· Private foundation
Dandelion Foundation
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
98% of Dandelion Foundation’s FY2020 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 5 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year Dandelion Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 19 organizations, $226k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2018
- Under $10k9 grants · $46k
- $10k–50k15 grants · $180k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY | $15,000 |
| SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK | $15,000 |
| ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN | $15,000 |
| WOMEN'S DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER | $15,000 |
| CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE | $15,000 |
| NORTH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| ACLU FOUNDATION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA | $10,000 |
| THE HEADSTRONG PROJECT | $10,000 |
| THE PATHWAY HOME | $10,000 |
| SCHURIG CENTER | $10,000 |
| SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE | $10,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS | $10,000 |
| CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT | $10,000 |
| GLIDE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| NORTH VALLEY COMMUNITY ANIMAL DISASTER GROUP | $10,000 |
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 (FY17–20, $95k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
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.
18 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2020, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k 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
- SFSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK4× · 2017–2020 · $70k · revenue +74%
THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT4× · 2017–2020 · $60k · revenue +392%
Center for Domestic Peace3× · 2017–2019 · $35k · revenue +79%
Funded once
- RRRCU Redwood Community Fundone grant, 2017 · $13k
- MSMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centerone grant, 2017 · $5k
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.
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
The SPCA Monterey County's Mission is assuring compassionate treatment of all animals through rescue, rehabilitation, protection and education. The SPCA shelters homeless, neglected, and abused pets, including dogs, cats, horses, exotic…
Ca fwd drives action to identify solutions that can be taken to scale to meet the challenges the state is facing. the organization is driven by the belief that regional solutions across the state will help ensure economic, environmental,…
California Coastkeeper Alliance unites Waterkeeper programs statewide to fight for swimmable, fishable, and drinkable waters for all Californians.
On a mission to connect every person facing hunger with nutritious meals by maximizing food rescue. through direct service and community partnerships, feeding san diego provides more than 26 million meals each year to children, families,…
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
Marin open studios is a non-profit visual arts organization dedicated to engaging and supporting marin county artists and their audiences through events, programs and services. marin open studios champions a diverse and inclusive community…
Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) connects people, ideas and resources to ensure equity and opportunity for all.
The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
The california dental association is committed to the success of our members in service to their patients and the public.
To bring animals out of crisis and strengthen the bond between people and animals through emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance and education. redrover accomplishes its mission by engaging volunteers and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is North Valley Community Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Head Strong Project Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% 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.
21 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 21 of the 29 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
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 FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds Center for Domestic Peace ↗
- Who funds WOMENS DAYTIME DROP-IN CENTER ↗
- Who funds SHARE OUR STRENGTH ↗
- Who funds THE PATHWAY HOME INC ↗
- Who funds ART CENTER COLLEGE OF DESIGN ↗
- Who funds DrawBridge ↗
- Who funds Youth in Arts ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds THE MILO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds NORTH VALLEY ANIMAL DISASTER GROUP ↗
- Who funds HEAD STRONG PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds OKIZU FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MARIN HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER ↗
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: Marin Community Foundation · Sunshine Polka-Dot Foundation · Heffernan Group Foundation · McNabb Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Dandelion 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.
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.