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Saras Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Saras 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.

$110k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$101k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Education$397kHealth$17kReligion$7kArts & Culture$7kCommunity Improvement$3kHuman Services$2kRecreation & Sports$2kYouth Development$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k6 grants · $9k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $101k
$1,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$1.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT$101,000
HAMMER RESIDENCES$5,000
MATAGIRI SRI AUROBINDO CENTER$1,450
CURTAIN CALL CLUB$1,000
INTERNET ARCHIVE$500
WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION$500
AMERICAN DIABETES ASSOCIATION$500
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 (FY23–25, $13k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, 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.

area typical 10%INTERNET ARCHIVE: $500 → 10%HAMMER RESIDENCES: $5k → 11%HAMMER RESIDENCES: $5k → 11%HAMMER RESIDENCES: $3k → 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.
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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$416k · 6 repeat orgs$19k to everyone else

6 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
9

Total granted

$416k
$18k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+10%
+49%

Still filing today

67%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Recreation & SportsHuman ServicesEducationArts & CultureEnvironmentHousing & ShelterOther
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

  • Northwestern University
    6× · 2020–2025 · $387k · revenue +33%
  • HR
    Hammer Residences Inc
    3× · 2023–2025 · $13k · revenue +10%
  • MC
    MINNETONKA CURTAIN CALL CLUB
    4× · 2022–2025 · $4k · revenue +2%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +111%
  • SI
    SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $2k · revenue +144%
  • SA
    SRI AUROBINDO EDUCATION SOCIETY
    one grant, 2023 · $1k
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
Science Museum of Minnesota

The museum's mission statement is "turn on the science: inspire learning. inform policy. improve lives."

Arts & Culture
2
Minnesota Orchestral Association

The minnesota orchestra mission is to enrich, inspire and serve our community as an enduring symphony orchestra internationally recognized for its artistic excellence.

Arts & Culture
3
Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—
4
The Minnesota Daily

1. provide independent student journalism and comprehensive coverage of news, media and events that serve the public interest and inform the university of minnesota community.2. offer a forum for the free exchange of ideas and civil debate…

—
5
Aia Minnesota

See schedule o. the american institute of architects minnesota, founded in 1892, is the professional association for the architecture profession in minnesota. as a state component of aia national, aia minnesota provides services to local…

—
6
University of Minnesota Physicians

University of minnesota physicians serves as the integrated group practice for the university of minnesota medical school full-time faculty to provide the highest quality healthcare to patients and their families.university of minnesota…

Health
7
Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors Foundation Inc
—
8
Lake Minnetonka Garden Club

To stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, horticulture, the art of flower arranging, garden history and design and photography; to restore, improve, and protect the quality of the environment through action in the field of…

Environment
9
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
10
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Foundation

To support charitable, plant-based scientific, and educational activities exclusively for the benefit of the minnesota landscape arboretum of the university of minnesota

Environment
11
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
12
University of Minnesota Alumni Association

The university of minnesota alumni association (umaa) fosters a lifelong spirit of belonging and pride by connecting alumni, students, and friends to the university of minnesota and each other. the alumni association advocates for the…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Minnesota Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Internet Archive. 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

12 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. 12 of the 18 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
7/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Northwestern University: $386,600 · Recreation & SportsNorthwestern University+1 more: $1,000 · Recreation & SportsCREATING HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES: $6,000 · OtherMATAGIRI SRI AUROBINDO CENTER INC: $4,545 · OtherSRI AUROBINDO EDUCATION SOCIETY: $1,350 · OtherSRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM DELHI BRANCH: $1,200 · OtherSTAND UP FOR KIDS SILICON VALLEY: $1,000 · Other+2 more: $1,000 · OtherHammer Residences Inc: $12,500 · Human ServicesInternet Archive: $500 · Human ServicesUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION: $10,000 · EducationWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC: $500 · EducationMINNETONKA CURTAIN CALL CLUB: $4,000 · Arts & CultureLAYYASAARAM INSTITUTE OFINDIAN ARTS: $2,000 · Arts & CultureSLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC: $1,500 · Housing & ShelterLake Minnetonka Association: $750 · EnvironmentAmerican Diabetes Association: $500 · Health
Recreation & Sports$387,600Other$15,095Human Services$13,000Education$10,500Arts & Culture$6,000Housing & Shelter$1,500Environment$750Health$500

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 budgetNorthwestern University: $386,600 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetHammer Residences Inc: $12,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMINNETONKA CURTAIN CALL CLUB: $4,000 over 4y, 2.0% of budgetLAYYASAARAM INSTITUTE OFINDIAN ARTS: $2,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetSLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOR THE COMMONS: $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetLake Minnetonka Association: $750 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetINDIA ASSOCIATION OF MINNESOTA: $500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetInternet Archive: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC: $500 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.

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 Minneapolis Found…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Minneapolis FoundationMN13× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Minneapolis Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Saras Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Saras Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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 Saras Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Saras 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 18 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Saras’ 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