· Private foundation
The Swearingen Foundation
Its FY2021 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 FY2018–2021.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k7 grants · $31k
- $10k–50k27 grants · $397k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DUKE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF NEUROLOGY | $50,000 |
| THE HOOVER INSTITUTION | $50,000 |
| ACKLAND MUSEUM - CHAPEL HILL | $30,000 |
| MCLAREN N MICHIGAN HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $30,000 |
| INDIAN RIVER AREA LIBRARY | $30,000 |
| HERITAGE FOUNDATION | $30,000 |
| INDIAN RIVER UNITED METHODIST CHURCH | $20,000 |
| SECU FAMILY HOUSE OF CHAPEL HILL | $20,000 |
| CHRIST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH - VENICE FL | $20,000 |
| RESCUE MISSIONS MINISTRIES INC | $16,840 |
| VIRGINIA TECH - DEPARTMENT OF FOOD & SCIENCE ENGINEERING | $15,000 |
| VT BAJA RACE TEAM | $15,000 |
| SE GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND | $10,000 |
| NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| TIDWELL FOUNDATION INC | $10,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 84% of your 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.
41 repeat relationships — 28 still active in FY2021, 13 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (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 FY2021, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $120k 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
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION4× · 2018–2021 · $45k · revenue +65%- ILINLAND LAKES EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION4× · 2018–2021 · $25k · revenue +113%
DePauw University4× · 2018–2021 · $21k · revenue +31%
Funded once
- MGMASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITALone grant, 2018 · $2k
CHATHAM OUTREACH ALLIANCE INCgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $500 · revenue +68%
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.
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…
Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
To provide a superior liberal education, to prepare future members of learned professions, to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health
The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
Lincoln memorial university is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in the liberal arts and professional studies.
Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.
The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.
As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.
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.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Samaritan's Purse. 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 44 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% 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.
21 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. 21 of the 52 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 THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds INLAND LAKES EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DePauw University ↗
- Who funds RESCUE MISSIONS MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds THE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SAMARITAN'S PURSE ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Lake Forest College ↗
- Who funds DENISON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA OPERA ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA SYMPHONY FOUNDATION ↗
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: Duke Energy Foundation · Triangle Community Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 Swearingen 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.