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The Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education 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.

$908k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$401k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$4.8MArts & Culture$65kEmployment$25k
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $115k
  • $250k+2 grants · $768k
$367,240
Median grant
2
States reached
$20M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE$400,600
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA$367,240
EL CAMINO COLLEGE FOUNDATION$115,200
COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE$25,000
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 45% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 12%STEPHEN PHILLIPS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $215k → 10%WHEATON COLLEGE OF MASSACHUSETTS: $50k → 11%CONSERVATORY LAB FOUNDATION: $25k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $367k → 10%SANTA MONICA COLLEGE: $401k → 14%MANHATTAN COLLEGE: $10k → 28%Bravo Colorado at Vail-Beaver Creek: $5k → 7%COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE: $25k → 8%COLORADO COLLEGE: $11k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MCINTIRE: $120k → 8%Stephen Phillips Memorial Scholarship Fund: $110k → 10%CONSERVATORY LAB FOUNDATION: $25k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $287k → 10%SANTA MONICA COLLEGE: $346k → 14%COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE: $25k → 8%CONSERVATORY LAB FOUNDATION: $10k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $273k → 10%SANTA MONICA COLLEGE: $230k → 14%COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE: $25k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $273k → 10%SANTA MONICA COLLEGE: $230k → 14%Colorado Mountain College Foundation: $25k → 8%University of California Berkeley Foundation: $265k → 10%Santa Monica College Foundation: $172k → 14%COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE: $10k → 8%University of California Berkeley Foundation: $225k → 10%Santa Monica College Foundation: $172k → 14%Colorado Mountain College Foundation: $10k → 8%EL CAMINO COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $115k → 14%Colorado Mountain College Foundation: $10k → 8%Santa Monica College Foundation: $143k → 14%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 grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$4.3M · 9 repeat orgs$601k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +76% since the first grant, against +2% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
8

Total granted

$4.3M
$485k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+76%
+2%

Still filing today

67%
63%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $115k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationEmploymentArts & CultureOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $490k · revenue +79%
  • TS
    THE SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
    3× · 2019–2021 · $487k · revenue +175%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $352k · revenue +76%

Funded once

  • UO
    University of Colorado Boulder
    one grant, 2019 · $182k
  • TU
    THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MCINTIRE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $120k · revenue -17%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
    one grant, 2022 · $82k
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Columbia College

Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.

Education
2
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
3
Augustana College

Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…

Education
4
Columbia College

Columbia college provides educational opportunities that develop students' capacity for critical thought and expression, life-long learning, acceptance of personal responsibilty, and commitment to service and social justice.

Education
5
Colorado State University Foundation

See schedule o colorado state university foundation assists in the promotion, development, and enhancement of facilities and educational programs and enhancements of faculty, students, and alumni of colorado state university (csu). this is…

Education
6
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
7
President-Board of Trustees Santa Clara College

Scu is a catholic and jesuit institution that makes student learning its central focus, promotes faculty and staff learning in its various forms, and exhibits organizational learning.

Education
8
The Baruch College Fund

The baruch college fund is an organization engaged in generating, encouraging and promoting the educational welfare of the students of the bernard m. baruch college of the city university of new york.

Education
9
Uc Santa Barbara Foundation

The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…

Education
10
St Francis College

St. francis college is an independent, coeducational institution of higher education chartered by an act of the regents of the university of the state of new york on april 10, 1957.

Education
11
California College of the Arts

California college of the arts educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. benefitting from its san francisco bay area location, the college prepares…

Education
12
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Santa Monica College Foundation; the most unlike its peers is The Stephen Phillips Memorial Scholarship Fund Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

12 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. 12 of the 18 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
8/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SANTA MONICA COLLEGE: $1,207,000 · OtherSANTA MONICA COLLEGEUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: $1,200,480 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIAUniversity of Colorado Boulder: $182,000 · OtherUniversity of Colorado BoulderEL CAMINO COMMUNITY COLLEGE District Foundation: $115,200 · Other+4 more: $262,200 · Other+4 moreUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION: $490,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATIO…THE SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $486,852 · EducationTHE SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $351,800 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATIONTHE STEPHEN PHILLIPS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $325,100 · EducationTHE STEPHEN PHILLIPS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP F…THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MCINTIRE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION: $120,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MCINTIRE SCHOOL …+3 more: $81,100 · EducationSUMMER SEARCH: $25,000 · EmploymentBRAVO COLORADO AT BEAVER CREEK-VAIL INC DBA BRAVO VAIL VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL: $5,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$2,966,880Education$1,854,852Employment$25,000Arts & Culture$5,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION: $490,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $486,852 over 3y, 5.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION: $351,800 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE STEPHEN PHILLIPS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $325,100 over 2y, 5.0% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MCINTIRE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION: $120,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetEL CAMINO COMMUNITY COLLEGE District Foundation: $115,200 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetCONSERVATORY LAB FOUNDATION INC: $60,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetCOLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $45,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetSUMMER SEARCH: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE COLORADO COLLEGE: $11,100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetManhattan University: $10,000 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.

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.

Renaissance Charitabl…Morgan Stanley Global…Charities Aid Foundat…National Philanthropi…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Renaissance Charitable Foundation IncIN11.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Conservatory Lab Foundation Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education 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.

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 18 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Carol H and Kevin W Sharer Education’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