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Saunders Family Charitable Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

Saunders Family Charitable Fund

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$406k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$3.0MHealth$485kEnvironment$230kRecreation & Sports$173kHuman Services$165kCrime & Legal$85kYouth Development$65kCivil Rights$40kOther$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $51k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
  • $250k+1 grant · $250k
$25,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$2.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE BAY EDUCATION FUND$250,000
YOUTH ALIVE$50,000
MARINE CORPS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION$50,000
THE BASIC FUND$25,000
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$16,000
EVANSTON TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION$10,000
MAUI PREPARATORY ACADEMY$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, $70k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 14% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%NORTH BAY CHILDREN'S CENTER: $35k → 8%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $10k → 14%NORTH BAY CHILDREN'S CENTER: $25k → 8%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

IL
NY
PA
CA
CO
MO
VA
DC
HI
TX
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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.8M · 23 repeat orgs$561k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +65% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.

23 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 16 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

23
12

Total granted

$3.8M
$561k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+65%
+16%

Still filing today

70%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesHealthYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentOther
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

  • BE
    Bay Education Fund
    4× · 2022–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +371%
  • AH
    American Heart Association Inc
    3× · 2017–2021 · $370k · revenue +33%
  • TB
    THE BASIC FUND
    8× · 2017–2025 · $266k · revenue +82%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
    one grant, 2021 · $245k · revenue +12%
  • TG
    THE GEORGE W BUSH FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue -13%
  • GW
    Gorege W Bush Center
    one grant, 2020 · $100k
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

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
National Science and Technology Medals Foundation Inc

The nstmf's mission is to build inclusive stem communities across the united states. fundamental to these communities are the significant, inspirational connections we foster between the individuals who have received national recognition…

—
4
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
5
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
6
Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & clark is a premier private higher education institution offering an exceptional education in an inclusive environment. by fostering critical thinking, innovation, creativity, civic engagement, and leadership, both inside and…

Education
7
Northern Illinois University Foundation

The niu foundation's mission is to energize and connect the private sector with the niu community to secure and steward resources that support the future and growth of niu.

Education
8
Silicon Valley Education Foundation

Who we are - silicon valley education foundation (svef) focuses on raising student performance in the critical areas of math and science across all 33 santa clara county school districts, and also adjoining san mateo and alameda counties.…

Community Improvement
9
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
10
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
11
The Fund for American Studies

The fund for american studies (tfas) seeks to create a brighter, more prosperous future by preparing young people for leadership and teaching them the ideas of freedom and a free-market economy. founded in 1967, tfas organizes programs for…

—
12
University of Hawaii Foundation

To unite donors' passions with the university of hawai'i's (uh) aspirations by raising philanthropic support and managing investments to benefit uh, the people of hawai'i and our future generations.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Basic Fund; the most unlike its peers is Guardian Training. 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

25 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 of the 36 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)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
25/25
Grantees still filing
19/25
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Bay Education Fund: $1,000,000 · EducationBay Education FundTeach for America Inc: $605,000 · EducationTeach for America IncTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $392,820 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITYTHE BASIC FUND: $266,000 · EducationTHE BASIC FUNDUNIVERSITY OF DENVER: $245,158 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF DENVERMARINE CORPS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC: $160,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $115,000 · Education+6 more: $250,785 · Education+6 moreUNIVERSITY OF DENVER - COLORADO: $257,070 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF DENV…YOUTH ALIVE: $135,000 · OtherYOUTH ALIVEGorege W Bush Center: $100,000 · OtherGorege W Bush Cent…Spare for Change: $70,000 · OtherSpare for ChangeUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII: $67,641 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF HAWA…EVANSTON TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $35,000 · Other+8 more: $100,000 · Other+8 moreAmerican Heart Association Inc: $370,000 · HealthNorthwestern University: $144,000 · Recreation & SportsGuardian Training: $50,000 · Recreation & SportsBASKETBALL MAUI: $45,000 · Recreation & SportsSQUASHSMARTS INC: $12,500 · Recreation & SportsHAWAIIAN ISLANDS LAND TRUST: $230,000 · EnvironmentNORTH BAY CHILDRENS CENTER INC: $60,000 · Human ServicesAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $10,000 · Human ServicesBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN FRANCISCO: $15,000 · Youth Development
Education$3,034,763Other$764,711Health$370,000Recreation & Sports$251,500Environment$230,000Human Services$70,000Youth Development$15,000

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 budgetBay Education Fund: $1,000,000 over 4y, 24% of budgetTeach for America Inc: $605,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $392,820 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $370,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BASIC FUND: $266,000 over 8y, 0.5% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DENVER: $245,158 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHAWAIIAN ISLANDS LAND TRUST: $230,000 over 6y, 3.1% of budgetMARINE CORPS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC: $160,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetNorthwestern University: $144,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetYOUTH ALIVE: $135,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $115,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GEORGE W BUSH FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNORTH BAY CHILDRENS CENTER INC: $60,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetMAUI PREPARATORY ACADEMY: $55,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetGuardian Training: $50,000 over 2y, 19% of budgetBASKETBALL MAUI: $45,000 over 4y, 10% of budgetENCORPSINC: $30,000 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetEDUCATORS FOR EXCELLENCE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE COLLEGE OF SAINT ROSE: $15,785 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN FRANCISCO: $15,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSQUASHSMARTS INC: $12,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetMAUI FOOD BANK INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJunior Achievement of Northern California: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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 Bay Education Fund ↗
  • Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
  • Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
  • Who funds THE BASIC FUND ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DENVER ↗
  • Who funds HAWAIIAN ISLANDS LAND TRUST ↗
  • Who funds MARINE CORPS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds YOUTH ALIVE ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds THE GEORGE W BUSH FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds NORTH BAY CHILDRENS CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds MAUI PREPARATORY ACADEMY ↗
  • Who funds Guardian Training ↗
  • Who funds BASKETBALL MAUI ↗
  • Who funds ENCORPSINC ↗
  • Who funds THE OPPORTUNITY TRUST D/B/A ZEST EDUCATION ↗
  • Who funds EDUCATORS FOR EXCELLENCE INC ↗
  • Who funds THE COLLEGE OF SAINT ROSE ↗
  • Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF SAN FRANCISCO ↗
  • Who funds SQUASHSMARTS INC ↗
  • Who funds MAUI FOOD BANK INC ↗
  • Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
  • Who funds Junior Achievement of Northern California ↗

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.

National Philanthropi…Silicon Valley Commun…Gs Donor Advised Phil…American Endowment Fo…Vanguard Charitable E…Morgan Stanley Global…Charities Aid Foundat…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Paypal Charitable Giv…Fidelity Investments …
National Philanthropic TrustPA14× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Saunders Family Charitable Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Saunders Family Charitable Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%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
    0get no government money at all
    7report 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 Saunders Family Charitable Fund?

    Find your warmest path to Saunders Family Charitable Fund 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 36 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 Saunders Family’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