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Sahara Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sahara 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.

$45k
Granted FY2024still arriving
23
Grants FY2024still arriving
10
States reached
$11k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

International$116kHealth$39kEducation$35kReligion$12kFood & Nutrition$6kPublic Safety & Disaster$3kCivil Rights$3kPhilanthropy$1kOther$0
02FY2024 · 23 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k22 grants · $34k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $11k
$1,000
Median grant
10
States reached
$915k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$10,850
KINDY ACADEMY$8,800
BRIGHT FUTURES$7,840
Individual grant recipient$2,000
ONE UMMAH FOUNDATION$1,500
MASJID DARUS SALAAM (ISONET)$1,200
ICNA$1,100
ISLAMIC RELIEF$1,060
AL-MAQASID$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION$1,000
ICO$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
ZAKAT FOUNDATION INDIA$1,000
AHAT$700
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 (FY20–24, $100k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 1% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%INDIAN MUSLIM RELIEF & CHARITIES: $39k → 8%ZAKAT FOUNDATION INDIA: $120 → 17%ISLAMIC ACADEMY OF KENDALLVILLE: $500 → 10%FMS WELFARE TRUST: $500 → 8%HUMAN NECESSITY FOUNDATION: $100 → 6%INDIAN MUSLIM RELIEF & CHARITIES: $33k → 8%HELPING HANDS: $1k → 8%INDIAN MUSLIM RELIEF CHARITIES: $25k → 8%INDIAN MUSLIM RELIEF & CHARITIES: $500 → 8%ZAKAT CHICAGO: $50 → 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

MN
IL
MI
NY
OR
IN
PA
NJ
CA
VA
AZ
KS
NC
DC
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 5% of Sahara Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Sahara Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 5.9% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$139k · 23 repeat orgs$80k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +36% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

23 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

23
42

Total granted

$139k
$53k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+36%
0%

Still filing today

52%
40%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 41% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $27k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesInternationalCivil RightsReligionPhilanthropyEducationOther
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

  • IR
    ISLAMIC RELIEF USA
    4× · 2020–2024 · $4k · revenue +34%
  • UM
    United Mission For Relief & Development
    2× · 2020–2021 · $2k · revenue +267%
  • TZ
    THE ZAKAT FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
    3× · 2020–2023 · $1k · revenue +162%

Funded once

  • I
    IMRC
    one grant, 2021 · $37k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $3k
  • HH
    HELPING HANDS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $1k · revenue +99%
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
Muslim Aid America

Provide help to people who are victims of natural disasters or conflicts or suffering from poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, discrimination, homelessness, debt, unemployment, injustice, or lack of skills or economic opportunity.

Public Safety & Disaster
2
International Institute of Islamic Thought the Fairfax Institute
Education
3
Zakah Aid and Charity Assisting Humanity

Zakat, aid and charity assisting humanity (zacah) is a minnesota-based grassroots organization dedicated to the collection and re-distribution of wealth, including zakat (mandatory charitable tax for all muslims) and sadaqah (any…

Religion
4
Islamic Ummah Relief Corp

Develop long-term developmental projects aimed at providing a sustainable living for poor communities as well as supporting needy widows and orphans

Human Services
5
Muslim Response Usa for Relief and Development

To provide material and financial assistance to relieve the sufferings of any and all persons affected by disasters. conflicts, disease. and hunger, irrespective of race. creed or ethnicity. To support schools and other learning centers…

International
6
Al Ansaar Foundation for Humanity
Philanthropy
7
American Muslim Instituition

Human Rights Project

Arts & Culture
8
Bangladesh American Society of Muslim Aid for Huma
Philanthropy
9
Foundation for Islamic Scholarship and Teaching
Education
10
Cambodian Islamic Foundation
Education
11
Minhaj Welfare Foundation Usa Inc

The foundation is a private organization whose mission is to support the poor and needy in marginalized communities working for their rights, to provide children with access to education, and to provide the poor with access to basic health…

International
12
Darulquran Foundation

Islamic education and worship

Religion
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Mercy-Usa for Aid & Developmentinc; the most unlike its peers is For the Needy & Hungry Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

32 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. 32 of the 79 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
31/32
Grantees still filing
18/32
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Indian Muslim Relief and Charities: $97,075 · Human ServicesIndian Muslim Relief and Charities+7 more: $2,790 · Human ServicesIMRC: $37,052 · OtherIMRCIndividual grant recipient: $11,600 · OtherIndividual grant recipientBRIGHT FUTURES: $7,840 · OtherBRIGHT FUTURESMASJID DARUS SALAAM (ISONET): $4,750 · OtherONE UMMAH FOUNDATION: $4,050 · Other+49 more: $29,824 · Other+49 moreKINDI ACADEMY: $8,800 · EducationA CONTINUOUS CHARITY: $1,100 · EducationISLAMIC RELIEF USA: $3,810 · InternationalMERCY-USA FOR AID & DEVELOPMENTINC: $1,050 · InternationalMercy Without Limits: $1,000 · InternationalPURE HANDS INC: $1,000 · InternationalUnited Hands Relief Inc: $850 · International+3 more: $425 · InternationalTHE SEED: $2,500 · ReligionAL-FURQAAN FOUNDATION: $500 · Religion+1 more: $25 · ReligionUnited Mission For Relief & Development: $1,960 · Public Safety & DisasterIsaad foundation: $1,000 · PhilanthropyAMOUD FOUNDATION: $690 · Philanthropy+1 more: $50 · Philanthropy
Human Services$99,865Other$95,116Education$9,900International$8,135Religion$3,025Public Safety & Disaster$1,960Philanthropy$1,740

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetIndian Muslim Relief and Charities: $97,075 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetKINDI ACADEMY: $8,800 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetISLAMIC RELIEF USA: $3,810 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SEED: $2,500 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetUnited Mission For Relief & Development: $1,960 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHELPING HANDS INC: $1,420 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetTHE ZAKAT FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $1,325 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetIndian American Muslim Council: $1,200 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetA CONTINUOUS CHARITY: $1,100 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMERCY-USA FOR AID & DEVELOPMENTINC: $1,050 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMercy Without Limits: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPURE HANDS INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUnited Hands Relief Inc: $850 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetAMOUD FOUNDATION: $690 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFMS WELFARE TRUST: $500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetUNIVERSAL ACADEMY OF FLORIDA INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetISLAMIC ACADEMY OF KENDALLVILL: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMUSLIM LEGAL FUND OF AMERICA: $400 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCAIR FLORIDA INC: $300 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED PALESTINIAN APPEAL INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBAITULMAAL INC: $150 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHUMAN NECESSITY FOUNDATION WORLDWID: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEQUALLYABLE FOUNDATION: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMUSLIM ADVOCATES: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFOR THE NEEDY & HUNGRY FOUNDATION INC: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCouncil of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHIDAYA FOUNDATION: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUMMAH RELIEF INTERNATIONAL: $25 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINDIAN MUSLIM EDUCATION FOUDATION: $25 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 Indian Muslim Relief and Charities ↗
  • Who funds KINDI ACADEMY ↗
  • Who funds ISLAMIC RELIEF USA ↗
  • Who funds THE SEED ↗
  • Who funds United Mission For Relief & Development ↗
  • Who funds HELPING HANDS INC ↗
  • Who funds THE ZAKAT FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ↗
  • Who funds Indian American Muslim Council ↗
  • Who funds A CONTINUOUS CHARITY ↗
  • Who funds MERCY-USA FOR AID & DEVELOPMENTINC ↗
  • Who funds Mercy Without Limits ↗
  • Who funds Isaad foundation ↗
  • Who funds PURE HANDS INC ↗
  • Who funds United Hands Relief Inc ↗
  • Who funds AMOUD FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds FMS WELFARE TRUST ↗

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.

American Muslim Commu…Amin & Rubina Chikhal…The Tabbaa FoundationAnalog Devices Founda…Nakadar FoundationThe Syed FoundationVerizon FoundationBright Funds Foundati…Texas Instruments Fou…Ansaar USA for Relief…Sattar Family Foundat…Sidra Foundation
American Muslim Community FoundationCA42.6× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Muslim Community Foundation · Amin & Rubina Chikhalia Foundation · The Tabbaa Foundation · Analog Devices Foundation · Nakadar Foundation · The Syed Foundation · Verizon Foundation · Bright Funds Foundation · Texas Instruments Foundation · Ansaar USA for Relief and Development · Sattar Family Foundation · Sidra 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 Sahara Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sahara 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%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →median 10%
  • Universal Academy of Florida Inc: 10% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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 79 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 Sahara’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