How much does Sally Mead Hands Foundation give?

Sally Mead Hands Foundation reported 49 grants totaling $2,218,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 42 and 52 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Sally Mead Hands Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (60%), Health (14%), Arts & Culture (5%).

Who are Sally Mead Hands Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Citizens Climate Education Corp ($1.7M), World Wildlife Fund Inc ($985k), Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest ($630k).

Does Sally Mead Hands Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 10% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Sally Mead Hands Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as Sally Mead Hands Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Evjue Foundation Inc, Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc, Maine Community Foundation Inc.

Where is Sally Mead Hands Foundation based?

Sally Mead Hands Foundation is based in WI.

Sally Mead Hands Foundation

Sally Mead Hands Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sally Mead Hands Foundation

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.

$2.2M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$320k

Largest

01What it funds

0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Environment$7.3MHealth$1.7MArts & Culture$621kCommunity Improvement$418kPublic Benefit$391kScience & Tech$265kHousing & Shelter$236kEducation$133kOther$0

02FY2025 · 49 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k10 grants · $41k
$10k–50k20 grants · $328k
$50k–250k18 grants · $1.5M
$250k+1 grant · $320k

$15,000

Median grant

States reached

$33M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
CITIZENS CLIMATE EDUCATION CORP	$320,000
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE	$147,500
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & POLICY CENTER	$110,000
CERES	$100,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF ILLINOIS	$100,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF WISCONSIN	$100,000
WORLD WILDLIFE FUND	$100,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND	$100,000
PROJECT DRAWDOWN	$100,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF MICHIGAN	$100,000
TRANSPORTATION RIDERS UNITED	$90,000
MAINE COAST HERITAGE TRUST	$77,500
Individual grant recipient	$75,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE GREAT PLAINS	$70,000
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA	$60,000

02The need

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 (FY23–25, $24k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$11M · 59 repeat orgs$615k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +41% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

59 repeat relationships: 35 still active in FY2025, 24 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$11M

$285k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+41%

Still filing today

73%

56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $330k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentArts & CultureEducationHealthAnimalsHuman ServicesOther

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

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC
6× · 2020–2025 · $985k · revenue +28%
EL
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER OF THE MIDWEST
6× · 2020–2025 · $630k · revenue +32%
PP
Planned Parenthood of Illinois
6× · 2020–2025 · $475k · revenue +77%

Funded once

PP
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF MID & SOUTH MICHIGAN
one grant, 2020 · $70k
NH
Neighborhood House Community Center Inc
one grant, 2024 · $40k · revenue 0%
IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2020 · $30k

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.

The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International

Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

The minnesota center for environmental advocacy is a nonprofit organization that uses law, science and research to protect minnesota's environment, its natural resources and the health of its people.

Environment

The Water Research Foundation

The purpose of the water research foundation (wrf) is a definitive research organization to advance the science of all things water to better meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. to engage exclusively in…

Environment

Native Plant Trust Inc

The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.

Environment

Grist Magazine Inc

Grist is an independent, non profit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.

Environment

Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International

Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Inc

Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…

Community Improvement

Eastern National

Eastern national promotes the public's understanding and support of america's national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products and services.

Recreation & Sports

Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment

Western Electricity Coordinating Council

To effectively and efficiently mitigate risks to the reliability and security of the western interconnection's bulk power system.

Public Benefit

Midwest Dairy Association

Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.

—

Environment Next Inc

Environment next supports individuals, nonprofits and businesses around the world on solutions to complex climate issues. we provide leadership, outreach and communication support, grants, and investments to empower leaders and their ideas…

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Midwest Renewable Energy Association Inc; the most unlike its peers is Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Public Broadcasting Corp. 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

69 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. 69 of the 93 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

67/69

Grantees still filing

46/69

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Environment$5,177,220Other$3,662,500Health$1,650,000Arts & Culture$595,000Education$535,500Public Benefit$388,000International$203,000

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.

The Evjue Foundation IncWI21.8× affinity8 shared granteesties to 9 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Evjue Foundation Inc · Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc · Maine Community Foundation Inc · United States Energy Foundation · The Joyce Foundation · Madison Community Foundation · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · The Nature Conservancy · Patagoniaorg · Endres Manufacturing Foundation Inc · Elmina B Sewall 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 Sally Mead Hands Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sally Mead Hands Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

21report 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 Sally Mead Hands Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Sally Mead Hands 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.

Play a game based on Sally Mead Hands’ 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