Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation DossiersAlso receives grants — funding profile →
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Charles Butt Foundation

Its FY2019 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$24M
Granted FY2019
44
Grants FY2019
6
States reached
$13M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01FY2019 · 44 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2019

  • Under $10k12 grants · $41k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $200k
  • $50k–250k16 grants · $1.6M
  • $250k+8 grants · $22M
$50,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$7.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HOLDSWORTH CENTER$13,000,000
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE$4,400,000
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$1,500,000
ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT$1,500,000
CAST$1,000,000
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO$344,500
CAST$300,000
TEXAS A&M SAN ANTONIO FOUNDATION$250,000
TEACH FOR AMERICA$200,000
HIDALGO FOUNDATION OF BEXAR COUNTY INC$200,000
TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO$150,000
Individual grant recipient$120,000
THE MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDATION$100,000
NEW YORK YACHT CLUB$100,000
P16 PLUS COUNCIL OF GREATER BEXAR COUNTY$100,000
02The need
02

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–19) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 99% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%THE CAHNS FELLOWS PROGRAM: $75k → 17%TEXAS FREEDOM NETWORK FUND: $40k → 10%HOLDSWORTH CENTER: $13.0M → 16%THE MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDATION: $100k → 16%SAN PATRICIO COUNTY: $87k → 17%WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL: $4k → 14%CHEST FOUNDATION: $25k → 14%MOUNT DESERT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $50k → 11%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $1.5M → 17%THE TEXAS TRIBUNE: $75k → 10%CAST: $1.0M → 16%ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE: $25k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: $4.4M → 17%TTARA RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $15k → 10%CAST: $300k → 16%HUMANITIES TEXAS: $5k → 10%TEXAS CAVALIERS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $30k → 16%PHILANTHROPITCH: $15k → 10%THE WITTE MUSEUM: $5k → 16%VALDEZ ALAMO HEIGHT NIGHT: $3k → 16%HIDALGO FOUNDATION OF BEXAR COUNTY INC: $200k → 16%RIVARD REPORT: $120k → 16%P16 PLUS COUNCIL OF GREATER BEXAR COUNTY: $100k → 16%THE BRISCOE MUSEUM: $50k → 16%YOUTH ORCHESTRAS OF SAN ANTONIO: $10k → 16%ARTPACE: $5k → 16%SA YOUTH LITERACY: $525 → 16%BLUE STAR CONTEMPORARY: $3k → 16%ALLIANCE FOR TECH ED IN APPLIED MATH: $5k → 16%THE HISPANIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: $50k → 16%SA YOUTH: $50k → 16%SAISD FOUNDATION: $69k → 16%SA2020: $5k → 16%TEXAS A&M SAN ANTONIO FOUNDATION: $250k → 16%UTSA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: $5k → 16%SA STOCK SHOWRODEO: $1k → 16%TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO: $150k → 16%BLOOD AND TISSUE CTR: $103 → 16%UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO: $345k → 16%YES OUR KIDS CAN: $100k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 6% of The Charles Butt Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

The Charles Butt Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 6.2% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Forty First Foundation

The forty first foundation supports and advances the university of texas at austin in its pursuit of excellence. we work closely with the office of the president to identify, fund, and implement strategic initiatives that enhance the…

Education
2
Texas Academy of Medicine Engineering Science and Technology

To provide broader recognition of the state's top achievers in medicine, engineering and science, and to build a stronger identity for texas as an important destination and center of achievement in these fields.

Health
3
The University of TexasTexas a&M Investment Management Company

To generate superior long-term investment returns to support The University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems as they provide world-class teaching, push the boundaries of discovery, and achieve excellence in patient healthcare for…

Education
4
Texas a&M Research Foundation

To facilitate research and development within the texas a&m university system and selected other entities.

Education
5
Uatx

Uatx is a nonprofit dedicated to building a liberal arts university committed to freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse. to maintain these principles, the university will be fiercely independent financially,…

Education
6
Texas Medical Association

The texas medical association (tma), the nation's largest and one of the oldest state medical societies, represents over 59,000 physicians and medical students dedicated to enhancing the health of all texans. in collaboration with 110…

—
7
Texas Association of Business

As the state chamber of commerce, tab is the most influential and dominant voice for public policy issues affecting business in texas. through proven results-oriented advocacy and member services, tab develops a climate in texas which…

—
8
Greater Satx

The mission of greater:satx is to lead the developemnt and diversification of san antonio regional economy through the recruitment and expansion of qualify employers and job producing investments.

—
9
The Association of Former Students of Texas a&M University

To strengthen the association of former students, promote the interests and welfare of texas a&m university, perpetuate ties of affection and esteem formed in university or college days, and serve the student body.

Education
10
The University of Texas Foundation No 1

To support the university of texas system

—
11
San Antonio Area Foundation

To serve as your most trusted and impactful philanthropic partner.

Philanthropy
12
San Antonio Medical Foundation

The mission of the san antonio medical foundation is to improvehealth care, advance biomedical science, and enhance communitywell-being by providing leadership & active stewardship of our landand other assets.

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Humanities Texas and the most unlike its peers is Ttara Research Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%10%5–10yr20%14%10–20yr19%29%20–35yr14%33%35–55yr12%14%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%65%5–10yr20%2%10–20yr19%3%20–35yr14%9%35–55yr12%22%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 4% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
4%1/27
the rest of the field
12%
4,324/36,305

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

25 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 of the 43 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
24/25
Grantees still filing
13/25
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE HOLDSWORTH CENTER — $13,000,000 · PhilanthropyTHE HOLDSWORTH CENTER+1 more — $69,106 · PhilanthropyTHE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS Of the University of Cambridge — $4,400,000 · OtherTHE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS Of …ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT — $1,500,000 · OtherORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION …CAST — $1,300,000 · OtherCASTUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO — $344,500 · Other+23 more — $817,869 · Other+23 moreTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $1,500,000 · EducationTHE TRUST…Texas A&M San Antonio Foundation — $250,000 · EducationTexas A&M…Teach for America Inc — $200,000 · EducationTeach for…P16 Plus Council of Greater Bexar County Foundation Inc — $100,000 · EducationTEXAS TRIBUNE INC — $75,000 · EducationHIDALGO FOUNDATION — $200,000 · Arts & CultureTEXAS PUBLIC RADIO — $150,000 · Arts & Culture+3 more — $15,000 · Arts & CultureTHE MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDATION — $100,000 · HealthSA YOUTH — $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE — $25,000 · Civil RightsTTARA Research Foundation — $15,000 · Science & Tech
Philanthropy$13,069,106Other$8,362,369Education$2,125,000Arts & Culture$365,000Health$100,000Youth Development$50,000Civil Rights$25,000Science & Tech$15,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE HOLDSWORTH CENTER — $13,000,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetTHE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS Of the University of Cambridge — $4,400,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $1,500,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $200,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHIDALGO FOUNDATION — $200,000 over 1y, 46% of budgetTEXAS PUBLIC RADIO — $150,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetTHE MENNINGER CLINIC FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetTEXAS TRIBUNE INC — $75,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSan Antonio Foundation for Excellence in Education Inc — $69,106 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetSA YOUTH — $50,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetMOUNT DESERT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $50,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetSAN ANTONIO SPORTS FOUNDATION — $40,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTHE TEXAS CAVALIERS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION — $30,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetThe Chest Foundation — $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetPHILANTHROPITCH — $15,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetTTARA Research Foundation — $15,000 over 1y, 63% of budgetYOUTH ORCHESTRAS OF SAN ANTONIO — $10,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetWitte Museum — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSA2020 — $5,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHUMANITIES TEXAS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetARTPACE INC (AUDIT) — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO ALUMNI ASSOCIATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Charles Butt Foun…San Antonio Area Foun…80-20 FoundationGreater Houston Commu…Charitable Foundation…Nancy Smith Hurd Foun…Elizabeth Huth Coates…John L Santikos Chari…The Brown Foundation …RICHTER RESPONSIBILIT…John & Florence Newma…The Nancy Wood Moorma…
The Charles Butt FoundationTX24.2× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Charles Butt Foundation · San Antonio Area Foundation · 80-20 Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Charitable Foundation Frost F0359600 · Nancy Smith Hurd Foundation · Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992 · John L Santikos Charitable Foundation · The Brown Foundation Inc · RICHTER RESPONSIBILITY FUND FKA Holt Family Foundation · John & Florence Newman Foundation · The Nancy Wood Moorman Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Charles Butt Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Charles Butt Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Charles Butt 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 43 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2019, released 2019. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines