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The Simons Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Simons 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.

$53k
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$525kHuman Services$32kHealth$30kReligion$10kArts & Culture$10kYouth Development$5k
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $8k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $45k
$10,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$973k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LAKE HIGHLAND PREPARATORY SCHOOL$25,000
DUKE UNIVERSITY$10,000
BO'S PLACE$10,000
TRUSTEES OF UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA$5,000
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON$2,000
ST JOHNS SCHOOL$1,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY18–21, $32k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 14%ARMS WIDE ADOPTION SERVICES: $10k → 16%ARMS WIDE ADOPTION SERVICES: $10k → 16%ARMS WIDE ADOPTION SERVICES: $5k → 16%ARMS WIDE ADOPTION SERVICES: $2k → 16%PATHWAYS FOR LITTLE FEET: $5k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$440k · 7 repeat orgs$22k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +105% since the first grant, against +76% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
2

Total granted

$440k
$10k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+105%
+76%

Still filing today

86%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $12k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesHealthArts & CultureOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • DUKE UNIVERSITY
    8× · 2017–2024 · $210k · revenue +51%
  • SJ
    St John's School
    7× · 2017–2024 · $108k · revenue +130%
  • LH
    LAKE HIGHLAND PREPARATORY SCHOOL INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $50k · revenue +16%

Funded once

  • Pathways for Little Feetgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +59%
  • WASHINGTON UNIVERSITYgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +76%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Texas Christian University

Texas christian university is an institution of higher education which includes nine major academic units: liberal arts, science and engineering, business, education, fine arts, communication, honors, nursing and health sciences, and the…

Education
2
Baylor University

The mission of baylor university is to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and christian commitment within a caring community.

Education
3
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
4
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
5
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

Stanford university is one of a select group of american universities that have achieved eminence in both undergraduate and graduate education and research - cont'd sch o.

Education
6
Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University, a 501(c)(3) institution of higher education, is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. The organization is comprised of seven constituent parts: Wake…

Education
7
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
8
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The children's hospital of philadelphia, the oldest hospital in the united states dedicated exclusively to pediatrics, strives to be the world leader in the advancement of health care for children by integrating excellent patient care,…

Health
9
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
10
Loyola University

Loyola University New Orleans, a Jesuit and Catholic institution of higher education, welcomes students of diverse backgrounds and prepares them to lead meaningful lives with and for others; to pursue truth, wisdom, and virtue; and to work…

Education
11
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
12
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lake Highland Preparatory School Inc; the most unlike its peers is Pathways for Little Feet. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

10 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. 10 of the 12 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
10/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DUKE UNIVERSITY: $210,000 · EducationDUKE UNIVERSITYTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $150,000 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIALAKE HIGHLAND PREPARATORY SCHOOL INC: $50,000 · EducationLAKE HIGHLAND PREPARATORY SCHOOL INC+2 more: $10,000 · EducationSt John's School: $108,000 · OtherSt John's SchoolTHE CHURCH OF ST JOHN THE DIVINE: $10,000 · OtherTHE CHURCH OF ST JOHN …+1 more: $2,000 · OtherSPAULDING FOR CHILDREN: $27,000 · Human ServicesPathways for Little Feet: $5,000 · Human ServicesTexas Children's Hospital: $30,000 · HealthBo's Place: $10,000 · Arts & Culture
Education$420,000Other$120,000Human Services$32,000Health$30,000Arts & Culture$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $210,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $150,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetSt John's School: $108,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetLAKE HIGHLAND PREPARATORY SCHOOL INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTexas Children's Hospital: $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSPAULDING FOR CHILDREN: $27,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetBo's Place: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetLETTING EVERYONE ACHIEVE DREAMS: $5,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetPathways for Little Feet: $5,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Greater Houston Commu…Natl Christian Charit…American Endowment Fo…National Philanthropi…The Bank of America C…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Greater Houston Community FoundationTX13× affinity4 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Simons Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Simons Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Simons Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Simons Family 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 12 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Simons Family’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home