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The Childrens Scholarship Fund at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Childrens Scholarship Fund

The Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) empowers families by providing children in need with scholarships, and by supporting expanded educational opportunities for all children.

$20M
Granted FY2025still arriving
17
Grants FY2025still arriving
13
States reached
$768k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$17M
02FY2025 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 17 grants below total $2,670,801, the rows itemized in this filing. The $20,145,756 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $17,474,955 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $7k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $162k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $624k
  • $250k+5 grants · $1.9M
$100,000
Median grant
13
States reached
$65M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Basic Fund$768,318
Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia$300,000
The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc$285,000
Alliance for Choice in Education$275,000
Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha$250,000
Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation$184,750
Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc$108,835
Catholic Partnership Schools$105,000
Palmetto Promise Institute$100,000
Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore$75,000
Seeds of Hope of Northern Colorado$50,000
Brighter Future Fund a program of the Archdiocese of Detroit$49,448
Tomorrow's Hope Foundation$37,500
CEO Foundation of Connecticut$30,000
Tri-County Scholarship Fund$30,000
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 (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 59% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha: $375k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia: $340k → 22%The Basic Fund: $824k → 10%The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc: $350k → 13%Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation: $268k → 11%Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc: $125k → 17%Northwest Ohio Scholarship Fund Inc: $91k → 18%Catholic Partnership Schools: $167k → 12%Scholarship Fund for Inner City Children: $267k → 16%Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore: $100k → 19%Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha: $344k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia: $324k → 22%The Basic Fund: $800k → 10%The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc: $336k → 13%Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation: $226k → 11%Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc: $112k → 17%Catholic Partnership Schools: $159k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha: $278k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia: $300k → 22%The Basic Fund: $768k → 10%The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc: $285k → 13%Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation: $185k → 11%Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc: $109k → 17%Catholic Partnership Schools: $105k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha: $270k → 12%The Basic Fund: $767k → 10%The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc: $263k → 13%Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation: $185k → 11%Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc: $106k → 17%Catholic Partnership Schools: $105k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha: $270k → 12%The Basic Fund: $767k → 10%The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc: $263k → 13%Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation: $184k → 11%Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc: $105k → 17%Catholic Partnership Schools: $103k → 12%Children's Scholarship Fund of Omaha: $250k → 12%The Basic Fund: $766k → 10%The BISON Children's Scholarship Fund Inc: $259k → 13%Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation: $172k → 11%Memphis Oppprtunity Scholarship Trust Inc: $104k → 17%Catholic Partnership Schools: $99k → 12%Alliance for Choice in Education: $300k → 12%Alliance for Choice in Education: $299k → 12%Alliance for Choice in Education: $275k → 12%Alliance for Choice in Education: $263k → 12%Alliance for Choice in Education: $225k → 12%Alliance for Choice in Education: $224k → 12%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.

Which US states its grants reach

MI
NY
OR
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
NE
MO
MD
TN
SC
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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$17M · 17 repeat orgs$100k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +0% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

17 repeat relationships: 16 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
1

Total granted

$17M
$100k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+0%
0%

Still filing today

82%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationPhilanthropyHealthOther
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

  • TB
    THE BASIC FUND
    6× · 2020–2025 · $4.7M · revenue +28%
  • CS
    CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND PHILADELPHIA
    6× · 2020–2025 · $2.0M · revenue +62%
  • AF
    ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION
    6× · 2020–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +100%

Funded once

  • PP
    Palmetto Promise Institute
    one grant, 2025 · $100k · revenue 0%
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
Ohio Scholarship Fund

Creates partnerships to provide the resources necessary to help ohio families access the educational options which work best for their children.

Education
2
South Carolina Childrens Fund

To make strategic, catalytic investments and provide expertise and technical assistance to educational organizations across south carolina.

Education
3
Psea Scholarship Trust
Education
4
Catholic Education Scholarship Trust

Provide scholarships to children in catholic schools listed in the official catholic directory for the archdiocese of chicago.

—
5
South Jersey Scholarship Fund Inc

Scholarship fund and tuition assistance to help students receive a catholic school education.

Education
6
The Childrens Scholarship Fund

The Children's Scholarship Fund (CSF) empowers families by providing children in need with scholarships, and by supporting expanded educational opportunities for all children.

Education
7
Serving Our Children

Soc is committed to the concept that all students should have access to a quality education, irrespective of income, zip code, or socioeconomic status. all students are capable of learning and excelling in life, and a quality education is…

Education
8
Opportunity Scholarship Fund

The Opportunity Scholarship Fund is a scholarship granting organization that provides scholarships to Oklahoma prek-12 students to attend accredited private schools in our state. Once a student has received a scholarship, that student and…

Education
9
Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy

To prepare students to succeed in competitive colleges and to empower them to use public policy to create a more just, free, and equal world.

Education
10
Christian Scholarship Fund of Arizona

Provide scholarships to qualifying students at private schools.

Education
11
Providence Promise

Providence promise promotes high educational aspirations and more equitable opportunities for providence public school students by advocating for college savings accounts and family engagement, increasing financial literacy, and reducing…

Education
12
The San Francisco School

A private school that cultivates and celebrates the intellectual, imaginative, and humanitarian promise of each student in a community that practices mutual respect, embraces diversity, and inspires passion for learning.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Tri-County Scholarship Fund; the most unlike its peers is Palmetto Promise Institute. 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

15 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. 15 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
7/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE BASIC FUND: $4,692,684 · EducationTHE BASIC FUNDCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND PHILADELPHIA: $2,043,825 · EducationCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND PHILADELPHIACHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND OF OMAHA: $1,787,234 · EducationCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND OF OMAHAALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION: $1,586,203 · EducationALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATIONMEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC: $660,926 · EducationMEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INCCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND BALTIMORE: $477,250 · Education+2 more: $367,500 · EducationTODAY AND TOMORROW EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $1,219,985 · OtherTODAY AND TOMORROW EDU…CATHOLIC PARTNERSHIP SCHOOLS CAMDEN: $737,704 · OtherCATHOLIC PARTNERSHIP S…SEEDS OF HOPE OF NORTHERN COLORADO INC: $351,927 · OtherSEEDS OF HOPE OF NORTH…SCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR INNER-CITY CHILDREN: $325,217 · OtherSCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR I…NORTHWEST OHIO SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $284,646 · OtherNORTHWEST OHIO SCHOLAR…TOMORROW'S HOPE FOUNDATION INC: $250,001 · OtherTOMORROW'S HOPE FOUNDA…ARCHDIOCESE OF DETROIT: $157,396 · Other+1 more: $75,910 · OtherTHE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $1,755,026 · PhilanthropyTHE BISON C…Palmetto Promise Institute: $100,000 · Health
Education$11,615,622Other$3,402,786Philanthropy$1,755,026Health$100,000

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 budgetTHE BASIC FUND: $4,692,684 over 6y, 8.9% of budgetCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND PHILADELPHIA: $2,043,825 over 6y, 4.9% of budgetCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND OF OMAHA: $1,787,234 over 6y, 15% of budgetTHE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $1,755,026 over 6y, 5.1% of budgetALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION: $1,586,203 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetCATHOLIC PARTNERSHIP SCHOOLS CAMDEN: $737,704 over 6y, 2.7% of budgetMEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC: $660,926 over 6y, 20% of budgetCHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND BALTIMORE: $477,250 over 6y, 13% of budgetSEEDS OF HOPE OF NORTHERN COLORADO INC: $351,927 over 6y, 2.7% of budgetNORTHWEST OHIO SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $284,646 over 5y, 68% of budgetTOMORROW'S HOPE FOUNDATION INC: $250,001 over 6y, 55% of budgetTRI-COUNTY SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $200,000 over 6y, 1.0% of budgetKIDS SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $167,500 over 4y, 6.1% of budgetPalmetto Promise Institute: $100,000 over 1y, 9.0% of budgetCASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE: $75,910 over 6y, 1.7% 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 THE BASIC FUND ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND PHILADELPHIA ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND OF OMAHA ↗
  • Who funds THE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION ↗
  • Who funds CATHOLIC PARTNERSHIP SCHOOLS CAMDEN ↗
  • Who funds MEMPHIS OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP TRUST INC ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND BALTIMORE ↗
  • Who funds SEEDS OF HOPE OF NORTHERN COLORADO INC ↗
  • Who funds NORTHWEST OHIO SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds TOMORROW'S HOPE FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds TRI-COUNTY SCHOLARSHIP FUND ↗
  • Who funds KIDS SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds Palmetto Promise Institute ↗
  • Who funds CASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE ↗

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.

Vanguard Charitable E…Morgan Stanley Global…National Philanthropi…American Endowment Fo…The Blackbaud Giving …Donor Advised Charita…The Bank of America C…Fidelity Investments …American Online Givin…Amazonsmile Foundation
Vanguard Charitable Endowment ProgramPA12.5× affinity12 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · 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 Childrens Scholarship Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Childrens Scholarship Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 50%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    5get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 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 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 Childrens Scholarship’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