· Public charity
Special Operations Fund
The Special Operations Fund (the "Fund") is a nonprofit organization that provides educational grants and support to the families of special mission unit warriors killed in action, killed in training, died in the line of duty, suicide, and Medal of Honor recipients.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $200k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NIGHT STALKER FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| UNIT SCHOLARSHIP FUND | $50,000 |
| THE RANGERS SCHOLARSHIP FUND | $50,000 |
| VIGILANT TORCH FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| MAYO CLINIC | $20,000 |
| THE ASSOCIATION | $20,000 |
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 (FY20–25, $505k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 50% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
6 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- USUNIT SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC5× · 2020–2025 · $265k · revenue +14%
- VTVIGILANT TORCH FOUNDATION6× · 2020–2025 · $255k · revenue ×26 · 75% of their budget
- TNThe Night Stalker Foundation Inc6× · 2020–2025 · $250k · revenue +729%
Funded once
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.
4 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. 4 of the 6 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.
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: National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Special Operations Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Special Operations Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Special Operations Fund?
Find your warmest path to Special Operations 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.
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