How much does The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation give?

The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation reported 31 grants totaling $862,790 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 31 and 58 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (37%), Arts & Culture (9%), Animals (8%).

Who are The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Foundation Communities Inc ($193k), Central Texas Food Bank Inc ($128k), KIPP Texas Inc ($120k).

Does The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 39% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Austin Community Foundation Inc, Shield-Ayres Foundation, The Moody Foundation.

Where is The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation based?

The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation is based in TX.

The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation

The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$863k

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$200k

Largest

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 2024.

Education$1.4MArts & Culture$351kAnimals$293kHousing & Shelter$284kFood & Nutrition$205kHuman Services$202kCivil Rights$177kInternational$151kOther$0

02FY2024 · 31 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k7 grants · $33k
$10k–50k19 grants · $295k
$50k–250k5 grants · $535k

$15,000

Median grant

States reached

$2.7M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY KINGSVILLE	$200,000
CAESAR KLEBERG WILDLIFE RESEARCH	$100,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY	$85,000
EANES EDUCATION FOUNDATION	$75,000
ST IGNATIUS MARTYR CATHOLIC SCHOOL	$75,000
LA PENA	$35,000
ST STEPHEN'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL	$25,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTH TEXAS	$22,500
RESPITE CARE OF SAN ANTONIO	$20,000
POWER FOR PARKINSON'S	$15,000
THE TEXAS TRIBUNE	$15,000
CAPITAL AREA PARKINSON'S SOCIETY	$15,000
KUT RADIO	$15,000
CHILD LEGACY INTERNATIONAL	$15,000
AUSTIN PBS	$15,000

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $136k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 92% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 7% of The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

71%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.4M · 71 repeat orgs$978k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +42% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.

71 repeat relationships: 17 still active in FY2024, 54 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.4M

$593k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%

+34%

Still filing today

62%

55%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 51% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $385k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationArts & CultureInternationalHuman ServicesEnvironmentCrime & LegalOther

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

FC
FOUNDATION COMMUNITIES INC
7× · 2017–2023 · $193k · revenue +99%
Central Texas Food Bank Inc
8× · 2017–2024 · $128k · revenue +12%
KT
KIPP Texas Inc
6× · 2017–2022 · $120k · revenue +756%

Funded once

HR
HUMANITARIAN RESPITE CENTER
one grant, 2019 · $50k
BO
BOARD OF TRUSTEES STANFORD
one grant, 2021 · $38k
PA
PORT ARANSAS PRESERVATION FUND
one grant, 2020 · $35k

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.

Aclu Foundation of Texas Inc

The ACLU Foundation of Texas is the unyielding guardian and promoter of freedom, justice, equality and dignity of all people, particularly for those who are still fighting to secure the full exercise of their civil rights and liberties.…

Civil Rights

American Civil Liberties Union of Texas Inc

The ACLU of Texas works with communities, at the State Capitol, and in the courts to protect and advance civil rights and civil liberties for every Texan, no exceptions.

—

Raise Texas

RAISE Texas advances equitable policies and programs that foster financial security and economic mobility for low- and moderate-income Texans. We equip, innovate and advocate to reduce disparities, remove barriers and build opportunities…

Human Services

Center for Austin Independent Journalism

To equip Austinites to make informed decisions through independent, in-depth reporting, diverse opinions, and civil dialogue. A strong local press is essential for a healthy community and democracy. We work to make Austin a more empowered…

Arts & Culture

Progress Texas

Progress Texas is a non-profit media organization advocating for progressive ideals and policies in our state.

Civil Rights

Progress Texas Institute

The Progress Texas Institute provides research and strategic communications on issues with the ultimate goal of increasing civic engagement.

Civil Rights

Leadership Austin

Leadership austin connects and develops leaders to courageously engage and transform our communities.

Youth Development

Center for Public Policy Priorities

At the Every Texan, we believe in a Texas that offers everyone the chance to compete and succeed in life. We envision a Texas where everyone is healthy, well educated, and financially secure. We want the best Texas, a proud state that sets…

Public Benefit

Texas Defender Service

See Schedule OTDS fights for the end of mass incarceration and excessive punishment in Texas through direct representation, policy reform, and public education. TDS stands up for the dignity and humanity of people harmed by mass…

Civil Rights

Texas Water Foundation

Texas water foundation is a statewide nonprofit that provides educational resources and educational services on water in texas for decision makers, water professionals, and everyday texans. texas water foundation works in the areas of…

Environment

Austin Public Library Friends Foundation

Support and strengthen austin public libraries

Education

Border Workers United

A community-based organization that develops leadership of workers to construct a movement of worker families in the texas borderlands.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Haven for Hope of Bexar County; the most unlike its peers is Port Aransas Conservancy Fund. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

102 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. 102 of the 170 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

100/102

Grantees still filing

74/102

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$2,119,973Education$894,500Housing & Shelter$229,000Arts & Culture$219,500Food & Nutrition$143,000Animals$139,000Human Services$136,450

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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Austin Community Foundation IncTX60.2× affinity34 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Austin Community Foundation Inc · Shield-Ayres Foundation · The Moody Foundation · St David's Foundation · Alice Kleberg Reynolds Meyer Foundat A0479800 · James R Dougherty Jr Foundation Inc · United Way for Greater Austin · Donald D Hammill Foundation · The John G and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · San Antonio Area Foundation · Topfer Family 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 Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

30report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Rachael and Ben Vaughan Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Rachael and Ben Vaughan 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.

Play a game based on Rachael and Ben Vaughan’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