· Private foundation
David and Laura Merage 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
77% of David and Laura Merage Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to National Philanthropic Trust, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 14 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year David and Laura Merage Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 30 organizations, $2M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k25 grants · $48k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $187k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $110k
- $250k+4 grants · $2.1M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Equitas Foundation | $875,000 |
| Early Learning Ventures | $428,500 |
| JPM Charitable Giving Fund | $400,000 |
| Black Cube | $385,000 |
| Executives Partnering to Invest in | $60,000 |
| Bipartisan Policy Center | $50,000 |
| Friends of the Israel Defense Force | $33,000 |
| Hebrew Educational Alliance | $20,000 |
| Persian American Womens Conference | $20,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $18,000 |
| Arabella Advisors LLC | $15,222 |
| Jewish Colorado 2 | $10,550 |
| Museum of Contemporary Art Denver | $10,250 |
| Mizel Institute | $10,000 |
| The Matthew Harris Ornstein Memoria | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $253k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 97% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +65% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.
46 repeat relationships: 28 still active in FY2019, 18 since wound down; 67 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, 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
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $32k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- ELEARLY LEARNING VENTURES9× · 2017–2025 · $3.6M · revenue +127%
- BCBLACK CUBE9× · 2017–2025 · $3.5M · revenue +117% · 90% of their budget
- ALANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE7× · 2017–2024 · $389k · revenue +78%
Funded once
- EEquitasone grant, 2017 · $250k
- JCJewish Comm Center of OCone grant, 2017 · $5k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $3k
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.
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.
Be a catalyst! Ignite our community's passion for nature and science.
To provide meaningful access to high quality, civil legal services in the pursuit of justice for as many low income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout colorado as possible.
AIA Colorado,is the voice of the architecture profession in Colorado. Through advocacy, leadership development, education and resources for architects, the organization supports architecture professionals in designing a better world where…
Colorado center on law and policy is an antipoverty organization advancing the rights of every coloradan.
Our vision is to reignite the zionist spirit and meet the needs of jewish civilization in the twenty-first century by connecting people around the world through the vibrancy and creativity of contemporary israeli culture.
Common future is a network of pioneering leaders across the u.s. and canada who work deeply within their communities to create alternative approaches to business, philanthropy, and investing. we envision an economy that has transitioned…
To inspire people and mobilize resources to strengthen our community.
Based on jewish values, the jewish federation of greater los angeles convenes and leads the community and leverages its resources to assure the continuity of the jewish people, support a secure state of israel, care for jews in need here…
Partnering to improve quality of life as a nonprofit organization dedicated to mental health and wellness. healing is our purpose, help is our promise, health is our passion.
The Jews of Color Initiatives mission is to advance racial equity in the U.S. Jewish community by centering the leadership of Jews of Color and ensuring that our communities and institutions reflect the multiracial reality of the Jewish…
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
To provide timely, credible and accessible analyses of fiscal and economic issues facing colorado to inform public policy debates and promote economic prosperity
How this is measured
92 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. 92 of the 136 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ↗
- Who funds EARLY LEARNING VENTURES ↗
- Who funds BLACK CUBE ↗
- Who funds EQUITAS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds JEWISHColorado ↗
- Who funds ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds Redline ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH ↗
- Who funds HEALTHIER COLORADO ↗
- Who funds BELEV ECHAD INC ↗
- Who funds FREE PRESS ↗
- Who funds BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA OF COLORADO ↗
- Who funds LION GLOBAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HEALTH FEDERATION OF PHILADELPHIA INC ↗
- Who funds COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds TIDES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF KISHORIT INC ↗
- Who funds TEAM FOR WEST VIRGINIA CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds COLORADO CHILDREN'S CAMPAIGN ↗
- Who funds THE ARCHER GROUP ↗
- Who funds Hope Foundation of Iranian-American Jewish Communities ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FERTILITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MOISHE HOUSE ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Denver Foundation · Rose Community Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · The Colorado Health Foundation · Caring for Colorado Foundation · Gates Family Foundation · Mile High United Way Inc · Boettcher Foundation · Community Foundation Boulder County · Gary Philanthropy · Libertygives Foundation · El Pomar Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization David and Laura Merage Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from David and Laura Merage Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Hias Inc: 88% of income from government
How this is measured
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