· Private foundation
The Sassafras Foundation
Its FY2023 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 FY2017–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k13 grants · $6k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $18k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LEND A HAND ACROSS AMERICA | $18,000 |
| THE SELFHELP HOME | $2,000 |
| FEEDING AMERICA | $1,000 |
| CONCERN WORLDWIDE | $700 |
| BEVERLY SHORES DEPOT MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY | $500 |
| J STREET | $500 |
| CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY | $500 |
| SHIRLEY HEINZE LAND TRUST | $500 |
| WORLD WILDLIFE FUND | $152 |
| LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS | $125 |
| FACING HISTORY & OURSELVES | $105 |
| BEVERLY SHORES FIRE DEPARTMENT | $100 |
| JAMES B MORAN CENTER FOR YOUTH ADVOCACY | $100 |
| MLB CHARITIES | $75 |
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 (FY22–23, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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 +59% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.
4 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2023, 0 since wound down; 10 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, 13% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $21k 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
- TSTHE SELFHELP HOME INC2× · 2022–2023 · $3k · revenue +10%
- SHSHIRLEY HEINZE LAND TRUST INC2× · 2019–2023 · $620 · revenue +134%
- JBJAMES B MORAN CENTER FOR YOUTH ADVOCACY2× · 2022–2023 · $600 · revenue +59%
Funded once
- TOTOWN OF BEVERLY SHORES ERROSION FUNDone grant, 2020 · $10k
- JSJ STREET FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $2k
- FBFOOD BANK OF NORTHWEST INDIANA INCone grant, 2022 · $1k · revenue +16%
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.
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
To promote public health, safety, and welfare through the improvement of the quality and quantity of drinking water and the development and furtherance of understanding of the problems relating thereto.
Eastern national promotes the public's understanding and support of america's national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products and services.
The minnesota land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.
Lincoln park zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of chicago and by advancing the highest quality of animal care, horticulture, education, science and…
Connect conservationists and supporters, deploy resources to the field, provide conservationists with tools and support they need to succeed.
To sustain, restore, and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.
Food & water watch conducts extensive research and public education to ensure the food and water we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. so we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of…
Jefferson national parks association provides quality educational products and related services that enhance public understanding and appreciation of america's national parks, public lands and historic places.
The mission of heartlands conservancy is to empower and colaborate with the people of southern illinois to advance and protect the health of our distinctive communities and nationally significant natural and cultural resources.
The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.
Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Window to the World Communications Inc and the most unlike its peers is Lend a Hand Across America Pf. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
19 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. 19 of the 35 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 Lend A Hand Across America PF ↗
- Who funds THE SELFHELP HOME INC ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF NORTHWEST INDIANA INC ↗
- Who funds Feeding America ↗
- Who funds CONCERN WORLDWIDE (US) INC ↗
- Who funds SHIRLEY HEINZE LAND TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds JAMES B MORAN CENTER FOR YOUTH ADVOCACY ↗
- Who funds SHRIVER CENTER ON POVERTY LAW ↗
- Who funds DESERT FOOTHILLS LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds J STREET ↗
- Who funds WILD AT HEART INC ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds THE JACK AND SHIRLEY LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds FACING HISTORY & OURSELVES INC ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds ARIZONA OPERA COMPANY ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
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: Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 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 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.