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T. Denny Sanford
South DakotaFinance
D
22.1
PBS
~$2.4B
Profile Summary
T. Denny Sanford is a South Dakota-based finance billionaire born in 1935, with an estimated net worth of ~$2.4B RTB.
Philanthropy
The data shows three Sanford Foundation filings in 2023, with total grants paid of $20,521 and total reported foundation assets of $106,120 ProPublica 990. One Sanford Foundation filing reported $0 in grants, $0 in revenue, $0 in expenses, and $0 in assets ProPublica 990.
Political Activity
FEC records show 88 contributions totaling $3,010,672.50 from 1978-09-08 to 2025-12-29 FEC. The largest recipients were Americans for Prosperity Action at $1,000,000, Trump 47 Committee at $844,600, the Republican National Committee at $420,865, and Make America Great Again Inc. at $155,400 FEC. Party breakdown data shows $816,572.50 to Republicans, $1,000 to Democrats, and $2,193,100 listed as Unknown FEC.
In the News
The news data provided includes a 2026 article about Sanford Health merging with North Memorial Health NewsAPI. No additional article text about T. Denny Sanford himself was provided in the dataset.
U.S. Presence
residenceSioux Falls, South Dakota
Philanthropy
Foundations are matched to a person by name, not by trustee records — so a same-surname family foundation can land here in error. Every entity below links to its full IRS filing; if one doesn’t belong, tell us at hello@skylarkcreations.com and we’ll pull it.
$106KFoundation Assets
$21KGrants Paid
3Foundations
Sanford FoundationMorgan City, LA
Private grantmaking foundation (IRS NTEE T20)
Assets: $90KRevenue: $34KGrants: $20KTax Year: 2023
Mission, purpose & full 990 filings → ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerSanford FoundationGrand Rapids, MI
Health care (IRS NTEE E05)
Assets: $16KRevenue: $3KGrants: $995Tax Year: 2023
Mission, purpose & full 990 filings → ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerSanford Foundation
Assets: $0Revenue: $0Grants: $0
Mission, purpose & full 990 filings → ProPublica Nonprofit ExplorerPolitical Contributions
$3.0MTotal Contributed
88Contributions
1978–2025Date Range
By Party
Top Recipients
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY ACTION, INC. (AFP ACTION) DBA CVA ACTION AND DBA LIBRE ACTION$1.0M
TRUMP 47 COMMITTEE, INC.$845K
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE$421K
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN INC.$155K
MCCAIN VICTORY 2008$69K
Matched by name only. These are the donations the FEC lists under this person’s name — so a different person with the same name can show up here too.
News Coverage
Coverage window: 2026-08-18 to 2026-07-26 · retrieved 8/22/2026
Score Breakdown
D
22.1
Public Benefit Score
The PBS is a weighted average of 2 components. The formula is open and versioned — the weight percentages below show how much each component contributes to the final score.
Philanthropy65% weight
Evidenced charitable giving — built on what they actually give each year, not parked assets. Dominated by generosity (annual giving relative to net worth — the share of your fortune you give), plus the absolute scale of that giving, plus a small nudge for signing the Giving Pledge (a commitment, not a realized action).
Data: ProPublica 990 charitable disbursements, net worth, The Giving Pledge registry
Transparency35% weight
How much sourced, public accountability data exists — net worth, political contributions, SEC filings, foundation 990s, news coverage, and a verified profile. More public disclosure scores higher.
Data: FEC, SEC EDGAR, ProPublica 990s, GDELT / NewsAPI, Wikidata
Formula (v2): PBS = 65% x Philanthropy + 35% x Transparency
Scored on 8/31/2026 on a 0–100 scale. The score uses only the signals we have populated data for. Goal Impact, Controversy, and Community Approval are deferred until that data exists — Phase 1 goal adoption, controversy detection, and community votes respectively.
All data is sourced from public records. Each section links to its original source.