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The Swank Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Swank 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.

$62k
Granted FY2024still arriving
8
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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.

Animals$378kFood & Nutrition$83kArts & Culture$55kHealth$25kInternational$22kYouth Development$20kHuman Services$5kRecreation & Sports$2k
02FY2024 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $12k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $50k
$10,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HAPPILY EVER AFTER FARM (HEAF)$10,000
FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER$10,000
PLAYERS BY THE SEA THEATRE$10,000
THE GIVING CLOSET PROJECT INC$10,000
ST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE$10,000
HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE AND REFUGE$6,000
HALO ANIMAL RESCUE$3,500
CAMP KESEM CHAPTER AT FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY$2,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 97% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%ARIZONA ANIMAL WELFARE LEAGUE & SPCA: $4k → 11%THE GIVING CLOSET PROJECT INC: $10k → 14%CAMP KESEM CHAPTER AT FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $2k → 19%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $55k → 12%EAST VALDESE BAPTIST CHURCH: $6k → 13%ANIMAL ADOPTION AND RESCUE FOUNDATION: $4k → 15%HAPPILY EVER AFTER FARM (HEAF): $10k → 10%SPECTRUM 360: $10k → 16%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE & REFUGE: $5k → 11%THE GIVING CLOSET PROJECT INC: $10k → 14%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $48k → 12%EAST VALDESE BAPTIST CHURCH: $6k → 13%HAPPILY EVER AFTER FARM: $8k → 10%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE AND REFUGE: $15k → 11%PLAYERS BY THE SEA THEATRE: $41k → 14%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $47k → 12%EAST VALDESE BAPTIST CHURCH: $6k → 13%DREAMCATCHER EQUINE THERAPY: $15k → 11%PLAYERS BY THE SEA THEATRE: $10k → 14%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $43k → 12%EAST VALDESE BAPTIST CHURCH: $5k → 13%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $15k → 11%ALL BEACHES EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE: $4k → 14%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $41k → 12%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $10k → 11%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $28k → 12%ST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $10k → 11%OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER: $25k → 12%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE & REFUGE: $8k → 11%CARTERET COUNTY GOLD STAR FAMILIES MONUMENT GROUP: $5k → 12%ST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $6k → 11%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE AND REFUGE: $6k → 11%ST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $5k → 11%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE & REFUGE: $6k → 11%ST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $5k → 11%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE & REFUGE: $6k → 11%ST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $4k → 11%HEALING HEARTS ANIMAL RESCUE & REFUGE: $4k → 11%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $7k → 11%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $6k → 11%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $5k → 11%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $5k → 11%FOOTHILLS FOOD BANK AND RESOURCE CENTER: $5k → 11%HALO ANIMAL RESCUE: $5k → 11%HALO ANIMAL RESCUE: $4k → 11%HALO ANIMAL RESCUE: $4k → 11%HALO ANIMAL RESCUE: $4k → 11%HALO ANIMAL RESCUE: $2k → 11%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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 20% of The Swank Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Swank Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$530k · 8 repeat orgs$62k to everyone else

8 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
7

Total granted

$530k
$50k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+58%
+66%

Still filing today

75%
86%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 80% 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
AnimalsFood & NutritionYouth DevelopmentArts & CultureHealthEducationOther
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

  • OB
    OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER INC
    6× · 2017–2022 · $287k · revenue +40% · 45% of their budget
  • Foothills Food Bank
    7× · 2017–2024 · $53k · revenue +119%
  • HH
    Healing Hearts Animal Rescue and Refuge
    7× · 2017–2024 · $49k · revenue +22%

Funded once

  • DE
    Dreamcatcher Equine Therapygraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue +25%
  • S
    SPECTRUM360graduated
    one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +63%
  • HE
    HAPPILY EVER AFTER FARMSgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $8k · revenue +258%
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
Angel Wing Acres Animal Welfare Soc Lombas
Animals
2
Starfish Animal Rescue
Animals
3
Animal Rescue of the Rockies

Animal Care and Adoption - ARR's mission is to save the lives of homeless and abandoned dogs and cats. Our goal is reaching a no-kill society in the United States.

Animals
4
Against All Odds Animal ResQ Inc
Animals
5
Rural Animal Rescue Effort

Animal rescue and temporary housing for dogs and cats while waiting for adoptions. The shelter provides rescue services, temporary housing, medical care, transporting and adoption services.

Animals
6
Happy Acres Pet Rescue
Animals
7
Animal Rescue and Adoption Agency Inc

An animal rescue/adoption Agency. Rescued animals are from kill shelters or owner surrenders facing hardship then rehabbed/medical completed while in foster care then adopted into loving homes.

Animals
8
Animals First Rescue of the Carolinas Inc

Rescue unwanted dogs and cats from high kill shelters and other dire circumstances. Provide veterinary care shelter and love until the pet is placed into an appropriate new home.

Animals
9
Safe At Last Animal Rescue Inc
Animals
10
Runaways Animal Rescue
Animals
11
A Better Life

Rescue animals

Animals
12
Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland

The Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland nurtures the connection between people and pets to advance animal welfare and improve the quality of life in our community.

Animals
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Arizona Animal Welfare League; the most unlike its peers is All Beaches Experimental Theatre Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

12 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. 12 of the 17 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
12/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

OUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER INC: $286,750 · AnimalsOUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER INCHealing Hearts Animal Rescue and Refuge: $48,700 · AnimalsHealing Hearts Animal Rescue and RefugeHALO HELPING ANIMALS LIVE ON INC: $17,500 · Animals+3 more: $15,500 · AnimalsFoothills Food Bank: $53,000 · OtherFoothills Food BankPLAYERS BY THE SEA THEATRE: $51,250 · OtherPLAYERS BY THE SEA THEATREEAST VALDESE BAPTIST CHURCH: $22,400 · OtherEAST VALDESE BAPTIST CHURCHHAPPILY EVER AFTER FARM (HEAF): $10,000 · OtherHAPPILY EVER AFTER FARM (HE…CARTERET COUNTY GOLD STAR FAMILIES MONUMENT GROUP: $5,000 · Other+1 more: $2,000 · OtherST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $30,000 · Food & NutritionTHE GIVING CLOSET PROJECT INC: $20,000 · Youth DevelopmentDreamcatcher Equine Therapy: $15,000 · HealthSPECTRUM360: $10,000 · EducationALL BEACHES EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE INC: $4,000 · Arts & Culture
Animals$368,450Other$143,650Food & Nutrition$30,000Youth Development$20,000Health$15,000Education$10,000Arts & Culture$4,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetOUTER BANKS WILDLIFE SHELTER INC: $286,750 over 6y, 45% of budgetFoothills Food Bank: $53,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetHealing Hearts Animal Rescue and Refuge: $48,700 over 7y, 2.4% of budgetST MARY'S FOOD BANK ALLIANCE: $30,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GIVING CLOSET PROJECT INC: $20,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetHALO HELPING ANIMALS LIVE ON INC: $17,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetDreamcatcher Equine Therapy: $15,000 over 1y, 22% of budgetSPECTRUM360: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ARIZONA ANIMAL WELFARE LEAGUE: $4,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetANIMAL ADOPTION & RESCUE FOUNDATION OF WINSTON-SALEM INC: $3,500 over 1y, 0.7% 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.

The Pfizer Foundation…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Pfizer Foundation IncNY9.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving 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 Swank Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Swank Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.

    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 17 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 Swank’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