSICFEST INC2× · 2024–2025 · $50k · revenue +46%
- PSPHOENIX SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION2× · 2024–2025 · $50k · revenue +18%
Funded once
- WWWOOFS WIGGLES N WAGS RESCUEone grant, 2021 · $50k
- RPRENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTEone grant, 2023 · $20k
- VAVI AT SILVERSTONE EDUCATION FUNDone grant, 2023 · $10k
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.
Professional production of opera for the public, and education about opera and the performing arts for audiences of all ages.
Arizona school for the arts inspires creative thinkers and leaders through providing an innovative concentration in college preparation informed by the performing arts.
To provide quality memorable instrumental music to audiences at an affordable price.
Arizona opera elevates the transformative power of storytelling through music - cultivating community and strengthening a state and people as adventurous and diverse as the place they call home.
Nurture and amplify the strength and resonance of arizonas choral artistry through live concert experiences performed by professional singers living in arizona, and via recordings and other media for those outside the state to know and…
Arts+ teaches music and art to students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, offering financial assistance, scholarship and free outreach programs to honor its founding mission to make high-quality arts instruction available to all.
The mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…
To create great people through great performances
Guided by artists, rooted in new mexico, site santa fe celebrates contemporary creative expression.
To perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes of the arizona community foundation, an az nonprofit corporation, so long as the arizona community foundation, inc. remains a qualified organization.
The museum school celebrates, nurtures and enhances the ability of all participants through experimental, project-based learning. infusing the arts and utilizing resources available at local museums.
The mission of valley christian schools is to equip students to be culture changers for christ by delivering academic excellence, facilitating spiritual growth, and building lifelong community.
How this is measured
9 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. 9 of the 20 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.
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: Arizona Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin Charitable. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Robert Swanson and Cynthia Shevlin’s filings →