Connecticut · Private foundation
The Sassafras 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.
- $540k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 10
- Grants FY2025
- 15
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 27%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $45,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $125,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 15 to 25
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 1
- Total assets, FY2025
- $12M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 27% of the organizations The Sassafras Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 12% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $86k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 10 | $540k | 20% |
| FY2024 | 15 | $704k | 27% |
| FY2023 | 23 | $783k | 13% |
| FY2022 | 25 | $837k | 20% |
| FY2021 | 20 | $822k | 10% |
| FY2020 | 25 | $757k | 44% |
| FY2019 | 21 | $731k | 0% |
| FY2018 | 22 | $676k | 14% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership Inc | $1,110,000 | 9 | 7% |
| Christian Community Action Inc | $870,000 | 9 | 6% |
| Connecticut Voices for Children Inc | $515,000 | 7 | 10% |
| New Haven Legal Assistance Association Inc | $445,000 | 6 | 1% |
| Open Communities Alliance Inc | $438,000 | 9 | 16% |
| Dwight Hall at Yale | $415,000 | 8 | 4% |
| Save the Sound | $345,000 | 7 | 1% |
| The Fund for Public Schools Inc | $219,500 | 3 | 1% |
| United Way of Greater New Haven Inc | $185,000 | 7 | 0% |
| Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services | $165,000 | 7 | 1% |
Show all 32 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 20 recipients with no EIN on record ($948k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Sassafras Foundation supplied at peak.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven · William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund · Newalliance Foundation Inc · Roslyn Milstein Meyer and Jerome Meyer Foundation R&J Meyer Trustees · Seedlings Foundation · Yale University · The Chicago Community Trust · Hartford Foundation for Public Giving · MFUND Inc · Ethel & Abe Lapides Foundation Inc · Eder Family Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater New Haven Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Sassafras Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Sassafras 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.
About The Sassafras Foundation
- How much does The Sassafras Foundation give?
- The Sassafras Foundation reported 10 grants totaling $540,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 25 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does The Sassafras Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (18%), Youth Development (18%), Civil Rights (16%).
- Who are The Sassafras Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership Inc ($1.1M), Christian Community Action Inc ($870k), Connecticut Voices for Children Inc ($515k).
- Does The Sassafras Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 27% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does The Sassafras Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as The Sassafras Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, Newalliance Foundation Inc.
- Where is The Sassafras Foundation based?
- The Sassafras Foundation is based in CT.
Play a game based on Sassafras’ filings →