· Private foundation
The Sarofim Foundation
Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $35k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $112k
- $250k+1 grant · $7.8M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Various Charities Made by Transferee Foundation | $7,821,495 |
| THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON | $112,186 |
| TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL & CANCER CENTER | $25,000 |
| TEXAS HEART INSTITUTE | $10,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS COUNTRY OF HOUSTON | $5,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–23, $80k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those 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.
33 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2023, 31 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
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 FY2023, 2% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7.9M 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
- TCTexas Children's Hospital4× · 2017–2022 · $575k · revenue +78%
- HGHouston Grand Opera Association Inc5× · 2017–2022 · $450k · revenue +28%
- CAContemporary Arts Museum Houston4× · 2018–2022 · $400k · revenue +185%
Funded once
- TETO EDUCATE ALL CHILDREN DBA TEACHone grant, 2018 · $600k
- WMWilliam Marsh Rice Universitygraduatedone grant, 2018 · $50k · revenue +63%
ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAIgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $50k · revenue +41%
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 mission of the Houston Museum of Natural Science shall be to preserve and advance the general knowledge of natural science; to enhance in individuals the knowledge of and delight in natural science and related subjects; and to maintain…
Across the fields of performing arts, visual arts, education and outreach, business & policy, astc provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future. astc operates as a…
The mission of the Houston Academy of Medicine is to support the community service, education, scientific, and charitable programs for physicians, their patients, and the community at large in Harris County.
Memorial hermann health system is a nonprofit, values-driven, community-owned health system dedicated to improving health. our vision is to create healthier communities, now and for generations to come. our values are community,…
The mission of the institute has remained constant since its founding in 1953. as its restated articles of incorporation state the primary purpose and objective of the howard hughes medical institute shall be the promotion of human…
The Health Museum is an innovative science center that provides an interactive and entertaining experience for all ages, promotes understanding and appreciation of the human body, mind, and spirit, and inspires a lifelong commitment to…
To provide high quality, cost-effective health care that delivers the best value to the people we serve in a spiritual environment of caring in association with internationally recognized teaching and research.
Harmonia Stellarum is an ensemble of professional vocalists and instrumentalists specialized in historically informed performance practice who seek to inspire, entertain, and enlighten audiences with meaningful, historically informed…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
To improve the care and well being of our community, nationally and internationally, through innovative clinically relevant research that is consistent with the mission, vision and values of Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH).
The mission of art league houston is to connect the community through diverse, dynamic, and creative experiences that bring people together to see, make, and talk about contemporary visual art.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Methodist Hospital Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Free Enterprise Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 49 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 4% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
42 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. 42 of the 67 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 Menil Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds Texas Children's Hospital ↗
- Who funds Houston Grand Opera Association Inc ↗
- Who funds Contemporary Arts Museum Houston ↗
- Who funds The Houston Food Bank ↗
- Who funds THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON ↗
- Who funds STAR OF HOPE MISSION ↗
- Who funds ST GEORGE'S SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds THE CHINATI FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds THE SOCIETY OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL DIOCESAN COUNCIL OF AUSTIN ↗
- Who funds Stages ↗
- Who funds Young Men's Christian Association of the Greater Houston Area ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds St John's School ↗
- Who funds WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ↗
- Who funds Memorial Hermann Foundation ↗
- Who funds William Marsh Rice University ↗
- Who funds GREATER HOUSTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI ↗
- Who funds Discovery Green Conservancy ↗
- Who funds The Bishop John E Hines Center for Spirituality and Prayer ↗
- Who funds Bellville Medical Center ↗
- Who funds Harris County Hospital District Foundation ↗
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 Sarofim Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · The Brown Foundation Inc · MD Anderson Foundation · The William Stamps Farish Fund · Strake Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Kinder Foundation · The Alkek and Williams Foundation · Alvin & Lucy Owsley Foundation · The Weingarten Schnitzer Foundation Inc
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 Sarofim 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Sarofim Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Sarofim 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.