The Shepherd Foundation Ltd
Potomac, MD · EIN 52-1613402. Reported 55 grants totalling $720,250 to 55 organizations across tax years 2023-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For The Shepherd Foundation Ltd, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 55 distinct organizations, with 6% 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.
- How much its list changes. 0% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 1 year-to-year transition. 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 $12,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,000 and $15,000; the smallest was $5,500 and the largest $42,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint John's College High School | Chevy Chase, MD | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St John's College High School | Washington, DC | $32,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gonzaga College High School | Washington, DC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gonzaga High School | Washington, DC | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Academy of the Holy Cross Inc | Kensington, MD | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Archbishop Carroll High School | Washington, DC | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Academy of the Holy Cross | Kensington, MD | $22,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Archbishop Carrol Hs | Washington, DC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| St Bartholomew | Bethesda, MD | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School Inc | Washington, DC | $17,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bishop Mcnamara High School | Forestville, MD | $16,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church | Bethesda, MD | $16,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Our Lady of Good Counsel High School | Olney, MD | $15,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Connelly School of the Holy Child | Potomac, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Elizabeth Seton | Bladensburg, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Elizabeth Seton High School | Bladensburg, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Our Lady of Good Counsel | Vienna, VA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Our Lady of Lourdes | Bethesda, MD | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Georgetown Preparatory School Inc | N Bethesda, MD | $14,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Georgetown Visitation | Washington, DC | $14,250 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Bishop Mcnamara | Forestville, MD | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Connelly School of the Holy Child | Potomac, MD | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Georgetown Preparatory School | North Bethesda, MD | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| San Miguel School Inc | Washington, DC | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Marys Ryken Inc | Leonardtown, MD | $14,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| San Miguel School | Washington, DC | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Our Lady of Mercy | Potomac, MD | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| St Mary's Ryken | Leonardtown, MD | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Our Lady of Mercy Church & School | Potomac, MD | $11,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Holy Redeemer Church | Kensington, MD | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Vincent Pallotti High School Inc | Laurel, MD | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Country Day School of the Sacred Heart Inc | Bethesda, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Bartholomew Catholic Church | Bethesda, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Jane Frances De Chantal Church | Bethesda, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Vincent Pallotti Hs | Laurel, MD | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Don Bosco Cristo Rey Highschool of the Archdiocese of Washington Inc | Takoma Park, MD | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Holy Redeemer- Kensington | Kensington, MD | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Stone Ridge Hs | Bethesda, MD | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Don Bosco Cristo Rey | Takoma Park, MD | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Shrine of St Jude | Rockville, MD | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament | Washington, DC | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Jude Catholic School | Rockville, MD | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Blessed Sacrament | Alexandria, VA | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dematha Catholic High School | Hyattsville, MD | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dematha Catholic High School | Hyattsville, MD | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Saint Francis International School | Silver Spring, MD | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Francis International | Silver Spring, MD | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Holy Redeemer- College Park | College Park, MD | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| St Jane De Chantal | Bethesda, MD | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| St Mathias the Apostle | Lanham, MD | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Holy Redeemer Church | College Park, MD | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Saint Matthias Catholic Church | Lanham, MD | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Ambrose Church | Cheverly, MD | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Elizabeth Catholic Church | Rockville, MD | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Heights Inc | Potomac, MD | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
0 of 55 (0%) received money in more than one year over the 2 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.
- Saint John's College High School
TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND GRADE SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO REQUIRE FINANCIAL AID
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 2 of 55 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 26 | $340,750 | $12,500 |
| 2024 | 29 | $379,500 | $11,000 |
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
70% of its giving went to organizations in Maryland. 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.
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $12,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Maryland.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Shepherd Foundation Ltd's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 59083, Potomac, MD, 20854.
EIN 52-1613402 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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