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Bruner Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Bruner Foundation

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.

$50k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0186% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Philanthropy$81kHuman Services$29kYouth Development$25kHousing & Shelter$25kHealth$21kReligion$5kEducation$4kOther$0
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $10k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$790k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GK LEGACY FOUNDATION$20,000
FIRST PLACE AZ$20,000
ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF PHOENIX$5,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
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 (FY21–25, $18k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%notmykid: $3k → 11%ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF PHOENIX: $5k → 11%ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF PHOENIX: $5k → 11%ASSISTANCE LEAGUE OF PHOENIX: $5k → 11%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.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$169k · 7 repeat orgs$39k to everyone else

7 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
8

Total granted

$169k
$39k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-3%
+23%

Still filing today

71%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
PhilanthropyHealthHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterEducationOther
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

  • GL
    GK LEGACY FOUNDATION
    4× · 2020–2025 · $58k · revenue -3%
  • FP
    FIRST PLACE AZ
    2× · 2021–2025 · $25k · revenue -1%
  • HI
    Hope Ignites Phoenix
    3× · 2020–2022 · $25k · revenue -61%

Funded once

  • PC
    Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +15%
  • AH
    AMANDA HOPE RAINBOW ANGELSgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $6k · revenue +37%
  • VO
    VALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -7%
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
The Phoenix Charitable Foundation
Philanthropy
2
Phoenix Rising Hope Foundation
Philanthropy
3
Dream Foundation Arizona
Employment
4
Arizona Healthiest State Foundation
—
5
Az Hugs
Human Services
6
Let Kids Dream
—
7
Double Good Kids Foundation
Philanthropy
8
The Wishing Chair Foundation
Education
9
The Ackerman Foundation
—
10
Cox Family Kind Foundation
Philanthropy
11
The Sunshine Foundation
—
12
The Goldman Sachs Foundation
Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is First Place Az; the most unlike its peers is Gk Legacy Foundation. 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

11 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. 11 of the 15 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
5/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

GK LEGACY FOUNDATION: $57,500 · PhilanthropyGK LEGACY FOUNDATIONArtful Giving Inc: $18,000 · PhilanthropyArtful Giving IncThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc: $5,000 · PhilanthropyThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation I…Hope Ignites Phoenix: $25,000 · OtherHope Ignites PhoenixIndividual grant recipient: $15,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES: $8,500 · OtherRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIESVALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $5,000 · OtherVALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNIT…Individual grant recipient: $5,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientMS Society: $2,500 · OtherFIRST PLACE AZ: $25,000 · Housing & ShelterFIRST PLACE A…Delivering Dreams of Arizona: $20,000 · Human ServicesDelivering D…NOTMYKID: $2,500 · Human ServicesNOTMYKIDPhoenix Children's Hospital Foundation: $10,000 · HealthAMANDA HOPE RAINBOW ANGELS: $5,500 · HealthARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $3,500 · Education
Philanthropy$80,500Other$61,000Housing & Shelter$25,000Human Services$22,500Health$15,500Education$3,500

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 budgetGK LEGACY FOUNDATION: $57,500 over 4y, 18% of budgetFIRST PLACE AZ: $25,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHope Ignites Phoenix: $25,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetDelivering Dreams of Arizona: $20,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetArtful Giving Inc: $18,000 over 3y, 50% of budgetPhoenix Children's Hospital Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMANDA HOPE RAINBOW ANGELS: $5,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetVALLEY OF THE SUN JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $3,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNOTMYKID: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

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.

Arizona Community Fou…Thunderbirds CharitiesGarcia Family Foundat…The Foundation for Co…Virginia G Piper Char…American Express Foun…National Philanthropi…Morgan Stanley Global…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
Arizona Community FoundationAZ19× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Arizona Community Foundation · Thunderbirds Charities · Garcia Family Foundation · The Foundation for Community and Health Advancement · Virginia G Piper Charitable Trust · American Express Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Bruner Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Bruner Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 Bruner Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Bruner 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 15 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Bruner’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