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The Three Sisters Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Three Sisters Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$6k
Granted FY2025still arriving
2
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$5k
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 2025.

Health$27kFood & Nutrition$14kAnimals$8kInternational$2kYouth Development$2kEducation$1kPublic Safety & Disaster$1kPublic Benefit$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$4,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$65k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HOMELESS PEOPLE$4,500
LIFE ANIMAL RESCUE$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 (FY19–19, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%UNITED IN HARMONY: $1k → 14%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.

59%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$32k · 5 repeat orgs$23k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against +21% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
30

Total granted

$32k
$23k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%
+21%

Still filing today

40%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
AnimalsHealthPublic BenefitHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • HP
    HOMELESS PEOPLE
    3× · 2023–2025 · $14k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    2× · 2018–2020 · $13k
  • LA
    LIFE Animal Rescue
    3× · 2019–2025 · $3k · revenue -49%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $2k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $2k
  • HH
    HURRICANE HARVEY RELIEF-GLOBAL GIVI
    one grant, 2017 · $1k
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
The Adoptable Dog
Animals
2
The Animal Rescue League
Animals
3
Realtors to the Rescue

Animal Rescue

—
4
Raskels Rescue
Animals
5
J-Lo's Animal Rescue & Sanctuary in

Animal care and rescue

Animals
6
North Texas Australian Shepherd Rescue

NTASR helps rescue and rehabilitate Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, and mixes of the two.Thus far, several other breeds have made their way through the rescue including a doodle, a dachshund, a frenchie, and a shar pei. NTASR takes…

Animals
7
Global Animal Partnership
Animals
8
Donna's Love Pet Rescue
Animals
9
Baby Gunns Animal Rescue
Animals
10
Rescuesforjojo

Dog rescue

Animals
11
Their Lives Matter

Dog rescue and care nurturing finding a home

Animals
12
Pet Rescue Miami Inc
Animals
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Spca of Texas; the most unlike its peers is Cats At the Studios Inc. 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

16 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 16 of the 36 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)
16/16
Grantees still filing
10/16
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

HOMELESS PEOPLE: $13,900 · OtherHOMELESS PEOPLEIndividual grant recipient: $13,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient: $1,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $1,500 · Other+18 more: $14,559 · Other+18 moreLIFE Animal Rescue: $3,000 · AnimalsLIFE Animal Res…Wags and Walks: $1,100 · AnimalsWags and WalksEastwood Ranch Foundation: $1,000 · AnimalsEastwood Ranch …Bubbles Dog Rescue: $1,000 · AnimalsBubbles Dog Res…LOS ANGELES SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS: $500 · AnimalsLOS ANGELES SOC…NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $250 · AnimalsHOUSTON HUMANE SOCIETY: $250 · AnimalsSPCA of Texas: $250 · Animals+1 more: $150 · AnimalsAMERICA'S VETDOGS THE VETERANS K-9 CORPS INC: $1,000 · Public BenefitChildren's Hospital Los Angeles: $1,000 · HealthUNITED IN HARMONY: $1,000 · Human ServicesNETWORK FOR GOOD: $500 · Public Safety & DisasterSATICOY LITTLE LEAGUE INC: $100 · Recreation & Sports
Other$44,459Animals$7,500Public Benefit$1,000Health$1,000Human Services$1,000Public Safety & Disaster$500Recreation & Sports$100

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 budgetLIFE Animal Rescue: $3,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetWags and Walks: $1,100 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICA'S VETDOGS THE VETERANS K-9 CORPS INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChildren's Hospital Los Angeles: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGUIDE DOG FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEastwood Ranch Foundation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUNITED IN HARMONY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBubbles Dog Rescue: $1,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetLOS ANGELES SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNETWORK FOR GOOD: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOUSTON HUMANE SOCIETY: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSPCA of Texas: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCATS AT THE STUDIOS INC: $150 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSATICOY LITTLE LEAGUE INC: $100 over 1y, 0.2% 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.

Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA4.7× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Three Sisters Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Three Sisters Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%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
    0get no government money at all
    1report 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Three Sisters Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Three Sisters 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 36 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

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    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