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BESS Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

BESS Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.3M
Granted FY2024still arriving
52
Grants FY2024still arriving
14
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Religion$1.9MEducation$858kHuman Services$653kCommunity Improvement$386kPublic Benefit$205kSocial Science$100kHealth$85kEnvironment$60kOther$0
02FY2024 · 52 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $11k
  • $10k–50k42 grants · $838k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $500k
$25,000
Median grant
14
States reached
$2.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN$100,000
INQUIRING SYSTEMS INC$100,000
GARRISON INSTITUTE$50,000
INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION INC$50,000
INSIGHT MEDITATION SOCIETY INC$50,000
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION$50,000
SATI CENTER FOR BUDDIST STUDIES$50,000
OUR LADY OF THE RESURRECTION MONASTERY INC C O BEN$50,000
BELOVED COMMUNITY CIRCLES$40,000
BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES INC$35,000
BIG SPRINGS GARDEN RETREAT CENTER INC$33,333
BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES INC$33,333
ROCKY MOUNTAIN ECODHARMA RETREAT CENTER$33,333
INSIGHT MEDITATION COMMUNITY OF WASHINGTON$33,333
ZEN PEACEMAKERS INC$25,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $646k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 40% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION INC: $50k → 11%KRIPALU CENTER FOR YOGA & HEALTH: $10k → 12%NEW YORK ZEN CENTER FOR CONTEMPLATIVE CARE: $10k → 17%INTERDEPENDENCE PROJECT: $10k → 20%LOTUS INSTITUTE INC: $25k → 10%MIND & LIFE INSTITUTE: $100k → 8%INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION: $50k → 8%INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION INC: $50k → 11%SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM: $15k → 16%THE LOTUS INSTITUTE: $25k → 10%MIND AND LIFE INSTITUTE: $100k → 8%INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION: $35k → 8%SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM: $11k → 16%INTERDEPENDENCE PROJECT: $10k → 20%LOTUS INSTITUTE INC: $25k → 10%MIND AND LIFE INSTITUTE: $50k → 8%THE LOTUS INSTITUTE: $10k → 10%MIND AND LIFE INSTITUTE: $50k → 8%BRAIDED WISDOM INC: $10k → 10%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.

Which US states its grants reach

NH
WA
MN
WI
NY
MA
OR
OH
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
VA
MD
NM
NC
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.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.6M · 39 repeat orgs$629k to everyone else

39 repeat relationships: 25 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

39
15

Total granted

$3.6M
$241k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
+32%

Still filing today

56%
87%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 70% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $388k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesReligionPublic BenefitArts & CultureInternationalOther
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

  • IS
    INQUIRING SYSTEMS INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $285k · revenue +109%
  • BC
    BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $210k · revenue +110%
  • ND
    NATURAL DHARMA FELLOWSHIP
    4× · 2021–2024 · $185k · revenue +35%

Funded once

  • MULTIPLIERgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +65%
  • SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $26k · revenue +47%
  • TB
    THE BERKELEY ALEMBIC FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $25k · revenue +22%
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
International Buddhist Education Foundation
Education
2
Dharmakaya Center for Wellbeing Inc

In a natural spiritual setting, the Dharmakaya Center for Wellbeing provides a wide range of practices drawn from ancient wisdom, for all levels of interest, in order to cultivate physical and emotional wellbeing in the greatest number of…

Religion
3
The Institute of Buddha Dhamma Studies a Non Profit Corporation
Philanthropy
4
Padmasambhava Peace Institute

An educational center providing retreat and study facilities for people interested in environmental stewardship and training in practices for peace.

Religion
5
Institute for Contemplative Life Dba Inner Pathway Publishing

Our purpose is to support the inner pathway of all who come to us. By inner pathway, we refer to the innate qualities of the human spirit: love, joy, gratitude, forgiveness, compassion, inner peace, beauty, and humor. The inner pathway is…

Health
6
Living Dharma

Living Dharma sponsors podcasts and public dialogues and retreats that focus on training in awareness and communication based in ethics and peaceful solutions in community life.

Unclassified
7
Institute of Buddhist Studies

To provide graduate level education in the full breadth of the buddhist tradition with specialized education supporting pure land and contemporary shin buddhist studies, while advancing jodo shinshu buddhist ministry and buddhist…

Education
8
Land of Medicine Buddha Inc

Land of medicine buddha is a center devoted to the transmission of buddhism in the mahayana tradition.

Unclassified
9
Blazing Wisdom Institute

To teach, preserve, and publish about Tibetan Buddhist meditation and Chinese esoteric practices.

Religion
10
Wisdom & Money

Wisdom & Money offers retreats, trainings, spiritual companioning, written reflections & workshops designed to encourage people of wealth and people from a culture of wealth to engage with money as a doorway to spiritual transformation at…

Public Benefit
11
San Francisco Buddist Center Triratna

Providing classes and retreats in the Buddhist religion.

Religion
12
Dharma Refuge Inc

Buddhist Meditation and Study

Religion
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Barre Center for Buddhist Studies Inc; the most unlike its peers is Beloved Community Circles. 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

47 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 47 of the 74 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
47/47
Grantees still filing
25/47
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATURAL DHARMA FELLOWSHIP: $185,000 · OtherNATURAL DHARMA FELLOWSHIPROCKY MOUNTAIN ECODHARMA RETREAT CENTER: $133,333 · OtherROCKY MOUNTAIN ECODHARMA RETREAT CENTERCAMBRIDGE INSIGHT MEDITATION CENTER INC: $115,000 · OtherCAMBRIDGE INSIGHT MEDITATION CENTER INCIndividual grant recipient: $113,019 · OtherIndividual grant recipientUPAYA ZEN CENTER INC: $110,000 · OtherUPAYA ZEN CENTER INCINSIGHT MEDITATION COMMUNITY OF WASHINGTON: $103,233 · OtherINSIGHT MEDITATION COMMUNITY OF WASHINGTONSHAMBHALA USA: $100,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: $100,000 · OtherPLUM VILLAGE COMMUNITY OF ENGAGED BUDDHISM INC: $100,000 · OtherINSIGHT MEDITATION SOCIETY (IMS): $80,000 · Other+34 more: $794,182 · Other+34 moreUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $425,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WISCO…THE GARRISON INSTITUTE: $100,000 · EducationTHE GARRISON INSTIT…SATI CENTER FOR BUDDIST STUDIES: $75,000 · EducationSATI CENTER FOR BUD…SKY MIND RETREATS: $70,000 · EducationSKY MIND RETREATSUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $50,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIF…+3 more: $50,000 · Education+3 moreMIND & LIFE INSTITUTE: $300,000 · Human ServicesMIND & LIFE INST…INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION INC: $185,000 · Human ServicesINWARD BOUND MIN…THE LOTUS INSTITUTE INC: $85,000 · Human ServicesTHE LOTUS INSTIT…SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM INC: $26,000 · Human Services+4 more: $50,000 · Human Services+4 moreINQUIRING SYSTEMS INC: $285,000 · Community ImprovementINQUIRING SYST…BROWN UNIVERSITY: $268,000 · Community ImprovementBROWN UNIVERSI…+1 more: $12,000 · Community ImprovementBARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES INC: $210,333 · ReligionBARRE CENT…Prison Dharma Network Inc: $75,000 · ReligionPrison Dha…SARANALOKA FOUNDATION: $56,000 · ReligionSARANALOKA…DHARMADATTA COMMUNITY: $35,000 · ReligionDHARMADATT…DURANGO SANGHA: $22,500 · ReligionDURANGO SA…+2 more: $20,000 · ReligionMindful Living Revolution: $85,000 · Public BenefitSearch Inside Yourself Leadership Institute: $65,000 · Public BenefitSOUNDS TRUE FOUNDATION: $35,000 · Public BenefitMULTIPLIER: $50,000 · Environment
Other$1,933,767Education$770,000Human Services$646,000Community Improvement$565,000Religion$418,833Public Benefit$185,000Environment$50,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $425,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMIND & LIFE INSTITUTE: $300,000 over 3y, 3.0% of budgetINQUIRING SYSTEMS INC: $285,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $268,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetBARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES INC: $210,333 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetNATURAL DHARMA FELLOWSHIP: $185,000 over 4y, 8.4% of budgetINWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION INC: $185,000 over 4y, 5.2% of budgetTHE GARRISON INSTITUTE: $100,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetMindful Living Revolution: $85,000 over 3y, 19% of budgetTHE LOTUS INSTITUTE INC: $85,000 over 4y, 19% of budgetSATI CENTER FOR BUDDIST STUDIES: $75,000 over 2y, 25% of budgetPrison Dharma Network Inc: $75,000 over 3y, 3.7% of budgetSKY MIND RETREATS: $70,000 over 2y, 16% of budgetSearch Inside Yourself Leadership Institute: $65,000 over 2y, 8.5% of budgetSARANALOKA FOUNDATION: $56,000 over 2y, 10% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMULTIPLIER: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLineage Project Inc: $45,000 over 3y, 5.9% of budgetBeloved Community Circles: $40,000 over 1y, 61% of budgetSOUNDS TRUE FOUNDATION: $35,000 over 2y, 4.5% of budgetDHARMADATTA COMMUNITY: $35,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetSOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM INC: $26,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetTRICYCLE FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetOPEN LEARNING EXCHANGE INC: $25,000 over 1y, 30% of budgetDURANGO SANGHA: $22,500 over 2y, 6.4% of budgetOPENCOLLECTIVE FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTERGAR INTERNATIONAL: $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE INTERDEPENCE PROJECT A NOT FOR PROFIT ORGANIZATION: $20,000 over 2y, 39% of budgetDHARMA GATES INC: $15,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $12,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKRIPALU CENTER FOR YOGA & HEALTH: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNEW YORK ZEN CENTER FOR CONTEMPLATIVE CARE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetVALLECITOS MOUNTAIN REFUGE: $10,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetBUDDHIST PEACE FELLOWSHIP: $10,000 over 1y, 8.6% of budgetJUBILEE JUSTICE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTIBETAN NUNS PROJECT: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTSOKNYI HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetCAMBRIDGE HEALTH ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetESSEX COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFIREFIGHTERS UNITED FOR SAFETY ETHICS AND ECOLOGY: $10,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetMYRIAD USA INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDRALA MOUNTAIN CENTER Formerly Shambhala Mountain Center: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBraided Wisdom Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 3.8% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMinnesota Council of Nonprofits Inc: $129 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.

  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MIND & LIFE INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds INQUIRING SYSTEMS INC ↗
  • Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES INC ↗
  • Who funds NATURAL DHARMA FELLOWSHIP ↗
  • Who funds INWARD BOUND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION INC ↗
  • Who funds THE GARRISON INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds Mindful Living Revolution ↗
  • Who funds THE LOTUS INSTITUTE INC ↗
  • Who funds SATI CENTER FOR BUDDIST STUDIES ↗
  • Who funds Prison Dharma Network Inc ↗
  • Who funds SKY MIND RETREATS ↗
  • Who funds Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute ↗
  • Who funds SARANALOKA FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MULTIPLIER ↗
  • Who funds Lineage Project Inc ↗
  • Who funds Beloved Community Circles ↗
  • Who funds SOUNDS TRUE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds DHARMADATTA COMMUNITY ↗
  • Who funds BIG SPRINGS GARDEN RETREAT CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM INC ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Frederick P Lenz …ImpactassetsincTan Teo Charitable Fo…Dana Sila FoundationBoston Foundation IncRsf Social Finance IncThe Himachal Foundati…Unlikely Collaborator…The Gusti Brandt Foun…Sea Stone FoundationClermont FoundationJonathan & Kathleen A…
The Frederick P Lenz Foundation for American BuddhismCA53.3× affinity23 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Frederick P Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism · Impactassetsinc · Tan Teo Charitable Foundation · Dana Sila Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Rsf Social Finance Inc · The Himachal Foundation Inc · Unlikely Collaborators Inc · The Gusti Brandt Foundation · Sea Stone Foundation · Clermont Foundation · Jonathan & Kathleen Altman Fndtn

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization BESS Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from BESS Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 100%5%19%42%75%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Essex County Community Foundation Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
10get no government money at all
5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to BESS Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to BESS Family Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

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 74 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on BESS Family’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