· 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k6 grants · $170k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $370k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LEADERSHIP EDUCATION ATHLETICS IN PARTNERSHIP | $125,000 |
| CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY ACTION | $115,000 |
| NEW HAVEN LEGAL ASSISTANCE INC | $80,000 |
| CONNECTICUT VOICES FOR CHILDREN | $50,000 |
| SAVE THE SOUND | $45,000 |
| OPEN COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE INC | $40,000 |
| CENTER FOR CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY INC CO U OF CT SCHOOL OF LAW | $25,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF CONNECTICUT | $25,000 |
| URBAN RESOURCES INITIATIVEYALE SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT | $20,000 |
| HORIZONS AT THE FOOTE SCHOOL | $15,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $1.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +84% since the first grant, against +22% for the ones you funded once.
33 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2025, 25 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $45k 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
- LELEADERSHIP EDUCATION AND ATHLETICS IN PARTNERSHIP INC9× · 2017–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +324%
- CCCHRISTIAN COMMUNITY ACTION INC9× · 2017–2025 · $870k · revenue +44%
CONNECTICUT VOICES FOR CHILDREN INC7× · 2017–2025 · $515k · revenue +49%
Funded once
- YUYALE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTHone grant, 2021 · $100k
- YOYMCA OF GREATER NEW YORK CHINATOWN YMCAone grant, 2020 · $60k
- CSCFE SAVE THE SOUND INCone grant, 2022 · $50k
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 University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
Community action agency of new haven, inc. offers pathways to prosperity to those in poverty in the greater new haven area through: service - collaboration - advocacy - knowledge generation.
We encourage Connecticut residents to participate in government and their communities and we conduct public interest lobbying to advocate for consumer and environmental concerns.
The connecticut housing coalition works to expand housing opportunity and to increase the quantity and quality of affordable housing available to people with low and moderate incomes in connecticut through advocacy, education and…
The mission of the connecticut association for community action is to strengthen the capacities of its members to empower people in need and improve the communities in which they live.
Connecticut public broadcasting, inc. will inform, educate and inspire the people of connecticut, connecting and empowering the people of ct through outstanding journalism, storytelling, education and experiences, to make our state a more…
Empower a statewide network of caring, consistent volunteer court appointed special advocates to advance the best interests of children who have experienced abuse or neglect so every child can find a safe, permanent home to thrive.
The primary exempt purpose of ct legal rights project, inc. is to provide legal representation and advocacy for low income adults with psychiatric disabilities.
To grow the local economy and improve economic stability in all communities by providing employers with a trained and qualified workforce and connecting residents to jobs.
The association is the leader in providing services to and advocating for, the state's providers of long-term, subacute, rehabilitative, and assisted living care. additionally, the association serves as a clearing house for information…
Ccp organizes, inspires, and equips a community of funders to learn, collaborate, and lead together for sustained impact and social change in connecticut.
The connecticut humane society is the leading resource in the state for companion animal welfare, enriching the lives of families and communities through adoption services, medical care, education, and prevention of cruelty.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Center for Childrens Advocacy Inc and the most unlike its peers is La Compagnia de' Colombari Inc. 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 32 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% 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.
30 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. 30 of the 52 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 LEADERSHIP EDUCATION AND ATHLETICS IN PARTNERSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY ACTION INC ↗
- Who funds CONNECTICUT VOICES FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds NEW HAVEN LEGAL ASSISTANCE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds OPEN COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds DWIGHT HALL AT YALE ↗
- Who funds SAVE THE SOUND ↗
- Who funds THE FUND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF GREATER NEW HAVEN INC ↗
- Who funds INTEGRATED REFUGEE AND IMMIGRANT SERVICES ↗
- Who funds FAIR HAVEN COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINIC INC ↗
- Who funds NEW HAVEN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS AND IDEAS INC ↗
- Who funds BROOKLYN LEGAL SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds FAIR HOUSING JUSTICE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CLIMATEHAVEN INC ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF CONNECTICUT INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WE DREAM NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR CHILDRENS ADVOCACY INC ↗
- Who funds THE CAMPAIGN SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
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 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
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 Sassafras 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- United Way of Connecticut Inc — 100% of income from government
- City Seed Inc — 87% of income from government
- United Way of Greater New Haven Inc — 42% of income from government
- Climatehaven Inc — 42% of income from government
- Open Communities Alliance Inc — 39% of income from government
- Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services — 37% of income from government
- Save the Sound — 37% of income from government
- Christian Community Action Inc — 29% of income from government
- New Haven Preservation Trust Incorporated — 29% of income from government
- Fair Haven Community Health Clinic Inc — 18% of income from government
- Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership Inc — 17% of income from government
- Planned Parenthood of Southern New England Inc — 10% of income from government
- Center for Childrens Advocacy Inc — 5% of income from government
- New Haven Legal Assistance Association Inc — 2% of income from government
- New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas Inc — 1% of income from government
- The Legacy Theatre Inc — 1% 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.
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.