· Private foundation
Sterling 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.
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.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SportsQuest | $8,000 |
| Concordia Theological Seminary | $6,000 |
| African Inland Mission | $6,000 |
| Assembly of God | $4,000 |
| One Hope | $4,000 |
| Daily Hope | $4,000 |
| Reaching Avery Ministries | $3,000 |
| LCMS Youth Ministries | $2,500 |
| CoreLuv | $2,000 |
| Samaritans Purse | $2,000 |
| Childrens Cup | $2,000 |
| Childrens Hunger Fund | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,000 |
| Mission of Christ Network | $2,000 |
| Multiplication Network | $2,000 |
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, $19k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, 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 +83% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.
16 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CLCAMP LINN HAVEN INC3× · 2021–2025 · $54k · revenue +249%
- SQSports Quest6× · 2020–2025 · $33k · revenue +227%
- RAREACHING AVERY MINISTRY6× · 2020–2025 · $18k · revenue +59%
Funded once
- MLMOUNTAINSIDE LUTHERAN CHURCH2× · 2024–2025 · $50k
- MDMisc Donors 6 all at 1000 eachone grant, 2022 · $6k
- SESix entities 1000 and underone grant, 2023 · $5k
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.
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…
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.
Bible Translation and acts of Christian Services
The organization is dedicated to reaching people for christ through an international network of christians who journey with the poor and marginalized, bringing practical and spiritual support with hope of a better future,(continued on…
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.
Cross to Light is a nondenominational Christian organization providing spiritual education and physical aid to people in need around the world. Since 2005, Cross to Light has helped people cross from darkness to light by hearing the Gospel…
We minister to orphans and widows in their distress by transitioning children from orphanages into loving families. We do this through Christ- centered care, training and social work.
Equipping and enabling believers worldwide to conduct church-based evangelism projects to reach unbelievers and make disciples.
World christian broadcasting exists so that people in places best served by broadcast media become aware of the good news of jesus christ and want to know more. geographic areas that cannot be easily served by missionaries are a priority.
Across nations is dedicated to spreading the gospel through establishing, developing and promoting all aspects of church ministry.
To provide strategic teaching about prayer, prophecy, and intercession in the US and abroad. Books, manuals, and audio teachings are also used to equip Christians in strategic level spiritual prayer and warfare.
Spread the gospel of jesus christ
How this is measured
19 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. 19 of the 44 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 CAMP LINN HAVEN INC ↗
- Who funds Sports Quest ↗
- Who funds REACHING AVERY MINISTRY ↗
- Who funds SAMARITAN'S PURSE ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN BIBLE TRANSLATORS INC ↗
- Who funds Purpose Driven Connection DBA Pastor Ricks Daily Hope ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S CUP ↗
- Who funds MULTIPLICATION NETWORK MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds MISSIO CHRISTI NETWORK ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HUNGER FUND ↗
- Who funds HOPE AND CARE OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds Open Doors With Brother Andrew Inc ↗
- Who funds BREAD OF LIFE RESCUE MISSION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Childcare Worldwide ↗
- Who funds THERE'S HOPE FOR THE HUNGRY INC ↗
- Who funds Compassion International Incorporated ↗
- Who funds PRISON 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: The Bolick Foundation · Servant Foundation · Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Endowment Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Sterling Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sterling Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Sterling Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Sterling Foundation 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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