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Can Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Can Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$225k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$75k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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 2024.

Environment$930kAnimals$808kArts & Culture$125kInternational$105kEducation$80k
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k6 grants · $150k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $75k
$25,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$4.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE SEADOC SOCIETY$75,000
CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY$30,000
THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA$30,000
AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY$25,000
CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY$25,000
EARTH JUSTICE$20,000
Individual grant recipient$20,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 88% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Sierra Club: $30k → 10%EARTH JUSTICE: $35k → 10%THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $25k → 14%CORNELL UNIVERSITY: $25k → 16%Natural Resources Defense Council: $30k → 17%THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $30k → 10%HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES: $25k → 14%WILD ORCA: $130k → 9%THE SEADOC SOCIETY: $75k → 10%AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY: $25k → 6%SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $25k → 10%EARTH JUSTICE: $35k → 10%ONE EARTH: $20k → 14%CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY: $25k → 16%Natural Resources Defense Council: $25k → 17%THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $25k → 10%WILD ORCA: $90k → 9%AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY: $25k → 6%SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $25k → 10%EARTH JUSTICE: $35k → 10%CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY: $25k → 16%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: $20k → 17%THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $25k → 10%NPR: $30k → 14%WILD ORCA: $80k → 9%AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY: $25k → 6%Sierra Club: $20k → 10%EARTH JUSTICE: $35k → 10%CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY: $25k → 16%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: $20k → 17%THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $25k → 10%Greenpeace: $30k → 14%AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY: $25k → 6%Earth Justice: $30k → 10%CORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY: $25k → 16%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: $20k → 17%THE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $20k → 10%GREENPEACE: $25k → 14%AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY: $25k → 6%EARTH JUSTICE: $25k → 10%CORNELL UNIVERSITY: $25k → 16%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: $20k → 17%GREENPEACE: $25k → 14%AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY: $25k → 6%GREENPEACE: $25k → 14%GREENPEACE: $25k → 14%GREENPEACE: $25k → 14%NPR: $25k → 14%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

WA
NY
MA
NV
IA
PA
CA
VA
MD
AZ
NC
DC
TX
FL
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.
$2.1M · 20 repeat orgs$155k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +54% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.

20 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 15 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

20
6

Total granted

$2.1M
$60k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+54%
+23%

Still filing today

70%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 58% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $95k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
AnimalsEnvironmentInternationalEducationHealthArts & CultureOther
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

  • CF
    CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $315k · revenue +113%
  • EARTHJUSTICE
    9× · 2017–2025 · $245k · revenue +82%
  • AB
    American Bird Conservancy
    9× · 2017–2025 · $200k · revenue +54%

Funded once

  • NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC
    one grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue +23%
  • AB
    ARCHBOLD BIOLOGICAL STATION
    one grant, 2019 · $10k
  • SI
    SUSTAINABLE IOWA LAND TRUST
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue -40%
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
World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment
2
Property and Environment Research Center

Perc is dedicated to advancing conservation through markets, incentives, property rights, and partnerships.

Public Benefit
3
Conservation International Foundation

Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.

Environment
4
Amazon Conservation Team

The amazon conservation team (act) partners with indigenous and other local communities to protect tropical forests and strengthen traditional culture.

Science & Tech
5
Resource Renewal Institute

The resource renewal institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively.

Environment
6
Ocean Conservancy

Ocean conservancy unites science, people, and policy to protect our ocean, today and for generations to come.

Environment
7
World Resources Institute

Wri is committed to creating change that improves people's lives and ensures the natural world can thrive. (see schedule o)wri's bold vision requires a formula for success we call "count it. change it. scale it.": - count it: our work is…

International
8
Akashinga Inc

Deliver ecological stability and long-term protection of large-scale wilderness by supporting and empowering local communities.

Animals
9
National Audubon Society Inc

We work towards a future where birds thrive across the americas because audubon is a powerful, diverse, and ever-growing force for conservation. (continued on schedule o).

Environment
10
International Snow Leopard Trust

The international snow leopard trust aims to ethically conserve snow leopards and their high mountain ecosystems through partnerships with indigenous peoples and local communities, and through research to improve the understanding of snow…

Animals
11
Panthera Corporation

Panthera's mission is the conservation of the world's 40 wild cat species, many of which are endangered or threatened. panthera develops, implements and oversees wild cat conservation strategies on a global scale.

Animals
12
The International Dark-Sky Association Inc

Darksky international restores the nighttime environment and protects communities from the harmful effects of light pollution through outreach, advocacy, and conservation.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Center for Biological Diversity Inc; the most unlike its peers is Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation. 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

17 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. 17 of the 28 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
11/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC: $315,000 · AnimalsCENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INCWild Orca: $300,000 · AnimalsWild OrcaAmerican Bird Conservancy: $200,000 · AnimalsAmerican Bird ConservancyHumane World for Animals Inc: $45,000 · Animals+2 more: $8,000 · AnimalsGREENPEACE INC: $165,000 · OtherGREENPEACE INCTHE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USA: $150,000 · OtherTHE ORANGUTAN PROJECT - USACORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGY: $120,000 · OtherCORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGYNPR: $75,000 · OtherNPRTHE SEADOC SOCIETY: $75,000 · OtherTHE SEADOC SOCIETYSIERRA CLUB: $50,000 · OtherSIERRA CLUBAUDUBON SOCIETY: $40,000 · Other+6 more: $78,500 · Other+6 moreEARTHJUSTICE: $245,000 · EnvironmentEARTHJUSTICENATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $135,000 · EnvironmentNATURAL RESOURCES DEF…SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $50,000 · EnvironmentSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATIO…+1 more: $10,000 · EnvironmentCornell University: $80,000 · EducationMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $50,000 · InternationalTHE AJA PROJECT: $11,000 · InternationalPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $50,000 · HealthNATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC: $20,000 · Arts & Culture
Animals$868,000Other$753,500Environment$440,000Education$80,000International$61,000Health$50,000Arts & Culture$20,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC: $315,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetWild Orca: $300,000 over 3y, 46% of budgetEARTHJUSTICE: $245,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Bird Conservancy: $200,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetGREENPEACE INC: $165,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $135,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University: $80,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $50,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $50,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSIERRA CLUB: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHumane World for Animals Inc: $45,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE AJA PROJECT: $11,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetRED CREEK WILDLIFE CENTER INC: $5,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetFlorida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center Inc: $3,000 over 3y, 0.2% 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 CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC ↗
  • Who funds Wild Orca ↗
  • Who funds EARTHJUSTICE ↗
  • Who funds American Bird Conservancy ↗
  • Who funds GREENPEACE INC ↗
  • Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
  • Who funds Cornell University ↗
  • Who funds PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
  • Who funds SIERRA CLUB ↗
  • Who funds Humane World for Animals Inc ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC ↗
  • Who funds THE AJA PROJECT ↗
  • Who funds SUSTAINABLE IOWA LAND TRUST ↗
  • Who funds RED CREEK WILDLIFE CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center 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.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO6.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Can Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Can 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%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% 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
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 Can Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Can 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 28 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 Can’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