· Private foundation
The Sanders 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
71% of The Sanders Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Cornell University Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year The Sanders Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $349k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k5 grants · $19k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $80k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $250k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COUNCIL ON REGIONAL ECONOMIC EXPANSION & EDUCATIONAL DEV FOUNDATION | $150,000 |
| EL PASO CHILDREN'S MUSEUM | $100,000 |
| CORNELL UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| BORDERPLEX BI-NATIONAL ECONOMIC ALLIANCE FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| KIDS EXCEL EL PASO INC | $10,000 |
| SANTA FE PREPARATORY SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| EL PASO PRO MUSICA | $10,000 |
| EL PASO OPERA FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| HOLLINS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION | $5,000 |
| PAN AMERICAN ROUNDTABLES OF TEXAS | $5,000 |
| THE FEMAP FOUNDATION | $2,500 |
| JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DESERT SOUTHWEST INC | $1,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 19%, against an area that typically sits at 18%. 59% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
13 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2019, 4 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, 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 FY2024, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- COCOUNCIL ON REGIONAL ECONOMIC EXP & EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION3× · 2018–2020 · $450k · revenue +3% · 75% of their budget
Williams College2× · 2023–2024 · $100k · revenue +25%- SFSANTA FE PREPARATORY SCHOOL4× · 2017–2020 · $40k · revenue +2%
Funded once
- BBBORDERPLEX BINATIONAL ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONone grant, 2017 · $40k
Cornell Universitygraduatedone grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +59%- APALPHA PSI OF CHI PSI EDU TRUSTone grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue -68%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The foundation was formed to receive gifts and to invest, manage and distribute such gifts for the benefit of the el paso community college and its students. the foundation promotes education and other related activities of the college.
The purpose of the organization is to develop and facilitate the implementation of goals and programs that will enhance educational opportunities.
To facilitate the formation and development of a strategically sustainablehighly skilled regional workforce with emphasis on hispanic demographic andeconomy capable of meeting market demand and competition for the greaterpaso del norte…
The mission of El Paso Leadership Academy is to prepare its students to obtain a four year college degree and to become engaged leaders in their community.
The partnership empowers students with quality educational programs, resources and counseling that will make them confident, knowledgeable and help them finish college and contribute to san antonio's future, making the students san…
Providing student funds for higher education.
El paso symphony foundation is a separate corporation which provides the el paso symphony orchestra association with charitable and educational support.
To establish charitable funds. To provide a vehicle for donors' varied interests. To promote local philanthropy. To provide leadership and resources in addressing local challenges and opportunities.
The universidad del sagrado corazon (sagrado) is an independent, nonprofit, catholic university, committed to the education of the whole person through strong foundation in the liberal arts. sagrado is part of puerto ricos oldest private,…
The pulsera project's mission is to create a more just and colorful world through the education and empowerment of central american communities and u.s. students. see schedule o.
To inspire, inform and educate our viewer through quality educational programming; while producing superb local programs tailored to our community.
Assist education organizations; acquire and manage program funding; provide education leadership support; build connection between education needs and practical solutions; provide and broker critical education services.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kids Excel El Paso Inc and the most unlike its peers is Alpha Psi of Chi Psi Edu Trust. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
16 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 16 of the 26 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds CORNELL UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL ON REGIONAL ECONOMIC EXP & EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BORDERPLEX BI-NATIONAL ECONOMIC ALLIANCE FOUNDATION FKA EL PASO REG ↗
- Who funds Paso del Norte Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds Williams College ↗
- Who funds SANTA FE PREPARATORY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds HOLLINS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds KIDS EXCEL EL PASO INC ↗
- Who funds Cornell University ↗
- Who funds EL PASOANS FIGHTING HUNGER ↗
- Who funds ALPHA PSI OF CHI PSI EDU TRUST ↗
- Who funds THE FEMAP FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EL PASO PRO-MUSICA ↗
- Who funds STARS SCHOLARSHIP FUND ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF THE DESERT SOUTHWEST ↗
- Who funds HEALING THE CHILDREN ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Hunt Family Foundation · Paul L Foster Family Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Charities Aid Foundation America · Network for Good · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Sanders Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Williams College — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.