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The Higher Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Higher 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.

$10k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
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, FY2018 to 2025.

Health$366kReligion$97kYouth Development$90kEducation$87kPhilanthropy$49kRecreation & Sports$25kArts & Culture$12kInternational$10k
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PACE ACADEMY$10,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY23–24, $90k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%GEORGIA CAMPAIGN FOR ADOLESCENT POWER AND POTENTIAL INC: $55k → 8%GEORGIA CAMPAIGN FOR ADOLESCENT POWER AND POTENTIAL INC: $35k → 8%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.

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$510k · 4 repeat orgs$177k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +11% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

4 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
11

Total granted

$510k
$177k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+11%
0%

Still filing today

100%
55%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthArts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsInternationalOther
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

  • GC
    Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential Inc
    2× · 2023–2024 · $90k · revenue +31%
  • PA
    PACE ACADEMY INC
    4× · 2022–2025 · $40k · revenue +5%
  • US
    United States Ski Team Foundation
    2× · 2023–2024 · $15k · revenue +11%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2019 · $75k
  • AO
    ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE FAO
    one grant, 2019 · $37k
  • TT
    THE TEMPLE
    one grant, 2020 · $18k
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
United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee

Empowering the competitive excellence and well-being of team usa athletes, championing the power of sport, and inspiring the nation.

Recreation & Sports
2
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
3
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
4
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
5
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
6
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
7
National Collegiate Athletic Association

Provide a world-class athletics and academic experience for student-athletes that fosters lifelong well-being.

Recreation & Sports
8
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
9
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
10
Chancellor Masters & Scholars of the University of Oxford

The principal objects of the University are the advancement of learning by teaching and research, and its dissemination by every means. We work as one Oxford bringing together our staff, students and alumni, our colleges, faculties,…

—
11
Savannah College of Art and DesignInc

Scad prepares talented students for creative professions through engaged teaching and learning in a positively oriented university environment.

Education
12
United States Golf Association

The united states golf association champions and advances the game of golf. it serves millions of golfers and thousands of golf courses both within the united states and around the world through programs and services that promote a…

Recreation & Sports
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Atlanta Ballet Inc; the most unlike its peers is Alexanders Angels 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

11 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. 11 of the 16 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
6/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Piedmont Healthcare Foundation Inc: $365,000 · HealthPiedmont Healthcare Foundation Inc+1 more: $1,000 · HealthIndividual grant recipient: $75,000 · OtherIndividual grant recip…ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE FAO: $36,879 · OtherADMINISTRATORS OF THE …THE TEMPLE: $18,000 · OtherTHE TEMPLEUNITED STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED: $10,000 · OtherUNITED STATES TENNIS A…+2 more: $4,200 · OtherGeorgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential Inc: $90,000 · Human ServicesGeorgia Campa…PACE ACADEMY INC: $40,000 · EducationTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $10,000 · EducationJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER ATLANTA INC: $48,500 · PhilanthropyUnited States Ski Team Foundation: $15,000 · Recreation & SportsATLANTA BALLET INC: $10,000 · Arts & CultureMuseum of Modern Art: $1,540 · Arts & CultureBIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION: $10,000 · International
Health$366,000Other$144,079Human Services$90,000Education$50,000Philanthropy$48,500Recreation & Sports$15,000Arts & Culture$11,540International$10,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPiedmont Healthcare Foundation Inc: $365,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetGeorgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential Inc: $90,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER ATLANTA INC: $48,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPACE ACADEMY INC: $40,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUnited States Ski Team Foundation: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED STATES TENNIS ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetATLANTA BALLET INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMuseum of Modern Art: $1,540 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAlexanders Angels Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 1.2% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.7× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Higher Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Higher Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
    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 16 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 Higher’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