· 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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
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 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its 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 its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +93% since the first grant, against +22% for those 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
How this is measured
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
- CICLIMATEHAVEN INCone grant, 2024 · $50k
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.
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.
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.
How this is measured
30 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 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.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- 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 COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ↗
- Who funds UNITED WE DREAM NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR CHILDRENS ADVOCACY INC ↗
- Who funds THE CAMPAIGN SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
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
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Sassafras Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Sassafras Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- 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
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.
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