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The Karese Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Karese Foundation

Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$100k
Granted FY2023
2
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$80k
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, FY2017 to 2023.

Education$1.8MReligion$126kPhilanthropy$100kInternational$40kHealth$6k
02FY2023 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $80k
$80,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$329k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS$80,000
GORDON COLLEGE$20,000
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 (FY17–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%GORDON COLLEGE: $600k → 10%BPN FOUNDATION - USA: $15k → 8%COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION: $25k → 9%COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION: $50k → 12%WORLD RELIEF: $25k → 19%GORDON COLLEGE: $350k → 10%COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION: $25k → 9%COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION: $50k → 12%GORDON COLLEGE: $300k → 10%COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION: $25k → 9%COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION: $25k → 12%GORDON COLLEGE: $140k → 10%NEW CREATION FELLOWSHIP A NORTHWEST CONSERVATIVE B: $50k → 12%GORDON COLLEGE: $100k → 10%NEW CREATION FELLOWSHIP: $4k → 12%GORDON COLLEGE: $20k → 10%NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS: $80k → 12%STEWARDS JOURNEY: $30k → 12%NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INC: $25k → 12%NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INC: $25k → 12%STEWARDS JOURNEY: $14k → 12%THE STEWARDS JOURNEY: $13k → 12%STEWARDS JOURNEY: $10k → 12%STEWARDS JOURNEY: $5k → 12%SPOKANE GUILDS SCHOOL AND NEUROMUSCULAR CENTER: $6k → 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.
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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.0M · 5 repeat orgs$100k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2023, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
5

Total granted

$2.0M
$100k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-26%
+126%

Still filing today

80%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’23
EducationInternationalPhilanthropyReligionOther
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
    GORDON COLLEGE
    5× · 2017–2023 · $1.5M · revenue -28%
  • CS
    College Success Foundation
    5× · 2017–2021 · $200k · revenue -30%
  • NC
    NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INC
    3× · 2017–2023 · $130k · revenue +72%

Funded once

  • NC
    NEW CREATION FELLOWSHIP A NORTHWEST CONSERVATIVE BAPTIST CHURCH
    one grant, 2017 · $50k
  • WR
    WORLD RELIEF CORP OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALSgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +191%
  • BF
    BPN FOUNDATION USA
    one grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue -33%
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
William Jessup University

In partnership with the church, the purpose of william jessup university is to educate transformational leaders for the glory of god.

—
2
North America Bible Institute

North America Bible Institute (NABI) is an evangelical graduate school, made up of students who are diverse in both ethnicity and ministry aims -- but united in great love for Jesus and his gospel. As a graduate school, NABI offers them…

Education
3
Regent University

Regent University serves as a center of Christian thought and action to provide excellent education through a Biblical perspective and global context equipping Christian leaders to change the world.

—
4
Seattle University

Seattle University is dedicated to educating the whole person, to professional formation, and to empowering leaders for a just and humane world.

—
5
Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle Work Study Program

To finance education costs for students while they gain real-world work experience that strengthens their cognitive and social capital development, catalyzes confidence and aspiration, and prepares them for success in college and careers.

Education
6
Walnut Grove Christian School

We are a k-12 christian school founded under the following (4) pillars: academics: we provide an amazing accredited academic program utilizing 100% certified teachers. schedule: we provide our students and their families an opportunity on…

Education
7
Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School

To enflame the intellects and spirits of students by integrating rigorous college- preparatory academics, professional work experience, and faith development, empowering students to flourish as scholars and citizens.

Education
8
Trinity Western University

Trinity Western University's mission is to produce positive, goal-oriented graduates with thoroughly Christian minds-growing disciples of Jesus Christ who glorify God through fulfilling the Great Commission, serving God and people in…

Education
9
Network Beyond

Network Beyond is a Christian organization serving vulnerable and under-resourced people. We focus on three areas: 1. Leadership development - equipping global leaders with biblically based training. 2. Compassion and justice - support for…

Crime & Legal
10
International Needs

International needs has the vision to transform lives and change communities by helping christian nationals serve both god and neighbor within their own countries.

—
11
Northwind Theological Seminary

Northwind Theological Seminary is an ecumenical online seminary serving many denominations, providing online theological education that is biblically based, with theological roots in Wesleyan tradition. The seminary has a strong emphasis…

Religion
12
Goucher College

Goucher College provides an innovative liberal arts education that prepares students with a broad, humane perspective for a life of inquiry, creativity, and critical and analytical thinking. The College's vision is to become a top-100…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Gordon College; the most unlike its peers is Spokane Guilds' School & Neuromuscular Center. 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

8 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. 8 of the 10 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/8
Grantees still filing
4/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

GORDON COLLEGE: $1,510,000 · EducationGORDON COLLEGECollege Success Foundation: $200,000 · EducationCollege Success FoundationNORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INC: $130,000 · EducationNORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INCThe Big Table: $100,000 · PhilanthropyTHE STEWARD'S JOURNEY: $72,000 · ReligionNEW CREATION FELLOWSHIP A NORTHWEST CONSERVATIVE BAPTIST CHURCH: $50,000 · OtherSpokane Guilds' School & Neuromuscular Center: $5,740 · OtherNEW CREATION FELLOWSHIP: $4,000 · OtherWORLD RELIEF CORP OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS: $25,000 · InternationalBPN FOUNDATION USA: $15,000 · International
Education$1,840,000Philanthropy$100,000Religion$72,000Other$59,740International$40,000

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 budgetGORDON COLLEGE: $1,510,000 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetCollege Success Foundation: $200,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetNORTHWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INC: $130,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetThe Big Table: $100,000 over 2y, 6.2% of budgetTHE STEWARD'S JOURNEY: $72,000 over 3y, 13% of budgetWORLD RELIEF CORP OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSpokane Guilds' School & Neuromuscular Center: $5,740 over 1y, 0.1% 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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Natl Christian Charit…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Natl Christian Charitable Fdn IncGA10.4× affinity5 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Karese Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Karese Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 67%
  • World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals: 67% of income from government
  • Gordon College: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 10 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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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