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Swanson Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Swanson Foundation

Its FY2022 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$3k
Granted FY2022
4
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$2k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0193% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2022.

Education$32kReligion$15kPhilanthropy$3kArts & Culture$2kMembership Benefit$1kHealth$800Human Services$575Community Improvement$550Other$0
02FY2022 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$500
Median grant
1
States reached
$3k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GREAT LAKES PERFORMING ASRTIST STUDIOS$1,500
Individual grant recipient$500
CITY SINGERS ASSOCIATION OF DETROIT$300
UNITY TEMPLE CHURCH$300
02The need
03

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 20%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 88% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%NOBLE ROSE VERA STYLES SUPREME MARSHAL COUNCIL: $200 → 13%EMG FOUNDATION: $800 → 8%TESTIMONIAL 2019: $150 → 10%OAKWOOD UNIVERSITY: $500 → 11%DELTA ZETTA KAPPA ALPHA PSI FOUNDATION: $1k → 9%S W MICH WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT #4: $150 → 8%NEW BRIDE BAPTIST CHURCH: $500 → 10%WAYNE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT: $1k → 21%THE LINKS FOUNDATION: $3k → 8%NEW ST PAUL MBC: $300 → 10%NEW WELCOME MISS BAPTIST CHURCH: $150 → 21%GREATER WAYNE COUNTY CHAPTER THE LINKS INC: $550 → 8%MARRACCI COURT NO 32: $150 → 8%ZION HILL BAPTIST CHURCH: $600 → 21%RUSSSELL STREET BAPTIST CHURCH: $500 → 21%GREATER ST PAUL MBC: $500 → 21%MT ZION MISS BAPTIST CHURCH: $2k → 21%GREATER CHRIST MISS BAPTIST CHURCH: $500 → 21%MOUNT CALVARY MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: $275 → 21%GOSPEL MUSIC WORKSHOP OF AMERICA DETROIT CHAPTER: $200 → 21%CITY SINGERS ASSOCIATION OF DETROIT: $300 → 21%CHURCH OF THE NEW COVENANT - BAPTIST OF DETROIT: $300 → 21%SHALOM FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL: $450 → 21%UNITY URBAN MINISTERIAL SCHOOL: $350 → 21%JAMES H COLE FUNERAL HOME: $200 → 21%NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION OF GOSPEL CHOIRS & CHORUS INC: $600 → 21%MICHIGAN COUNCIL DELIBERATION SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATON: $500 → 21%HISTORIC NEW MT ZION MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: $500 → 21%GREATER MT ZION BAPTIST CHURCH: $280 → 21%PERFECTING CHURCH: $1k → 21%COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS: $600 → 21%EBENEZER AME CHURCH: $400 → 21%PALMER WOODS POST: $500 → 21%UNITY BAPTIST CHURCH: $200 → 21%PALMER WOODS POST: $500 → 21%BAPTIST MISSIONARY & EDUCATIONAL STATE CONVENTION OF MI: $500 → 21%MONUMENTAL EVANGELISTIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH: $200 → 21%PAYNE-PULLIAM SCHOOL: $175 → 21%SEE ATTACHED: $30k → 21%NEW SALEM BAPTIST CHURCH: $500 → 21%SACRED HEART CHURCH: $370 → 21%CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH OF DETROIT: $300 → 21%PYTHAGORAS LODGE #14: $200 → 21%REDEEMER LODGE NO 53: $200 → 21%UNITY TEMPLE CHURCH: $300 → 21%DETROIT UNITY CHAPEL: $300 → 21%LIBERTY TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH: $1k → 21%HARTFORD MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH: $500 → 21%0%20%40%50%more need →
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.
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.
03Its field
04the grantee network

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 66 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
3/4
Grantees still filing
3/4
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE LINKS FOUNDATION: $2,500 · OtherTHE LINKS FOUNDATIONMT ZION MISS BAPTIST CHURCH: $1,620 · OtherMT ZION MISS BAPTIST CHURCHGREAT LAKES PERFORMING ASRTIST STUDIOS: $1,500 · OtherGREAT LAKES PERFORMING ASRTIST STUDIOSWAYNE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT: $1,329 · OtherPERFECTING CHURCH: $1,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $1,000 · OtherDELTA ZETTA KAPPA ALPHA PSI FOUNDATION: $1,000 · Other+58 more: $16,600 · Other+58 moreLIBERTY TEMPLE SENIOR PROJECT: $1,000 · Religion
Other$26,549Religion$1,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetOAKWOOD UNIVERSITY: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITY URBAN MINISTERIAL SCHOOL: $350 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBRAZEAL DENNARD CHORALE: $300 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetCENTERS FOR FAMILY DEVELOPMENT INC: $150 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 OAKWOOD UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds UNITY URBAN MINISTERIAL SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds BRAZEAL DENNARD CHORALE ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Swanson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Swanson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 66 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Swanson’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