· Private foundation
The Sherman Family Foundation
Its FY2024 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k20 grants · $98k
- $10k–50k65 grants · $1.4M
- $50k–250k26 grants · $2.1M
- $250k+5 grants · $1.8M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SCHOOLSMART KC | $508,143 |
| CRISTO REY KANSAS CITY | $450,408 |
| ROCKHURST HIGH SCHOOL | $351,012 |
| UMKC FOUNDATION | $275,494 |
| THE RABBIT HOLE | $250,000 |
| OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH | $185,892 |
| TEACH FOR AMERICA | $150,000 |
| NATIONAL WORLD WAR I MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL | $120,000 |
| CORNERSTONES OF CARE | $100,595 |
| WELCOME HOUSE INC | $100,594 |
| EARLYSTART | $100,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $100,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY | $100,000 |
| THE EDUCATOR ACADEMY | $90,372 |
| TEACHERS LIKE ME | $90,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $3.6M) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 92% 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.
157 repeat relationships — 100 still active in FY2024, 57 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $566k 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
- OBOPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC8× · 2017–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +23%
- CCCROSSROADS CHARTER SCHOOLS5× · 2017–2021 · $1.1M · revenue +183%
- SSSCHOOL SMART KC INC6× · 2018–2024 · $841k · revenue +145%
Funded once
- BIBSDS INC BROOKSIDE CHARTER SCHOOLgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $155k · revenue +70%
- NENorthland Early Education Centone grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue +20%
- RHROCKHURST HIGH SCHOOLone grant, 2021 · $100k
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.
To bring glory to god by providing children with an excellent christ- centered education rooted in the word of god.
To provide a world-class neighborhood school whose students excel in a culture of academic rigor, character development, and caring relationships.
Thomas jefferson school engages its students in the education necessary to live as responsible citizens of the world. through the strongest possible college-prepatory program and within a nurturing community, students develop a…
Our mission is to provide high quality, educational programs while actively engaging and challenging students to enjoy learning. we work to support urban core neighborhoods by offering and developing quality educational programs.
Kansas wesleyan university is a liberal arts college that promotes and integrates academic excellence, spiritual development, personal well-being, and social responsibility.
Kansas city international academy is committed to excellence in education, inspiring and empowering children from all nationalities and diverse backgrounds, giving them the foundation they need to achieve the highest level of success in…
The mission of 20/20 leadership is to provide high school students unique experiential learning opportunities to expand their education beyond the classroom, develop resilient leaders, and build stronger communities.
The mission of KCAI is to educate artists and designers while honoring the distinct journeys of students. We forge a vibrant community that equips them to become leaders who leverage the creative process to transform the future.
The mission of the kauffman school is to prepare students to excel academically, graduate from college and apply their unique talents in the world to create economically independent and personally fulfilling lives.
See schedule o.city academy transforms children, families and our community through exceptional education and bold expectations that empower children to overcome barriers.
Kansas legal services is devoted to helping low income kansans meet their basic needs through the provision of important legal and mediation services.
To advocate for education professionals and to unite our members, kansans, and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Educator Academy Inc and the most unlike its peers is Wallace R Bostwick Memorial Fund. 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 27 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% 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.
132 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. 132 of the 219 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 CRISTO REY KANSAS CITY SISTERS OF CHARI TY OF LEAVENWORTH HIGH SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds UMKC FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
- Who funds OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH INC ↗
- Who funds THE EDUCATOR ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds CROSSROADS CHARTER SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds SCHOOL SMART KC INC ↗
- Who funds CORNERSTONES OF CARE ↗
- Who funds UNITED INNER CITY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds THE FAMILY CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Metropolitan Community College Foundation ↗
- Who funds ACADEMIE LAFAYETTE ↗
- Who funds PARTNERSHIP FOR REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL PREPARATION - KANSAS CITY INC ↗
- Who funds KIPP KANSAS CITY ↗
- Who funds TURN THE PAGE KC INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL ↗
- Who funds Show Me KC Schools Inc ↗
- Who funds Welcome House Inc ↗
- Who funds EMMANUEL FAMILY AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER & EMERGENCY SHELTER FOR CHILDR ↗
- Who funds THE HARRY S TRUMAN LIBRARY INSTITUTE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS ↗
- Who funds THE LITERACY LAB ↗
- Who funds FRONTIER SCHOOLS INC ↗
- Who funds RECONCILIATION SERVICES ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDREN'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds GREENLIGHT FUND INC ↗
- Who funds CHILD PROTECTION CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds THE RABBIT HOLE KC ↗
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: Greater Kansas City Community Foundation · Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation · United Way of Greater Kansas City Inc · The H & R Block Foundation · Health Forward Foundation · Jackson County Community Children's Services Fund · The Kansas City Royals Foundation · Oppenstein Brothers Foundation · R a Long Foundation 600 Plaza West Bldg · The Sunderland Foundation · The Francis Family Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City
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 Sherman Family 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.