· Private foundation
The Bonfire Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MATER DEI HIGH SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| CHRISTO REY HIGH SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| CONVENT OF THE SACRED HEART | $5,000 |
| SANTA ANA LIFE CENTER | $5,000 |
| QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY | $5,000 |
| AUSTIN ACHIEVE HIGH SCHOOL | $2,700 |
| PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY | $2,500 |
| SAINT VINCENT HOSPITAL | $1,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AUSTIN | $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.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 16% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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 +21% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 2 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, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- UOUNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND3× · 2020–2022 · $12k · revenue +15%
- RCRYE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL2× · 2020–2021 · $10k · revenue +30%
- QUQUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY2× · 2023–2024 · $10k · revenue +22%
Funded once
- BSBRUNSWICK SCHOOL INCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue +39%
- MDMATER DEI HIGH SCHOOOLone grant, 2021 · $5k
- OLORANGE LUTHERAN SCHOOLone grant, 2021 · $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.
Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…
Lewis & clark is a premier private higher education institution offering an exceptional education in an inclusive environment. by fostering critical thinking, innovation, creativity, civic engagement, and leadership, both inside and…
St. marys university, as a catholic marianist university, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence.
The mission of the academy is to study and teach the truths of the natural and spiritual worlds in the light of the old testament, the new testament, and the writings of emanuel swedenborg. this is done at the academy of the new church…
The university provides a rigorous liberal arts and professional education for a diverse student population. (see schedule o for the organization's mission.)
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
To establish, organize, maintain and conduct an institution for secondary, undergraduate and graduate education in the state of connecticut, and to perform such other works of education, charity and religion. see schedule o.
The corporation of saint mary's college, notre dame (saint mary's) is a catholic, residential, women's, liberal arts college offering undergraduate degrees and co-educational graduate programs. (continued in schedule o)
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Benedictine college's mission as a catholic, benedictine, liberal arts, residential college is the education of men and women within a community of faith & scholarship.
As expressions of god's healing love, witnessed through the ministry of jesus, we are steadfast in serving all, especially those who are poor and vulnerable.
Hillsdale college is a private liberal arts college with approximately 1,500 students. founded in 1844, the college remains, in the words of its articles of association, "grateful to god for the inestimable blessings resulting from the…
How this is measured
9 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. 9 of the 27 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: The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · 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 The Bonfire Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Bonfire Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- University of Portland: 1% of income from government
- Quinnipiac University: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Bonfire Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Bonfire 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.
Play a game based on Bonfire’s filings →