Skip to content
The Roe Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Roe 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.

$600k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$600k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Civil Rights$12MPublic Benefit$3.9MPhilanthropy$2.8MEducation$261kArts & Culture$154kHousing & Shelter$133kSocial Science$133kReligion$100kOther$0
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$600,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$7.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIDELITY CHARITABLE TRUST$600,000
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 (FY20–23, $158k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER: $25k → 10%MIRACLE HILL MINISTRIES: $83k → 17%MIRACLE HILL MINISTRIES: $50k → 17%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.

Which US states its grants reach

AK
ME
VT
NH
WA
ID
MT
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL
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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$15M · 13 repeat orgs$2.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +45% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.

13 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
90

Total granted

$15M
$1.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+45%
+34%

Still filing today

85%
84%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $600k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Public BenefitEducationCivil RightsArts & CultureCrime & LegalSocial ScienceOther
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

  • SP
    STATE POLICY NETWORK
    4× · 2020–2023 · $12M · revenue +71%
  • THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
    4× · 2020–2023 · $2.0M · revenue +12%
  • MH
    MIRACLE HILL MINISTRIES INC
    2× · 2021–2023 · $133k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • SP
    ST PAULS ANGLICAN CHURCH
    one grant, 2021 · $100k
  • TJ
    THE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $75k · revenue +78%
  • AF
    America's Future Foundation
    one grant, 2020 · $35k · revenue +11%
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
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
2
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc

The manhattan institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in america and its great cities.

Public Benefit
3
Frontiers of Freedom Institute

To educate the public on constitutional issues and public policy matters. We are dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, peace through strength, limited government, free enterprise, and the values embodied in the Declaration of…

Public Benefit
4
Foreign Policy Research Institute

The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…

International
5
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
6
The Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research Inc

To promote the ideals of free market economics, individual liberty, and limited government through the conduct of public opinion research.

Social Science
7
Institute for Policy Innovation

It is the mission of the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) to provide education, research, analysis and recommendations to policy makers, opinion leaders and the American people designed to help solve public policy problems through…

—
8
Institute for Public Accuracy

To teach and disseminate educational materials to the public.

Arts & Culture
9
Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies Inc

To provide thoughtful, conservative solutions to the challenges presented by education, workforce, labor and employment issues.

Education
10
Institute for Policy Studies

The institute for policy studies (the institute) is a 60-year-old organization that is dedicated to building a more equitable, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful society.

International
11
Economic Policy Institute

Epi uses the tools of economics to bring the interests of low- and middle-income workers into economic policy discussions. epi's rigorous research and transformative ideas fortify worker organizing, build a shared understanding of how…

Social Science
12
Peter G Peterson Institute for International Economics

The peterson institute for international economics (piie) is an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to strengthening prosperity and human welfare in the global economy through expert analysis and practical…

Social Science
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Indiana Policy Review Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Greenville Garden Club. 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

88 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 88 of the 105 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)
23
Early backer (in before they grew)
88/88
Grantees still filing
68/88
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

STATE POLICY NETWORK: $12,081,143 · Civil RightsSTATE POLICY NETWORK+6 more: $94,500 · Civil RightsTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $2,025,000 · Public BenefitTHE HERITAGE F…+21 more: $457,500 · Public Benefit+21 moreFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $2,200,000 · Community ImprovementFIDELITY INV…+2 more: $40,000 · Community ImprovementSC POLICY COUNCIL: $979,604 · OtherSC POLICY COU…FIDELITY CHARITABLE TRUST: $600,000 · OtherFIDELITY CHAR…ST PAULS ANGLICAN CHURCH: $100,000 · Other+48 more: $779,865 · Other+48 moreINTERCOLLEGIATE STUDIES INSTITUTE INC: $60,000 · EducationTHE MONT PELERIN SOCIETY: $35,000 · EducationGeorgia Center for Opportunity Inc: $25,000 · EducationSutherland Institute: $25,000 · EducationMISSISSIPPI CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $25,000 · EducationBLUEGRASS INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY SO: $25,000 · EducationPIONEER INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 · EducationTHE MAINE HERITAGE POLICY CENTER: $25,000 · EducationKANSAS POLICY INSTITUTE: $20,000 · EducationALASKA POLICY FORUM INC: $15,000 · Education+3 more: $11,000 · EducationMIRACLE HILL MINISTRIES INC: $133,000 · Human ServicesNEIGHBORHOOD FOCUS: $35,000 · Human ServicesCALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER: $25,000 · Human ServicesGREENVILLE SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION: $40,000 · Arts & CultureGREENVILLE ARTS FESTIVAL: $32,500 · Arts & CulturePEACE CENTER FOUNDATION: $30,000 · Arts & CultureETHAN ALLEN INSTITUTE: $10,000 · Arts & Culture+2 more: $3,500 · Arts & Culture
Civil Rights$12,175,643Public Benefit$2,482,500Community Improvement$2,240,000Other$2,459,469Education$291,000Human Services$193,000Arts & Culture$116,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSTATE POLICY NETWORK: $12,081,143 over 4y, 19% of budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $2,200,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $2,025,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetMIRACLE HILL MINISTRIES INC: $133,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC: $75,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetINTERCOLLEGIATE STUDIES INSTITUTE INC: $60,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetGREENVILLE SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION: $40,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetAmerica's Future Foundation: $35,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD FOCUS: $35,000 over 2y, 7.2% of budgetTHE MONT PELERIN SOCIETY: $35,000 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetGREENVILLE ARTS FESTIVAL: $32,500 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetWASHINGTON POLICY CENTER: $30,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetWISCONSIN INSTITUTE FOR LAW & LIBERTY: $30,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetBARRY GOLDWATER INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH: $30,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetThe Buckeye Institute: $30,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY INC: $30,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPEACE CENTER FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCAESAR RODNEY INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 7.0% of budgetYANKEE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $25,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetPELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $25,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetGeorgia Center for Opportunity Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetPacific Research Institute For Public Policy: $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBEACON CENTER OF TENNESSEE: $25,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetINDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetSutherland Institute: $25,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetCIVITAS INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetEMPIRE CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetBADGER INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetNEVADA POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetCenter of the American Experiment: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMACKINAC CENTER: $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetEMPOWER MISSISSIPPI: $25,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetJosiah Bartlett Center for Public P: $25,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetMISSISSIPPI CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $25,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetSHOW-ME INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetCASCADE POLICY INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetBLUEGRASS INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY SO: $25,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetOKLAHOMA COUNCIL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTHE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetPIONEER INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetALABAMA POLICY INSTITUTE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetTHE MAINE HERITAGE POLICY CENTER: $25,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetCALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER: $25,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetGARDEN STATE INITIATIVE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetGEORGIA PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetPROPERTY AND ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH CENTER: $20,000 over 1y, 0.8% 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.

State Policy NetworkDonors Trust IncThe Lynde and Harry B…Adolph Coors Foundati…Atlas Economic Resear…Charles Koch InstituteThe Seminar Network I…Bradley Impact Fund I…Beth and Ravenel Curr…Charles Koch Foundati…The Chase Foundation …John William Pope Fou…
State Policy NetworkVA95.3× affinity43 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: State Policy Network · Donors Trust Inc · The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc · Adolph Coors Foundation · Atlas Economic Research Foundation · Charles Koch Institute · The Seminar Network Inc · Bradley Impact Fund Inc · Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation · Charles Koch Foundation · The Chase Foundation of Virginia · John William Pope 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 Roe Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Roe Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 110%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    11get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 Roe Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Roe 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.

    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 105 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 Roe’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