· Public charity
Bright Funds Foundation
BRIGHT FUNDS FOUNDATION exists to empower people to be meaningful, effective, and engaged philanthropists.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2021.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 1,690 grants below total $38,186,512 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $58,973,615 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $20,787,103 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k906 grants · $6.2M
- $10k–50k657 grants · $14M
- $50k–250k112 grants · $12M
- $250k+15 grants · $6.8M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY | $1,035,067 |
| ISLAMIC RELIEF USA | $713,242 |
| ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL | $687,454 |
| SEWA INTERNATIONAL INC | $608,801 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $455,079 |
| CARE | $430,031 |
| FEEDING AMERICA | $404,283 |
| DIRECT RELIEF | $390,759 |
| BAPS CHARITIES INC | $351,185 |
| EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE | $309,022 |
| ASSOCIATION FOR INDIAS DEVELOPMENT INC | $292,305 |
| THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY | $288,325 |
| AMERICARES | $274,604 |
| FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL & EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA INC | $266,398 |
| AMERICAN INDIA FOUNDATION | $263,990 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–19, $7.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 67% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +56% since the first grant, against +39% for the ones you funded once.
916 repeat relationships — 728 still active in FY2021, 188 since wound down; 672 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2021, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9.3M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- ANAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches4× · 2017–2021 · $3.5M · revenue +46%
- SHSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY4× · 2017–2021 · $2.2M · revenue +138%
- TFTHE FOUNDATION THE WORLD INC2× · 2018–2019 · $1.9M · revenue +84% · 90% of their budget
Funded once
- CBCHINESE BIBLE CHURCH OF GREATER BOSTONone grant, 2019 · $166k
- MGMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDone grant, 2019 · $152k
- BPBAO PHUOC BUDDHIST CHURCHone grant, 2019 · $151k · revenue +13%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Uniting communities to alleviate hunger.
To advance the rights and opportunities of children and youth worldwide.
the organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the UCSF Foundation.
Support the launch of excellent new schools and innovative practices that improve education.
A people-centered approach to the conservation of gorillas and their habitats in Africa
Pathfinder builds lasting and trusted local partnerships to strengthen health systems, forging resilient pathways to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.
Witness helps people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. the organization operates globally. witness' global team designs solutions, provides guidance, and co-develops strategies that enable human rights defenders…
To deliver life-saving medical, humanitarian, and educational support to vulnerable populations around the world.
Actionaid is an international network building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice.
Improving the lives of animals and people through advocacy, education, and support.
Allosource responsibly processes and distributes human donated tissue that enhances and saves lives.
Translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health solutions
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Food for the Poor Inc and the most unlike its peers is George Eastman Museum. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 31 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
1648 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 1648 of the 2,000 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION THE WORLD INC ↗
- Who funds ISLAMIC RELIEF USA ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds BAPS CHARITIES INC ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL & EASTERN NC INC ↗
- Who funds DIRECT RELIEF ↗
- Who funds Sewa International Inc ↗
- Who funds SANKARA EYE FOUNDATION USA ↗
- Who funds HELPING HAND FOR RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF ↗
- Who funds COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds Vietnam Health Education & Literature Projects ↗
- Who funds AKSHAYA PATRA FOUNDATION (USA) ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds RAHIMA INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Save The Children Federation Inc ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds Feeding America ↗
- Who funds AMERICARES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ASSOCIATION FOR INDIAS DEVELOPMENT INC ↗
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds SAI GLOBAL MISSION ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
- Who funds HIDAYA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ↗
- Who funds COVENANT HOUSE CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds Mercy Corps ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds JUMPSTART FOR YOUNG CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds THE AMERICAN INDIA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR DISASTER PHILANTHROPY INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Intuit Foundation · The Sobrato Family Foundation · Kla Foundation · Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation · San Jose Mercury News Wish Book Fund Inc · Agilent Technologies Foundation · Charity Bridge Fund · American Muslim Community Foundation · Destination Home SV co Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The Health Trust · Mentor Graphics Foundation · Rotary Club of San Jose Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Bright Funds Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Mercy Corps — 47% of income from government
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology — 35% of income from government
- Save the Children Federation Inc — 30% of income from government
- Greater Boston Food Bank Inc — 22% of income from government
- Franklin Performing Arts Company Inc — 20% of income from government
- Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
- Yale University — 12% of income from government
- Pine Street Inn Inc — 11% of income from government
- City Year Inc — 11% of income from government
- Children's Hospital Corporation — 10% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College — 7% of income from government
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc — 7% of income from government
- The Center for Independent Documentary Inc — 6% of income from government
- Cradles to Crayons Inc — 2% of income from government
- Appalachian Mountain Club — 1% of income from government
- University of Hartford — 1% of income from government
- Covenant House Florida Inc — 1% of income from government
- Year Up Inc — 0% of income from government
- Americares Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
- Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation — 0% of income from government
- Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Inc — 0% of income from government
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc — 0% of income from government
- Oxfam-America Inc — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Bright Funds Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Bright Funds 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.