· Private foundation
The Sonja 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, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $24k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $60k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| AVE MARIA SCHOOL OF LAW | $20,000 |
| AMFAR | $10,000 |
| The Ouiment Fund | $10,000 |
| SACRED HEART | $10,000 |
| Southhampton Animal Shelter | $10,000 |
| GO CHARITY | $6,000 |
| Federal Law Enforcement Fund | $5,000 |
| FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| National Review Institute | $5,000 |
| Danny Butler Memorial Fund | $3,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 91% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 5 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, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- AMAVE MARIA SCHOOL OF LAW6× · 2020–2025 · $334k · revenue +34%
- TDTHE DANNY BUTLER MEMORIAL FUND INC2× · 2023–2025 · $19k · revenue +5%
- FUFordham University2× · 2021–2022 · $15k · revenue +28%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $60k
- SHSACRED HEART COLLEGEone grant, 2020 · $25k
- CACATHOLIC ACADEMY OF BRIDGEPORT INCone grant, 2023 · $15k
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.
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…
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…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.
To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
Saint anselm is a catholic, benedictine college providing all of its students a distinctive liberal arts education that incorporates opportunities for professional and career preparation. it does so in a learning community that encourages…
Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…
Manhattan university is an independent catholic instituion of higher learning that embraces qualified men and women of all faiths, cultures, and traditions. the mission of manhattan university is to provide a contemporary, person-centered…
At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…
Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.
Education and Research
How this is measured
13 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. 13 of the 51 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 AVE MARIA SCHOOL OF LAW ↗
- Who funds THE DANNY BUTLER MEMORIAL FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Fordham University ↗
- Who funds THE SOUTHAMPTON ANIMAL SHELTER FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION FOR AIDS RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds President and Fellows of Middlebury College ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds University of St Thomas ↗
- Who funds ST THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds WILDLIFE CENTER OF LONG ISLAND 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 Heffernan Family Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Jewish Communal Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Sonja Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Sonja Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Trustees of Boston College: 3% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Middlebury College: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Sonja Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Sonja 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.
Play a game based on Sonja’s filings →