Skip to content
Ann and Leslie Chao Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Ann and Leslie Chao Foundation Inc

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$3k
Granted FY2020
1
Grants FY2020
1
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2020.

Education$84kArts & Culture$30kScience & Tech$25kSocial Science$2kAnimals$2kHealth$1kPhilanthropy$600Housing & Shelter$500
02FY2020 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,600
Median grant
1
States reached
$72k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DILLER QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC$2,600
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 83% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $25k → 8%SWIM ACROSS AMERICA: $300 → 16%NS ANIMAL LEAGUE: $300 → 6%COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $20k → 11%THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK (HSUS): $1k → 17%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $20k → 10%SWIM ACROSS AMERICA: $300 → 16%COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $3k → 11%CHINA INSTITUTE: $2k → 17%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $10k → 10%COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $2k → 11%THE HUMANE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK: $500 → 17%MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $7k → 17%MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $5k → 17%NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP: $5k → 17%DILLER QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $10k → 17%DILLER QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $3k → 17%DILLER QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $1k → 17%TRINITY SCHOOL: $10k → 17%TRINITY SCHOOL: $10k → 17%TRINITY SCHOOL: $10k → 17%CHINATOWN HEALTH CLINIC FOUNDATION: $1k → 17%THE DOE FUND: $500 → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$112k · 7 repeat orgs$9k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +47% since the first grant, against +37% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2020, 6 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
5

Total granted

$112k
$9k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+47%
+37%

Still filing today

71%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2020, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20
Arts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationHousing & ShelterAnimalsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • CU
    COLGATE UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2017–2019 · $24k · revenue +80%
  • TD
    THE DILLER-QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC INC
    3× · 2018–2020 · $14k · revenue +21%
  • MS
    MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
    2× · 2017–2018 · $12k · revenue +47%

Funded once

  • NY
    NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $5k · revenue +68%
  • CI
    CHINA INSTITUTE
    one grant, 2017 · $2k
  • CH
    CHINATOWN HEALTH CLINIC FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue +33%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
2
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
3
New York Genome Center Inc

Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.

Health
4
Dickinson College

Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship

Education
5
Manhattan University

Manhattan university is an independent catholic instituion of higher learning that embraces qualified men and women of all faiths, cultures, and traditions. the mission of manhattan university is to provide a contemporary, person-centered…

Education
6
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
7
The Graduate Center Foundation Inc

The graduate center foundation is committed to promoting and safe-guarding the success of the graduate center by raising funds and managing and investing donations for use by the graduate center. the board of trustees of the foundation…

—
8
Fordham University

Fordham university, the jesuit university of new york, is committed to the discovery of wisdom and the transmission of learning, through research and through education of the highest quality. for more information, see schedule o.

Education
9
Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh dickinson university is a center of academic excellence dedicated to the preparation of world citizens through global education. the university strives to provide students with the multi-disciplinary, intercultural, and ethical…

Education
10
New York School of Interior Design

New york school of interior design provides the most innovative, immersive, and transformative interior design education in the world, demonstrating the impact of professionally designed interiors on the health, happiness, and well-being…

Education
11
Sarah Lawrence College

At sarah lawrence college, our mission is to graduate citizens of the world who are diverse in every definition of the word, who take intellectual and creative risks, and who are able to focus exceptional intellectual discipline (continued…

Education
12
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Doe Fund Inc; the most unlike its peers is Swim Across America Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 13 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
9/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TRINITY SCHOOL: $30,000 · OtherTRINITY SCHOOLDARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $30,000 · OtherDARTMOUTH COLLEGE+2 more: $2,300 · OtherPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $25,000 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard Colle…COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $24,318 · EducationCOLGATE UNIVERSITYTHE DILLER-QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC INC: $13,600 · Arts & CultureTHE DILLER-QUAILE SCHOO…MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $11,500 · Arts & CultureMANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUS…NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP INC: $5,000 · Arts & CultureNEW YORK THEATRE WORKSH…CHINATOWN HEALTH CLINIC FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 · PhilanthropySwim Across America Inc: $600 · PhilanthropyTHE HUMANE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK: $1,500 · AnimalsTHE DOE FUND INC: $500 · Housing & Shelter
Other$62,300Education$49,318Arts & Culture$30,100Philanthropy$1,600Animals$1,500Housing & Shelter$500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOLGATE UNIVERSITY: $24,318 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE DILLER-QUAILE SCHOOL OF MUSIC INC: $13,600 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetMANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC: $11,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE HUMANE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK: $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHINATOWN HEALTH CLINIC FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSwim Across America Inc: $600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE DOE FUND INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Ann and Leslie Chao Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Ann and Leslie Chao Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 13 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2020, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Ann and Leslie Chao’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home