· Private foundation
Sowing Circle
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 $10k12 grants · $57k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $98k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
- $250k+1 grant · $267k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Blue Letter Bible | $267,000 |
| Reverence Bible Church | $200,449 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| Enduring Word | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| Understand the Times | $15,960 |
| Safe Harbor International | $12,000 |
| Hope For Today | $7,500 |
| Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa | $7,200 |
| U-Turn for Christ | $7,000 |
| The Life Network | $6,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $6,000 |
| Pastoral Training of Asia | $5,000 |
| Wycliff Bible Translators | $4,500 |
| Young Life Abi Hoc | $4,500 |
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 (FY23–24, $12k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, 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.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +27% for those funded once.
18 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 6 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, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $47k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BLBLUE LETTER BIBLE8× · 2017–2024 · $4.9M · revenue +212% · 48% of their budget
- R2RUN 2 RESCUE4× · 2019–2022 · $400k · revenue +31% · 25% of their budget
- EWEnduring Word8× · 2017–2024 · $200k · revenue +822%
Funded once
- CFCatalyst for Harmonygraduatedone grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue +27%
- FRFar Reaching Ministriesone grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue +4%
- TLTraining Leaders Internationalone grant, 2022 · $6k · revenue +7%
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.
Christianity Today is a global community inspired by evangelical conviction to advance the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God. Our mission is to elevate the storytellers and sages of the global church.
Reaching and teaching pastors in the majority world.
Bible Translation and acts of Christian Services
To Identify, Affirm, Train, and Mobilize Ephesians 4 evangelists to equip the church for evangelism.
Connecting biblical soul care to missions through the local church.
Christian Mission for the United Nations Community is a ministry aimed at leading the head of every nation and other top leaders to faith in Jesus Christ and helping them to walk in dependence upon God as they discharge the…
Uncharted ministries informs, inspires and challenges the christian church to serve the people of the middle east and in uncharted lands.
Global City Mission Initiative is dedicated to cross-cultural evanglism, disciplemaking, church planting among diverse diaspora populations in strategic cities reaching out evangelistically to start multiply churches, training believers to…
The organization exists to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ while providing support and serving the poor through benevolent assistance, medical services, education, orphan care, church planting, etc.
Ambassadors for Christ International - USA is a fellowship of gospel preachers and teachers whose mission is to preach Christ, edify the Church, and to glorify God and serve as a catalyst for revival, evangelism, and training of Christians…
i58 Global is a Christian ministry dedicated to recruiting, sending and organizing relief workers to provide aid and share hope to refugees in various European countries.
Crossing Cultures International, Inc. exists to glorify God by equipping Christ followers globally with comprehensive training for effective ministry.
How this is measured
14 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. 14 of the 35 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 BLUE LETTER BIBLE ↗
- Who funds RUN 2 RESCUE ↗
- Who funds Enduring Word ↗
- Who funds UNDERSTAND THE TIMES INC ↗
- Who funds Safe Harbor International Relief ↗
- Who funds Catalyst for Harmony ↗
- Who funds Far Reaching Ministries ↗
- Who funds MIRACLE HILL MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds PIEDMONT WOMEN'S CENTER ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS & JEWS INC ↗
- Who funds Training Leaders International ↗
- Who funds MIO Frontiers ↗
- Who funds GO Ministries Inc ↗
- Who funds Open Air Campaigners US 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: Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Sowing Circle funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sowing Circle. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Sowing Circle?
Find your warmest path to Sowing Circle 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 Sowing Circle’s filings →