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Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$278k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
8
States reached
$45k
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, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$499kCrime & Legal$204kCivil Rights$144kHousing & Shelter$128kHuman Services$120kEnvironment$105kEmployment$98kCommunity Improvement$91kOther$0
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$24,900
Median grant
8
States reached
$5.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA$44,500
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY - OAKLAND$25,000
TENNESSEE HEALTH CARE CAMPAIGN$25,000
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE$24,960
WATER DROP LA$24,929
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE-PUERTO RICO PROJECT CENTER$24,900
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI$24,875
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS$23,438
SAFETY VALVE PROJECT INC$20,000
JANE PLACE NEIGHBORHOOD SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE$20,000
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY$20,000
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 (FY19–25, $105k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%PIONEER VALLEY WORKERS CENTER: $20k → 12%REENTRY CAMPUS PROGRAM: $20k → 14%JANE ADDAMS SENIOR CAUCUS: $20k → 14%WATER DROP LA: $25k → 14%EQUITY AND TRANSFORMATION: $20k → 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

AK
VT
WA
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IN
PA
NJ
RI
CA
KY
VA
AR
TN
DC
LA
MS
GA
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

12%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$205k · 8 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

8 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
67

Total granted

$205k
$1.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+12%
+30%

Still filing today

38%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 9% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $253k 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
EducationHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterCrime & LegalEmploymentCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
    2× · 2022–2025 · $45k
  • EMERSON COLLEGE
    2× · 2019–2021 · $40k · revenue +29%
  • MT
    MAKE THE ROAD NEW YORK FBO CENTER FOR FRONTLINE RETAIL
    2× · 2017–2018 · $20k

Funded once

  • FD
    FAIR DISTRICTS GEORGIA FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2024 · $25k
  • CT
    Chicago Torture Justice Center
    one grant, 2023 · $24k
  • SF
    Struggle for Miamis Affordable and Sustainable Housing Incorporated
    one grant, 2023 · $20k · revenue -17%
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
Fuerza LaboralPower of Workers

Fuerza Laboral is a workers' rights center whose mission is to shift the balance of power in our economy in favor of workers by educating, training, and organizing workers to become community leaders; taking direct action to recover unpaid…

Education
2
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
3
Detention Watch Network

Detention Watch Network seeks to end the cruel system of immigration detention via programs of grassroots organizing, strategic communications, and collective advocacy.

Human Services
4
Fair Work Center

We are workers, united across different industries to improve our working conditions and our lives. We come together as working people to build power through education, organizing, and enforcement. We work to raise and uphold standards in…

Employment
5
Asian Law Caucus

The Asian Law Caucus's mission is to promote, advance, and represent the legal and civil rights of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, recognizing that social, economic, political and racial inequalities continue to exist…

Crime & Legal
6
Cooperation L a

The L.A. Co-op Lab is a collective that builds capacity for worker ownership in Los Angeles as a pathway toward a more equitable and democratic economy.

Arts & Culture
7
Latino Union of Chicago

Latino Union works to defend the rights and dignity of contingent workers, including the right to immigrate, work, live free of oppression and violence, and provide for oneself and one's family.

Human Services
8
Colectiva Legal Del Pueblo

Colectiva Legal del Pueblo is a non-hierarchal collective organization founded for and by undocumented immigrants working to build community leadership and power for migrant justice through legal services, advocacy and education.

Civil Rights
9
Tenants and Workers United

Tenants and workers united is a democratically controlled, grassroots organization committed to winning social and economic justice for all people in northern virginia-latinos, african americans, tenants, immigrants, workers, youth and low…

Arts & Culture
10
La Comunidad Inc

Legal, immigration and community organizing

—
11
National Institute for Workers Rights

The national institute for workers' rights (the institute) mission is to advance workers' rights through research, thought leadership, and education for policymakers, advocates, and the public. the institute will achieve its mission…

Employment
12
Civil Liberties Defense Center

CIVIL LIBERTIES DEFENSE CENTER (CLDC) educates the general public about their rights and privileges under the US Constitution and provides free legal support to climate and social justice activists.

Civil Rights
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Workers Defense Project; the most unlike its peers is University of Miami. 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

49 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. 49 of the 85 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
14
Early backer (in before they grew)
47/49
Grantees still filing
33/49
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE: $44,960 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA: $44,500 · Other+48 more: $932,473 · Other+48 moreEMERSON COLLEGE: $39,990 · EducationEMERSON COLLEGENORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $20,000 · EducationNORTHEASTERN UN…THE EDUCATION & TRAINING INSTITUTE INC: $20,000 · EducationTHE EDUCATION &…FLANBWAYAN HAITIAN LITERACY PROJECT INC: $20,000 · EducationFLANBWAYAN HAIT…HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES: $20,000 · EducationHOBART AND WILL…CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LONG BEACH RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $20,000 · EducationCALIFORNIA STAT…PROJECT LIGHT OF MANATEE INC: $20,000 · EducationPROJECT LIGHT O…SAN DIEGO HOUSING FEDERATION: $20,000 · EducationSAN DIEGO HOUSI…LONG BEACH STATE FOUNDATION: $20,000 · EducationLONG BEACH STAT…University of Miami: $18,900 · EducationUniversity of M…WORKERS DEFENSE PROJECT: $8,000 · EducationPACE UNIVERSITY: $7,950 · EducationWATER DROP: $24,929 · Human ServicesREENTRY CAMPUS PROGRAM: $20,000 · Human ServicesEQUITY AND TRANSFORMATION: $20,000 · Human ServicesJane Addams Senior Caucus: $20,000 · Human ServicesOUT IN THE OPEN INC: $20,000 · Human ServicesPIONEER VALLEY WORKERS CENTER INC: $20,000 · Human ServicesEAST NEW YORK CLT INC: $20,000 · Housing & ShelterJANE PLACE NEIGHBORHOOD SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE: $20,000 · Housing & ShelterUNITED TENANTS OF ALBANY INC: $20,000 · Housing & ShelterARKANSAS COMMUNITY INSTITUTE: $20,000 · Housing & ShelterCOMMUNITY ALLIANCE OF TENANTS: $8,000 · Housing & ShelterChicago Torture Justice Center: $24,000 · Crime & LegalSAFETY VALVE PROJECT INC: $20,000 · Crime & LegalDecarcerate Miami Inc: $20,000 · Crime & LegalPACE INC: $20,000 · Crime & LegalPERIOD INC: $20,000 · HealthCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS FOUNDATION: $20,000 · HealthPLAZA DE NUESTRA COMUNIDAD: $20,000 · HealthRural Womens Health Project Inc: $15,400 · HealthStruggle for Miamis Affordable and Sustainable Housing Incorporated: $20,000 · Community ImprovementLOWLANDER CENTER: $20,000 · Community ImprovementATLANTA COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROJECT INC: $20,000 · Community ImprovementEMPOWER DC: $8,000 · Community Improvement
Other$1,021,933Education$234,840Human Services$124,929Housing & Shelter$88,000Crime & Legal$84,000Health$75,400Community Improvement$68,000

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 budgetEMERSON COLLEGE: $39,990 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTENNESSEE HEALTH CARE CAMPAIGN INC: $25,000 over 1y, 8.8% of budgetWATER DROP: $24,929 over 1y, 8.7% of budgetStruggle for Miamis Affordable and Sustainable Housing Incorporated: $20,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetREENTRY CAMPUS PROGRAM: $20,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTEXAS CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND EQUITY: $20,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetEQUITY AND TRANSFORMATION: $20,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTHE EDUCATION & TRAINING INSTITUTE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetLOWLANDER CENTER: $20,000 over 1y, 26% of budgetEAST NEW YORK CLT INC: $20,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetPERIOD INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetDecarcerate Miami Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetJane Addams Senior Caucus: $20,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetTexas Defender Service: $20,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetOUT IN THE OPEN INC: $20,000 over 1y, 5.1% of budgetI AM WHY INC: $20,000 over 1y, 5.6% of budgetAlaska Public Interest Research Group: $20,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetNORTHWEST FOREST WORKER CENTER: $20,000 over 1y, 8.4% of budgetFLANBWAYAN HAITIAN LITERACY PROJECT INC: $20,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetHOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED TENANTS OF ALBANY INC: $20,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetPIONEER VALLEY WORKERS CENTER INC: $20,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetPLAZA DE NUESTRA COMUNIDAD: $20,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY LONG BEACH RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetPROJECT LIGHT OF MANATEE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 9.2% of budgetSAN DIEGO HOUSING FEDERATION: $20,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetPACE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFOOD CHAIN WORKERS ALLIANCE: $20,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetARKANSAS COMMUNITY INSTITUTE: $20,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetFREE MIGRATION PROJECT: $20,000 over 1y, 8.5% of budgetATLANTA COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROJECT INC: $20,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetNational Save The Family Farm Coalition: $20,000 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetLONG BEACH STATE FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTexas Gun Sense: $19,921 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetUniversity of Miami: $18,900 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENTRO COMUNITARIO DE TRABAJADORES INCORPORATED: $17,850 over 1y, 12% of budgetRural Womens Health Project Inc: $15,400 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetWORKERS DEFENSE PROJECT: $8,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCOMMUNITY ALLIANCE OF TENANTS: $8,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetPACE UNIVERSITY: $7,950 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.

Amalgamated Charitabl…Borealis PhilanthropyNew Venture FundTides FoundationNEO Philanthropy IncImpactassetsincSolidago FoundationSolidaire Network IncBen & Jerry's Foundat…The Sparkplug Foundat…Hill-Snowdon Foundati…Groundswell Fund
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation IncDC34.5× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Borealis Philanthropy · New Venture Fund · Tides Foundation · NEO Philanthropy Inc · Impactassetsinc · Solidago Foundation · Solidaire Network Inc · Ben & Jerry's Foundation Inc · The Sparkplug Foundation · Hill-Snowdon Foundation · Groundswell 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 Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 40%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 19%
  • Community Alliance of Tenants: 100% of income from government
  • Pioneer Valley Workers Center Inc: 53% of income from government
  • Out in the Open Inc: 25% of income from government
  • The Education & Training Institute Inc: 19% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 7% of income from government
  • University of Miami: 5% of income from government
  • Emerson College: 0% of income from government
  • Period Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely 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 Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to Sociological Initiatives Foundation Inc 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 85 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 Sociological Initiatives’ 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