GrantmakersTexas

Ground Game Fund

Manchaca, TX · EIN 84-2487707. Reported 31 grants totalling $6,095,712 to 21 organizations across tax years 2019-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

21organizations funded
$100,000median reported grant
$6,095,712granted, 2019-2024
25%of grantees funded again the next year
29%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 Ground Game Fund, the IRS classifies it under public & societal benefit rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE W24) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 21 distinct organizations, with 29% 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. 25% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $100,000. Half of what it reported fell between $38,145 and $135,000; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $1,075,630. 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
2 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
3 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
3 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
5 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
12 grants
$250,000 Or More
6 grants

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
Ground Game TexasManchaca, TX$1,743,000432024
Wv Freedom AllianceCharleston, WV$1,075,630112021
Future Now ActionWashington, DC$1,000,000112022
Soul Food Community Development Corporation IncPhiladelphia, PA$371,080332024
Courier Newsroom IncNew York, NY$292,658112024
The Community News CenterWashington, DC$275,000112022
Center for Common GroundRuther Glen, VA$263,866322023
Global ImpactWashington, DC$135,000112023
Un Pac ActionAustin, TX$125,000222022
Working America Education FundWashington, DC$120,100222024
Neo Philanthropy IncNew York, NY$116,233112022
Hopewell FundWashington, DC$100,000112021
New Venture FundWashington, DC$100,000112021
Public Policy and Education Fund of New York IncAlbany, NY$100,000112021
Commonwealth Foundation IncBerkeley, CA$77,500112021
Worker Power InstitutePhoenix, AZ$65,500222022
Workmoney Foundation IncMilwaukee, WI$60,000112024
CbatesCoppell, TX$38,145112022
Network Education ProgramWashington, DC$20,000112021
Bridges to EmpowermentFresno, TX$9,500112022
Assets Under MovementWashington, DC$7,500112023

6 of 21 (29%) received money in more than one year over the 6 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 18 of 21 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Public & Societal Benefit
7 orgs
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
3 orgs
Housing & Shelter
1 org
International Affairs
1 org
Education
1 org
Environment
1 org
Community Improvement
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20191$118,000$118,000
20202$1,525,000$762,500
20218$1,553,130$88,750
20229$1,676,644$93,400
20236$630,500$116,500
20245$592,438$100,000

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

31% of its giving went to organizations in Texas. 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.

Texas
$1.9M
District of Columbia
$1.8M
West Virginia
$1.1M
New York
$509K
Pennsylvania
$371K
Virginia
$264K
California
$78K
Arizona
$66K

Down to the city

Washington, DC
$1.8M
Manchaca, TX
$1.7M
Charleston, WV
$1.1M
New York, NY
$409K
Philadelphia, PA
$371K
Ruther Glen, VA
$264K

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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 the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Tides Foundation12 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund10 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc9 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program8 shared recipientsNational Philanthropic Trust7 shared recipientsSilicon Valley Community Foundation7 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 $100,000 -- 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 Texas.
  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 public & societal benefit in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding international affairs in District of ColumbiaEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Ground Game Fund's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 6 returns (tax years 2019-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 3 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 5 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: 780 W Fm 1626 Unit 383, Manchaca, TX, 78652.

EIN 84-2487707 · 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, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

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