Grantmakers › District of Columbia

Student Freedom Initiative Inc

Washington, DC · EIN 85-0557522. Reported 61 grants totalling $3,012,938 to 41 organizations across tax years 2022-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

41organizations funded
$33,073median reported grant
$3,012,938granted, 2022-2024
37%of grantees funded again the next year
30%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Student Freedom Initiative Inc, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B82) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 41 distinct organizations, with 30% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 37% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $33,073. Half of what it reported fell between $13,493 and $50,000; the smallest was $9,375 and the largest $917,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
23 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
10 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
22 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
2 grants
$250,000 Or More
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Stackwell CapitalBoston, MA$917,000112022
Claflin UniversityOrangeburg, SC$250,000222024
Morehouse CollegeAtlanta, GA$116,920332024
Virginia Union UniversityRichmond, VA$100,030222024
Dillard UniversityNew Orleans, LA$94,510212023
Xavier University of LouisianaNew Orleans, LA$80,992212023
Tuskegee UniversityTuskegee Institute, AL$74,449322024
Alcorn State UniversityLorman, MS$70,000112023
Bluefield State UniversityBluefield, WV$70,000332024
Selma UniversitySelma, AL$69,996222024
Hampton UniversityHampton, VA$65,000212023
Texas Southern UniversityHouston, TX$60,100222024
Albany State UniversityAlbany, GA$60,000212023
Voorhees UniversityDenmark, SC$60,000222024
Lincoln UniversityLincoln Univ, PA$53,868332024
Central State University National Alumni AssociationEnglewood, OH$50,000112023
Fisk UniversityNashville, TN$50,000112023
Huston-Tillotson UniversityAustin, TX$50,000112023
Lawson State Community College Foundation IncBirmingham, AL$50,000112023
Miles CollegeFairfield, AL$50,000112022
Mississippi Valley State UniversityItta Bena, MS$50,000112023
Paine CollegeAugusta, GA$50,000112023
Stillman CollegeTuscaloosa, AL$50,000112022
The Denmark Technical College Foundation IncBranchville, SC$50,000112023
Tougaloo CollegeTougaloo, MS$50,000112023
U C Riverside FoundationRiverside, CA$50,000222024
West Virginia State University Foundation IncInstitute, WV$50,000112022
Bowie State University FoundationBowie, MD$48,543222023
Alabama A&m University Foundation IncHuntsville, AL$45,000112023
Alabama State UniversityMontgomery, AL$40,000222024
Bennett CollegeGreensboro, NC$19,000112023
Prairie View A&m UniversityPrairie View, TX$18,530112022
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University TermTallahassee, FL$15,000112023
Clark Atlanta University IncAtlanta, GA$14,000112023
Elizabeth City State University FoundationElizabeth Cty, NC$10,000112024
Fayetteville State UniversityFayetteville, NC$10,000112024
Ilisagvik CollegeBarrow, AK$10,000112024
J F Drake State Community & Technical CollegeHuntsville, AL$10,000112023
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe UniversityHayward, WI$10,000112024
Red Lake Nation CollegeRed Lake, MN$10,000112024
Wilberforce UniversityWilberforce, OH$10,000112024

12 of 41 (29%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 5 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 25 of 41 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Education
25 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202210$1,249,674$50,000
202334$1,368,741$47,500
202417$394,523$10,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

30% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Massachusetts
$917K
Alabama
$389K
South Carolina
$360K
Georgia
$241K
Louisiana
$176K
Mississippi
$170K
Virginia
$165K
Texas
$129K

Down to the city

Boston, MA
$917K
Orangeburg, SC
$250K
New Orleans, LA
$176K
Atlanta, GA
$131K
Richmond, VA
$100K
Tuskegee Institute, AL
$74K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund26 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc24 shared recipientsTom Joyner Foundation Inc21 shared recipientsStrada Education Foundation Inc20 shared recipientsUnited Negro College Fund Inc18 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc18 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $33,073 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Student Freedom Initiative Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 17 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 633 Pennsylvania Ave Nw 5TH Fl, Washington, DC, 20004.

EIN 85-0557522 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.