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The Sycamore Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

The Sycamore Fund

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.

$478k
Granted FY2025still arriving
14
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$87k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0189% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$835kEducation$178kHuman Services$141kReligion$84kAnimals$83kPhilanthropy$60kYouth Development$58kPublic Safety & Disaster$37kOther$0
02FY2025 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $118k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $347k
$27,500
Median grant
5
States reached
$358k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION$87,000
OPPORTUNITY VILL FDN$60,000
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB SEASIDE$50,000
ST PAUL THE APOSTLE CH$50,000
ST ROSE DOMINICAN HEALTH FOUNDATION$50,000
WILMER EYE INSTITUTE$50,000
MUTTVILLE$27,500
Individual grant recipient$25,000
Individual grant recipient$25,000
CLEARITY FOUNDATION$20,000
PEACE OF MIND DOG RESCUE$20,000
NINE LIVES CAT KITTEN RESCUE$7,000
NO ONE LEFT BEHIND$5,000
MARCH OF DIMES$1,500
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 (FY17–25, $141k) land where the poverty rate runs at 6%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 4% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%A PRECIOUS CHILD: $100k → 5%NO ONE LEFT BEHIND: $5k → 7%A PRECIOUS CHILD: $31k → 5%PROJECT 150: $5k → 13%COVENANT HOUSE: $500 → 17%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.

Which US states its grants reach

MI
NY
NV
SD
IN
NJ
CA
CO
KY
VA
MD
AZ
TN
OK
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.

64%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.0M · 10 repeat orgs$578k to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
24

Total granted

$1.0M
$356k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

0%
+7%

Still filing today

70%
38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 54% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $222k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’21’22’23’24’25
HealthHuman ServicesAnimalsEducationPhilanthropyArts & 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

  • SR
    ST ROSE DOMINICAN HEALTH FOUNDATION
    5× · 2021–2025 · $396k · revenue +8%
  • SJ
    ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL
    3× · 2017–2024 · $175k
  • AP
    A PRECIOUS CHILD INC
    2× · 2017–2018 · $131k · revenue +32%

Funded once

  • TJ
    THE JOHNS HOPKINS WILMER EYE INSTITUTE
    one grant, 2024 · $100k
  • CC
    CLARK COUNTY NV SCHOOL DISTRICT
    one grant, 2019 · $46k
  • HH
    HURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF FUND
    one grant, 2017 · $25k
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
Lehigh Valley Hospital

Our mission is to heal, comfort and care for the people of our community by providing advanced and compassionate health care of superior quality and value, supported by education and research.

Health
2
New York Genome Center Inc

Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.

Health
3
Virtua Medical Group Pa

The physicians of virtua medical group (vmg) share a common philosophy in all they do: to create an outstanding experience for patients. in a broad range of specialties, from family medicine to surgery to oncology, vmg's highly-trained…

Health
4
Sutter Bay Hospitals

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
5
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
6
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
7
Nuvance Health

Improve the health of every person in our community through the efficient delivery of excellent, innovative and compassionate care.

Health
8
Sutter Valley Hospitals

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
9
Doheny Eye Institute

To further the conservation, improvement and restoration of human eyesight" (mrs. doheny - 1947).

—
10
The Poptech Institute

Poptech's mission is to accelerate the positive impact of world-changing people, projects and ideas. founded in 1996 by bob metcalfe (inventor, ethernet) and john sculley (apple, pepsi), poptech originally provided a forum to critically…

Education
11
The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

To ensure every companion animal has access to quality medical care, compassionate shelter, and a loving home.

Animals
12
City of Hope

City of Hope's mission is to make hope a reality for all touched by cancer and diabetes. PLEASE SEE SCHEDULE O FOR A CONTINUATION OF OUR MISSION

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is March of Dimes Inc; the most unlike its peers is Metropolitan Museum of Art. 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

18 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. 18 of the 40 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
8/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL: $175,000 · OtherST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITALTHE JOHNS HOPKINS WILMER EYE INSTITUTE: $100,000 · OtherTHE JOHNS HOPKINS WILMER EYE INSTITUTEBOYS & GIRLS CLUB SEASIDE: $50,000 · OtherBOYS & GIRLS CLUB SEASIDEST PAUL THE APOSTLE CH: $50,000 · OtherST PAUL THE APOSTLE CHWILMER EYE INSTITUTE: $50,000 · OtherWILMER EYE INSTITUTECLARK COUNTY NV SCHOOL DISTRICT: $45,725 · OtherCLARK COUNTY NV SCHOOL DISTRICTIndividual grant recipient: $35,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $35,000 · OtherHURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF FUND: $25,000 · OtherREAD TO LEAD INC: $25,000 · OtherPRECIOUS CHILD: $23,580 · Other+12 more: $53,825 · Other+12 moreST ROSE DOMINICAN HEALTH FOUNDATION: $396,000 · HealthST ROSE DOMINICAN HEALTH FOUNDATIONThe Clearity Foundation: $60,000 · HealthThe Clearity FoundationTHE VALLEY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 · HealthST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $25,000 · Health+1 more: $2,550 · HealthA PRECIOUS CHILD INC: $130,770 · Human ServicesA PRECIOUS…No One Left Behind: $5,000 · Human ServicesPROJECT 150: $5,000 · Human Services+1 more: $500 · Human ServicesSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $97,000 · EducationALICE LLOYD COLLEGE: $5,000 · EducationPEACE OF MIND DOG RESCUE: $40,000 · AnimalsMUTTVILLE: $36,000 · AnimalsOPPORTUNITY VILLAGE FOUNDATION: $60,000 · PhilanthropyWELD ELVES: $2,500 · PhilanthropyOPPORTUNITY VILLAGE: $25,000 · EmploymentMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $1,500 · Arts & Culture
Other$668,130Health$508,550Human Services$141,270Education$102,000Animals$76,000Philanthropy$62,500Employment$25,000Arts & Culture$1,500

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetST ROSE DOMINICAN HEALTH FOUNDATION: $396,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetA PRECIOUS CHILD INC: $130,770 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $97,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Clearity Foundation: $60,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetOPPORTUNITY VILLAGE FOUNDATION: $60,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPEACE OF MIND DOG RESCUE: $40,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetMUTTVILLE: $36,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE VALLEY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOPPORTUNITY VILLAGE: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetREAD TO LEAD INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALICE LLOYD COLLEGE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROJECT 150: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMARCH OF DIMES INC: $2,550 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOVENANT HOUSE: $500 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.

  • Who funds ST ROSE DOMINICAN HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds A PRECIOUS CHILD INC ↗
  • Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds The Clearity Foundation ↗
  • Who funds OPPORTUNITY VILLAGE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds PEACE OF MIND DOG RESCUE ↗
  • Who funds MUTTVILLE ↗
  • Who funds THE VALLEY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds OPPORTUNITY VILLAGE ↗
  • Who funds READ TO LEAD INC ↗
  • Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
  • Who funds No One Left Behind ↗
  • Who funds ALICE LLOYD COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds PROJECT 150 ↗
  • Who funds MARCH OF DIMES INC ↗
  • Who funds WELD ELVES ↗
  • Who funds METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART ↗
  • Who funds COVENANT HOUSE ↗

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.

Jpmorgan Chase Founda…The Bank of America C…Morgan Stanley Global…Paypal Charitable Giv…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Jpmorgan Chase FoundationNY11× affinity4 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 Sycamore Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Sycamore Fund. 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%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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 40 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Sycamore’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