How much does Sorenson Family Foundation give?

Sorenson Family Foundation reported 38 grants totaling $100,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 26 and 31 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Sorenson Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (31%), Education (17%), Arts & Culture (12%).

Who are Sorenson Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Wellesley College ($47k), National Outdoor Leadership School ($33k), Babson College ($28k).

Does Sorenson Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 16% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Sorenson Family 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 Sorenson Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Community Foundation Boulder County, Maine Community Foundation Inc, The Denver Foundation.

Where is Sorenson Family Foundation based?

Sorenson Family Foundation is based in CO.

Sorenson Family Foundation

Sorenson Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sorenson Family 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.

$100k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$12k

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, FY2017 to 2025.

Environment$196kEducation$108kArts & Culture$78kHealth$61kCommunity Improvement$58kScience & Tech$35kHuman Services$22kReligion$18kOther$0

02FY2025 · 38 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k35 grants · $69k
$10k–50k3 grants · $32k

$2,000

Median grant

States reached

$613k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
European Cultural Center	$11,500
Boulder Community Foundation	$10,000
NATURE CONSERVANCY COLORADO	$10,000
WELLESLEY COLLEGE	$5,000
NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL	$5,000
BOULDER ADVENTIST CHURCH	$5,000
WEST POINT ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATES	$5,000
WILD BEAR NATURE CENTER	$5,000
HUDSON HIGHLANDS LAND TRUST	$3,000
ALICE DESMOND HAMILTON FISH LIBR	$3,000
NOVI COMMUNITY	$2,500
BABSON COLLEGE	$2,500
BOSTON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE	$2,500
EARTH JUSTICE	$2,500
NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY	$2,500

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 (FY17–25, $20k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 97% 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.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 7% of Sorenson Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Sorenson Family Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address · 3.1% directed abroad (not shown)

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$498k · 50 repeat orgs$88k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +51% since the first grant, against +46% for those funded once.

50 repeat relationships: 29 still active in FY2025, 21 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$498k

$53k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+51%

+46%

Still filing today

60%

62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 61% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $36k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentArts & CultureEducationHealthHuman ServicesCivil RightsOther

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

WC
Wellesley College
9× · 2017–2025 · $47k · revenue +63%
NO
NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL
9× · 2017–2025 · $33k · revenue +8%
BABSON COLLEGE
7× · 2017–2025 · $28k · revenue +43%

Funded once

NN
NAMI Nationalgraduated
one grant, 2024 · $15k · revenue +181%
WC
Watermans Community Center
one grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue -10%
AS
AIM SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOUNDATION
one grant, 2018 · $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.

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.

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

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

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

New York League of Conservation Voters

See schedule onylcv is a non-partisan policy making and political action organization that works to make environmental protection a top priority with elected officials, decision-makers and the voters by evaluating incumbent performance and…

—

American Gas Association

American gas association's (the association) mission is to develop and advocate for informed, innovative, and durable policy that fulfills our nation's energy needs, environmental aspirations and economic potential. we are committed to…

—

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

National Public Radio Inc

National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…

Arts & Culture

Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International

National Association of Clean Water Agencies

Nacwa is the national voice of public clean water utilities, shaping water policy, convening a vibrant peer network, and empowering water leaders.

—

Minnesota Land Trust

The minnesota land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.

Environment

Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

—

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

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Trust for Public Land; the most unlike its peers is Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library dba Desmond-Fish Public Library. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

48 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. 48 of the 75 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)

47/48

Grantees still filing

39/48

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$275,450Environment$140,950Education$85,000Health$56,000Arts & Culture$43,500Human Services$19,500International$18,500

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.

Community Foundation Boulder CountyCO21.6× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation Boulder County · Maine Community Foundation Inc · The Denver Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Onion Foundation · Emsa Fund Inc · Lostand Foundation · Impactassetsinc · Xcel Energy Foundation · Ibm International Foundation · Jewish Communal Fund · National Philanthropic Trust

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

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

15report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%

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.

Play a game based on Sorenson 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