Texas · Nonprofit
THE FORTE FOUNDATION
THE FORTE FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,383,070 to it, the largest being GRADUATE MANAGEMENT ADMISSION COUNCIL ($400,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.8M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What The Forte Foundation does
Mission
We fuel the future of business by connecting ambitious career-driven women with leading companies and business schools--equipping them with critical skills, networks, and resources to thrive in high-impact careers.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Forte's alliance connects talented women, companies, universities, and business schools. Forte provides women with access to business education, role models, professional networks, and leadership training that empowers them to rethink what is possible.
$5,364,850 spentof which $10,000 as grants$2,924,400 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,364,850.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $1.7M to $3.0M (+83%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
56% of THE FORTE FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (16% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Elissa Ellis Sangster
CEO
Board chair
Caitlin Mclaughlin
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $97k → $167k.
9 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of THE FORTE FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
THE FORTE FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
95% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund THE FORTE FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 52% · 2018 55% · 2019 52% · 2020 28% · 2021 43% · 2022 31% · 2023 51% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
40% of THE FORTE FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
51% of THE FORTE FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $673k that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from funders outside Texas, across 15 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $710k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
THE FORTE FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 1,551 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,551 employment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like THE FORTE FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Texas
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE FORTE FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds THE FORTE FOUNDATION?
- THE FORTE FOUNDATION (Texas) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,383,070 to it, the largest being GRADUATE MANAGEMENT ADMISSION COUNCIL ($400,000). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE FORTE FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $1,383,070 in grants to THE FORTE FOUNDATION, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE FORTE FOUNDATION?
- GRADUATE MANAGEMENT ADMISSION COUNCIL is the largest funder on record, with $400,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE FORTE FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Forte →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 31 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing