How much did CHANGE HAPPENS FOUNDATION grant in FY2024?

Education$955kInternational$461kEnvironment$257kScience & Tech$225kFood & Nutrition$178kCivil Rights$165kCrime & Legal$150kHuman Services$145kPublic Benefit$100kOther$1.1M

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2020

harvest

2021

science engineeringjusticelegaldemocracychildstemexpansion

2022

climateeducation

2023

readgoodoceanexpansionsciencetechnology

2024

—

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k2 grants · $5k
$10k–50k9 grants · $200k
$50k–250k1 grant · $50k

$20,000

Median grant

States reached

$18M

Total assets

Largest grants

SCIENCE BUDDIES$50,000
SOLAR SISTER INC$40,000
WHITE PONY EXPRESS$35,000
BRIGID ALLIANCE$30,000
COALITIONS & COLLABORATIVES$25,000
RESOURCE AREA FOR TEACHING$20,000
OPENAQ$15,000
SMITHSONIAN ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE$15,000
LET'S GO COMPOST$10,000
COMMUNITY EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS$10,000
URBAN CORPS OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY$5,000
TOXIC-FREE FUTURE$250

02The need

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY21–24, $135k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 9%. 74% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 10% of CHANGE HAPPENS FOUNDATION’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

CHANGE HAPPENS FOUNDATIONlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address · 6.4% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge

repeat funding

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.

59%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$2.2M · 24 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +67% since the first grant, against +60% for the ones you funded once.

24 repeat relationships — 0 still active in FY2024, 24 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.2M

$1.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+67%

+60%

Still filing today

83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $255k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationEnvironmentArts & CultureHuman ServicesInternationalFood & NutritionOther

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

WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN
2× · 2020–2022 · $400k · revenue +1417%
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
2× · 2020–2022 · $210k · revenue +12%
WILLIAM J BRENNAN JR CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC
2× · 2021–2022 · $200k · revenue +144%

Funded once

CC
COMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUNDgraduated
one grant, 2021 · $100k · revenue +43%
PP
PLANNED PARENTHOOD GREAT NORTHWEST HAWAII ALASKA INDIANA KENTUCKY
one grant, 2021 · $100k
CI
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
one grant, 2021 · $100k · revenue +19%

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

04Your field

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.

The Climate Center

The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.

Education

California Water Data Consortium

The California Water Data Consortium is an independent, nonprofit organization created by a partnership of state agencies and others to ensure that Californians have access to the best possible water and ecological information to make…

Science & Tech

CarbonPlan

We work collaboratively to build open tools and resources for the evaluation and deployment of robust climate programs. We share analyses through public communication and collaboration with journalists in order to foster effective climate…

Environment

NatureServe

NatureServe is the global leader in data, science and technology to conserve biodiversity.

Environment

Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Educate policymakers about equitable science-based solutions for climate, energy, & the environment

—

Grist Magazine Inc

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change. Since 1999, we have used the power of journalism to engage the public about the perils of one of the most existential threats we face. We seek…

Environment

Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment

Conservation X Labs Inc

Applying technology and innovation to prevent the sixth mass extinction.

Animals

The Commons Inc

Partnering with individuals and organizations to access, organize, and share data that inspires action that restores our environment.

—

Work on Climate

Supporting industry transformation towards climate-positive and regenerative practices and business models by helping climate-motivated professionals lead such transformation through their careers, company-building, and intrapreneurship.

Environment

Climate Foundation

To research and develop healthy climate solutions comprising global food security, ecosystem regeneration and carbon balance in seas and soils.

Science & Tech

Climate Breakthrough Inc

To make an outsized impact in resolving the climate crisis by freeing leaders to translate their boldest ideas into transformative climate action that swiftly and justly closes the gap between the world today and a sustainable future.

Human Services

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Resource Area for Teaching and the most unlike its peers is Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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.

the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side

Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

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 25 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) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

0.0%0/84

the rest of the field

11%

206,164/1,819,481

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.

06the grantee network

83 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

83/83

Grantees still filing

75/83

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Education$955,000Other$1,513,400International$461,000Environment$257,250Science & Tech$225,000Food & Nutrition$178,333Civil Rights$165,000

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.

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.

PatagoniaorgCA24.4× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Patagoniaorg · Clif Family Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Tides Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Resources Legacy Fund · Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Rsf Social Finance Inc · Teichert Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe 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 organisation CHANGE HAPPENS 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: SANTA BARBARA HIGH SCHOOL COMPUTER SCIENCE ACADEMY FOUNDATION.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

insufficient risk

Limited financial data in public filings.

Track record & reputation

low risk

9 years of Form 990 filings, still active.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 464148527 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on SANTA BARBARA HIGH SCHOOL COMPUTER SCIENCE ACADEMY FOUNDATION, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
WatchSustained operations— Filing through 2025; revenue contracted over the period.
On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 15% of their budget — diversified.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Change Happens Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Change Happens Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

CHANGE HAPPENS FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Where the work is directed

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

83 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Change Happens Foundation?

More from the funding graph

CHANGE HAPPENS FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Where the work is directed

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

83 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Change Happens Foundation?

More from the funding graph