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Texas · Private foundation

The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$9.7M
Granted FY2020
13
Grants FY2020
13
Organizations funded FY2020
54%
First-time grantees FY2020
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Read this first · the figures below need context

93% of The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Communities Foundation Of Texas Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 10 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $10M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

7
’17
7
’18
5
’19
5
’20
3
’21
0
’22
4
’23
10
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

Median grant, FY2020
$25,000
Largest grant, FY2020
$7,000,000
Organizations funded a year
11 to 16
FY2017 to FY2020
States reached, FY2020
2
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2020, 54% of the organizations The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 97% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2020, 3% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9.4M went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20
HealthReligionHuman ServicesPhilanthropyPublic BenefitOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY202013$9.7M54%
FY201911$400k27%
FY201811$320k55%
FY201716$580kn/a
98% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Philanthropy$10MReligion$8.7MHealth$1.8MCivil Rights$1.0MHuman Services$795kEnvironment$170kEducation$134kYouth Development$130kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
IL
OR
PA
MD
TN
NC
DC
MS
TX

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Medialliance International Inc$1,350,000283%
The Salvation Army$200,0001n/a
The Crystal Charity Ball$200,00021%
Child Protective Services Community Partners Inc$180,00042%
Samaritan's Purse$120,00020%
Children's Health System of Texas$100,00020%
Stars Scholarship Fund$100,00045%
Mercy Street$50,00011%
Boy Scouts of America 571 Circle Ten Council$50,00010%
Patriot Paws Service Dogs$50,00013%
Show all 26 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 19 recipients with no EIN on record ($10M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 22 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMedialliance International Inc: $1,350,000 over 2y, 83% of budgetThe Crystal Charity Ball: $200,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetChild Protective Services Community Partners Inc: $180,000 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetSamaritan's Purse: $120,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChildren's Health System of Texas: $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetStars Scholarship Fund: $100,000 over 4y, 4.5% of budgetMercy Street: $50,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetBoy Scouts of America 571 Circle Ten Council: $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetPatriot Paws Service Dogs: $50,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetDallas Furniture Bank: $50,000 over 2y, 5.8% of budgetFamily Violence Prevention Services Inc: $40,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetWreaths Across America: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCrohn's & Colitis Foundation Inc: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSt Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWell Community: $10,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetAbility Connection Texas: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMen of Nehemiah Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetKidneytexas Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetNational Psoriasis Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMedecins Sans Frontieres USA Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHighland Park Isd Education Foundation: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSalesmanship Club of Dallas: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 22.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Communities Foundation of Texas IncTX21.1× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Communities Foundation of Texas Inc · The Dallas Foundation · Texas Instruments Foundation · Hoblitzelle Foundation · W P & Bulah Luse Foundation · The Moody Foundation · Community Foundation of North Texas (Tax · Marilyn Augur Family Foundation · Arkay Foundation Inc · Hegi Family Foundation · The Bill & Katie Weaver Charitable Trust · The Rosewood 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.

Compare The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Marilyn and Sonny Oates 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.

About The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation

How much does The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation give?
The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation reported 13 grants totaling $9,670,000 in its FY2020 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 16 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2020.
What does The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Philanthropy (45%), Religion (37%), Health (8%).
Who are The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Medialliance International Inc ($1.4M), The Salvation Army ($200k), The Crystal Charity Ball ($200k).
Does The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2020, 54% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Communities Foundation of Texas Inc, The Dallas Foundation, Texas Instruments Foundation.
Where is The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation based?
The Marilyn and Sonny Oates Foundation is based in TX.

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 46 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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