· Private foundation
The Maxfield Foundation
Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of The Maxfield Foundation’s FY2023 grant dollars went to The Bessemer Giving Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2023 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year The Maxfield Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $2M. 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 2023.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k10 grants · $23k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
- $250k+1 grant · $2.3M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RICE UNIVERSITY | $2,300,000 |
| SANTE FE INSTITUTE | $100,000 |
| AMAZON CONSERVATION | $25,000 |
| ACCESS FUND | $4,000 |
| SIERRA COMMUNITY HOUSE | $3,500 |
| TRUCKEE DONNER LAND TRUST | $3,000 |
| TRUCKEE ROUNDHOUSE | $3,000 |
| THE TAHOE FUND | $2,500 |
| HIGH FIVES FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| GATEWAY MOUNTAIN CENTER | $2,000 |
| I-SCHOOL | $1,000 |
| ROCKER MEMORIAL SKATEPARK | $1,000 |
| NORTH TAHOE ARTS | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–20, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 86% of The Maxfield Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 48% of the giving stays in TX; by stated purpose, 39%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 12 still active in FY2021, 8 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2022, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WMWilliam Marsh Rice University2× · 2021–2022 · $2.6M · revenue +28%
SANTA FE INSTITUTE5× · 2017–2022 · $350k · revenue +219%- ACAMAZON CONSERVATION TEAM5× · 2017–2021 · $225k · revenue +449%
Funded once
- SSFIone grant, 2019 · $50k
- MAMONTALVO ASSOCIATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $30k · revenue +97%
- LTLAKE TAHOE SCHOOLone grant, 2017 · $5k
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.
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.
Sierra watch secures conservation outcomes to protect the natural resources, mountain communities, and timeless values of the tahoe sierra.
The Truckee Trails Foundation (TTF) is working towards a system of trails and bikeways in and around Truckee, California that will connect people and places, reduce our community's dependence on automobiles, and improve our physical,…
The Foundation envisions a thriving community created through meaningful philanthropy, inclusive communication, and the willingness to explore possibilities together.
At Yosemite Rivers Alliance, we unite conservation and community to protect and restore the three rivers that ?ow through the Yosemite Regionthe Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Merced.
The Sierra Fund (TSF) is a non-profit organization with a mission to restore ecosystem and community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada.
The truckee river watershed council was founded to implement locally developed public-private collaborative solutions to protect and improve water quality and biological resources for the sustainable environmental and economic health of…
The Sierra State Parks Foundation provides critically needed financial and professional support to the Lake Tahoe-Donner Sierra State Parks for Education, Restoration, and Cultural and Environmental Preservation in partnership with…
To advance the natural history, conservation and ecosystem knowledge of the Tahoe region through science, education and outreach.
The mission of the teton regional land trust is to conserve working farms and ranches, fish and wildlife habitat, and scenic open spaces in eastern idaho for this and future generations.
To plan, steward, interpret, promote, and sustain a system of four-season trails and public access to natural areas in the Mammoth Lakes and Eastern Sierra Nevada region in the state of California while protecting its natural resources.
Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship is creating and maintaining world-class trails responsibly, sustainably, and collectively.
Preserving and enhancing the habitat of wildlife, such as sandhill cranes, waterfowl, raptors, which habitat expenses are supported by agricultural activities.
How this is measured
19 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. 19 of the 34 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.
- Who funds THE BESSEMER GIVING FUND ↗
- Who funds William Marsh Rice University ↗
- Who funds SANTA FE INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds AMAZON CONSERVATION TEAM ↗
- Who funds LUCILE PACKARD FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN'S HEALTH ↗
- Who funds MONTALVO ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds THE ACCESS FUND ↗
- Who funds TAHOE FUND ↗
- Who funds GATEWAY MOUNTAIN CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds TRUCKEE DONNER LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds CHARITYSMITH NONPROFIT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRUCKEE ROUNDHOUSE ↗
- Who funds OPERATION SURF ↗
- Who funds TAHOE TRUCKEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds REVERT FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Inc ↗
- Who funds THE WILDCAT SANCTUARY ↗
- Who funds WARRIOR FOUNDATION FREEDOM STATION ↗
- Who funds North Tahoe Arts ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Tahoe Community Foundation · Martis Camp Community Foundation Dba Martis Camp Foundation · Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The Bessemer Giving Fund · Greater Horizons · The San Francisco Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Maxfield Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Maxfield Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Maxfield’s filings →