· Private foundation
The Edward and Carol Esstman Foundation
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
83% of The Edward and Carol Esstman Foundation’s FY2020 grant dollars went to Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 1 organization directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year The Edward and Carol Esstman Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $83k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2020.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k6 grants · $2k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $81k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| St John's Luthern Church | $28,000 |
| Methodist Health System Foundation | $25,000 |
| Mansfield ISD | $16,000 |
| Bill Dasch Ministries | $12,000 |
| Mansfield Commission for the Arts | $800 |
| Battle of the Nines Charity | $500 |
| Mansfield Women's Club | $500 |
| Phelan Mcdermid Syndrome Foundation | $300 |
| USO | $100 |
| Texas Troopers Association | $50 |
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 (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
6 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. 6 of the 13 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.
Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Edward and Carol Esstman Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Edward and Carol Esstman Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Edward and Carol Esstman’s filings →