· Private foundation
Sonya Staff Foundation Inc
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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $105k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Health Global Access Project | $50,000 |
| California Council for Veterans Affairs - Constructing Whiteness | $50,000 |
| Ophelia Media Films Inc | $30,000 |
| Correctional Association of NY | $15,000 |
| Human Rights Defense Center | $10,000 |
| NC Survivors Union Inc | $10,000 |
| Women & Justice Project Tides Center | $10,000 |
| Artist Alliance Inc | $10,000 |
| Redwood Justice Fund - Prison Radio Project | $10,000 |
| Center for Transformative ActionPrisoner Express | $10,000 |
| Worker's Circle | $5,000 |
| Irondale Productions Inc | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY22–23, $35k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, 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.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
16 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $71k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- HRHuman Rights Defense Center Inc5× · 2020–2024 · $102k · revenue +44%
- CACORRECTIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK3× · 2022–2024 · $90k · revenue -19%
- OMOphelia Media Films Inc3× · 2022–2024 · $85k
Funded once
- CRCity Report Incgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue +27%
- BLBrooklyn Law School - Survivors Justice Projectone grant, 2022 · $15k
- RARelease Aging Prisoners Project (Sponsor SEE)one grant, 2021 · $10k
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.
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.
Enhance Columbia University's education mission by acquiring and publishing outstanding original works by scholars and others that contribute to an understanding of global human concerns. Columbia University Press became part of the…
To create original projects involving theater, cabaret and music, taking them from investigations into real life.
Raise awareness of social justice
Research and Education: Human Rights Research Center has a team of international contributors conducting research on various human rights topics. Their publications are used to educate the general public about critical rights issues.
Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (Carla) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization and publishing platform that is dedicated to providing inclusive perspectives on contemporary art. Publishing in both print and online, Carla is an…
Internet Archive was founded in 1996 to build an Internet library with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format including texts, audio, movies,…
ARTNOIR is a global collective and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to celebrate and highlight the work of creatives of color from around the world while catalyzing cultural equity across the arts and culture industries.…
How this is measured
11 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. 11 of the 28 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds Human Rights Defense Center Inc ↗
- Who funds CORRECTIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds Redwood Justice Fund ↗
- Who funds The Freedom Archives ↗
- Who funds HEALTH GLOBAL ACCESS PROJECT INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds ROSENBERG FUND FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds NYC BOOKS THROUGH BARS INC ↗
- Who funds City Report Inc ↗
- Who funds Irondale Productions Inc ↗
- Who funds NC Survivors Union Inc ↗
- Who funds ARTISTS ALLIANCE INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Tr Edna Wardlaw Charitable Tr Ua Magnolia Trust Company Trustee · Boston Foundation Inc · Tides Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Sonya Staff Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sonya Staff Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Sonya Staff Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Sonya Staff 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.
Play a game based on Sonya Staff’s filings →