· Private foundation
The Challenge Foundation
Its FY2025 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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k1 grant · $40k
- $50k–250k10 grants · $1.0M
- $250k+2 grants · $600k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| YOUNG AMERICAN'S FOUNDATION | $350,000 |
| CENTER FOR RIGHTS OF ABUSED CHILDREN | $250,000 |
| MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE | $200,000 |
| STATE POLICY NETWORK | $150,000 |
| HERITAGE FOUNDATION | $125,000 |
| MT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION | $100,000 |
| GOLDWATER INSTITUTE | $100,000 |
| CENTER FOR AMERICAN RIGHTS | $100,000 |
| PARENTS FOR EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM IN NC (PEFNC) | $100,000 |
| PACIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE | $70,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $50,000 |
| CASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE | $50,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $40,000 |
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 (FY17–22, $235k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 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 +50% since the first grant, against -43% for those funded once.
22 repeat relationships: 12 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 1 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, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- YAYoung America's Foundation9× · 2017–2025 · $2.6M · revenue +67%
- BGBARRY GOLDWATER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +97%
- MPMOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE8× · 2018–2025 · $1.4M · revenue +44%
Funded once
- CSCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND-OR (CASCADE POLICY)one grant, 2018 · $162k
- FFFREEDOMWORKS FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2018 · $108k · revenue -87%
- CCCORNERSTONE CLASSICAL ACADEMY INCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $78k · revenue ×74 · 41% of their budget
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.
The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…
Competitive enterprise institute (cei) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. we believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being…
The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…
The center for american progress (cap) is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. our aim is…
The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…
The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.
American press institute acts as a scout on the frontier of technology and audience behavior to identify where change is occurring and helps news organizations learn how to implement and scale that change successfully so they have a…
The Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducts and disseminates independent, high-quality research to improve learning for all children. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, LPI connects policymakers and stakeholders at the local, state,…
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
Pro publica is an independent, non-profit, pulitzer prize-winning newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories. [see continuation on schedule o] we produce…
The National Constitution Center is America's leading platform for nonpartisan constitutional education and civil dialogue. We bring together people of all ages and perspectives, across America and around the world, to learn about, debate,…
To investigate, explore and focus public, legislative and judicial attention on all areas of individual freedom and individual rights as guaranteed by the u.s. and state constitutions and free market principles.
How this is measured
20 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. 20 of the 29 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 Young America's Foundation ↗
- Who funds BARRY GOLDWATER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds CORE KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STATE POLICY NETWORK ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR THE RIGHTS OF ABUSED CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds EdChoice Inc ↗
- Who funds Pacific Research Institute For Public Policy ↗
- Who funds CASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds LIBERTY JUSTICE CENTER ↗
- Who funds EDISON HIGH SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF COLUMBIA-WILLAMETTE ↗
- Who funds MANHATTAN INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH INC ↗
- Who funds VETERANS LEGACIES INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds FREEDOMWORKS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND LIBERTY ↗
- Who funds CORNERSTONE CLASSICAL ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds FREEDOMWORKS 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: Donors Trust 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 Challenge Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Challenge Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Young Men's Christian Association of Columbia-Willamette: 12% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Challenge Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Challenge 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 Challenge’s filings →