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· Private foundation

Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$5.5M
Granted FY2024still arriving
139
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$260k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0198% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.

Philanthropy$11MHuman Services$4.6MArts & Culture$4.5MEducation$3.6MFood & Nutrition$2.4MHousing & Shelter$2.2MCrime & Legal$2.1MYouth Development$1.3MOther$0
02FY2024 · 139 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k20 grants · $105k
  • $10k–50k80 grants · $1.9M
  • $50k–250k38 grants · $3.3M
  • $250k+1 grant · $260k
$25,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$95M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Diablo Regional Arts Association$260,000
John Muir Health Foundation$200,000
First 5 Contra Costa$183,000
Contra Costa Family Justice Allianc$152,500
Food Bank of Contra Costa Solano$130,000
East Bay Community Foundation$120,000
Monument Crisis Center$110,000
STAND For Families Free of Violence$104,525
Meals On Wheels Diablo Region$100,000
California Symphony Orchestra$100,000
Opportunity Junction$100,000
City of Walnut Creek$100,000
Rubicon Programs Inc$100,000
Tandem Partners in Early Learning$100,000
First Place for Youth$95,000
02The need
03

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 (FY22–24, $1.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 17% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Commonweal: $5k → 8%Center for Young Women's Developmen: $5k → 10%Martin Luther King Jr Freedom Cente: $10k → 10%First Place for Youth: $95k → 10%First Place for Youth: $30k → 10%First Place for Youth: $30k → 10%Children Now: $10k → 10%COPE Family Support Center: $50k → 9%Community Education Partnerships: $17k → 10%COPE Family Support Center: $50k → 9%Community Education Partnerships: $15k → 10%Insight Housing: $10k → 10%Insight Housing: $10k → 10%Community Education Partnerships: $10k → 10%Coco Kids: $35k → 9%Coco Kids: $30k → 9%Las Trampas Inc: $20k → 9%Coco Kids: $30k → 9%Loved Twice: $8k → 10%Meals On Wheels Diablo Region: $100k → 9%Meals On Wheels Diablo Region: $100k → 9%Meals On Wheels Diablo Region: $100k → 9%Trinity Center Walnut Creek: $40k → 9%Trinity Center Walnut Creek: $40k → 9%Trinity Center Walnut Creek: $40k → 9%Monument Crisis Center: $110k → 9%White Pony Express: $55k → 9%White Pony Express: $50k → 9%Monument Crisis Center: $5k → 9%We Care Services for Children: $78k → 9%We Care Services for Children: $70k → 9%We Care Services for Children: $50k → 9%Contra Costa Foster Friends: $10k → 9%Village Community Resource Center: $75k → 9%Village Community Resource Center: $75k → 9%Village Community Resource Center: $10k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 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.

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$25M · 223 repeat orgs$2.5M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +20% since the first grant, against -1% for the ones you funded once.

223 repeat relationships — 103 still active in FY2024, 120 since wound down; 31 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

223
95

Total granted

$25M
$1.9M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+20%
-1%

Still filing today

40%
22%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $554k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureHealthYouth DevelopmentHousing & ShelterOther

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

  • DR
    Diablo Regional Arts Association
    3× · 2022–2024 · $800k · revenue +56% · 47% of their budget
  • CONTRA COSTA FAMILY JUSTICE ALLIANCE
    3× · 2022–2024 · $418k · revenue +55%
  • JM
    JOHN MUIR HEALTH FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2024 · $400k · revenue +24%

Funded once

  • BL
    Brentwood Library Foundation
    one grant, 2018 · $150k
  • MO
    Meals on Wheels & Senior Outreach Svcs
    one grant, 2018 · $75k
  • NC
    National Center for Youth Law
    one grant, 2020 · $70k

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.

1
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
2
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
3
California School-Age Consortium Inc

The California School-Age Consortium (CalSAC) builds professional networks that provide training, leadership development and advocacy to ensure that all young people have access to high quality out-of-school time programs and to create a…

—
4
East Bay Agency for Children

For more than 70 years, East Bay Agency for Children continues to improve the well-being of children, youth and families by reducing the impact of trauma and social inequalities.

Health
5
The California Center for Civic Participation

To educate california youth about the operations of local, state, and federal government.

Public Benefit
6
Centro Legal De La Raza

Centro Legal De La Raza is a comprehensive legal services agency protecting and advancing the rights of low-income immigrant communities throguh culturally competent bilingual legal representation, education, and advocacy.

Crime & Legal
7
Unitedly

Unitedly is a nonprofit organization based in San Mateo County, California. Unitedly was established to ensure Asian families and communities have access to equitable opportunities and resources to thrive in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Human Services
8
Go Public Schools

GO Public Schools builds and supports a multi-city network of local coalitions, whose members parents, educators, and community allies work together to expand access to quality education in Californias most historically underserved…

Education
9
Children's Council of San Francisco

By advocating for quality early care and education, empowering families with information and financial support, and building the capabilities of educators, Children's Council of San Francisco ensures that every child in San Francisco has…

Human Services
10
Canopy

Canopy collaborates with communities to grow and sustain equitable urban forests for all

Environment
11
Bay Area Community Services Housing Corp

Improve the quality of life for individuals in Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Solano County, Monterey County, Sacramento County and the surrounding area in the State of California.

Housing & Shelter
12
San Francisco Casa

San Francisco CASA transforms the lives of children and youth traumatized and displaced in the foster care and related systems by providing one consistent, caring volunteer advocate, trained to address each childs needs in the court and…

Civil Rights

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Contra Costa Family Justice Alliance and the most unlike its peers is The Zellerbach Family Foundation. 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 30 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number24%5%<5yr15%8%5–10yr19%19%10–20yr17%32%20–35yr12%20%35–55yr12%17%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%1%<5yr15%4%5–10yr19%16%10–20yr17%25%20–35yr12%28%35–55yr12%26%55yr+

The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/142
the rest of the field
13%
2,151/16,138

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.

04the grantee network

134 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. 134 of the 352 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
21
Early backer (in before they grew)
134/134
Grantees still filing
84/134
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Diablo Regional Arts Association — $787,500 · OtherFirst 5 Contra Costa — $643,000 · Other+148 more — $17,292,200 · Other+148 moreDiablo Regional Arts Association — $800,000 · Arts & CultureCALIFORNIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC — $355,000 · Arts & CultureEast Bay Center for the Performing Arts — $235,000 · Arts & CultureLINDSAY WILDLIFE MUSEUM — $130,000 · Arts & CultureDIABLO BALLET — $120,000 · Arts & CultureRichmond Art Center — $65,000 · Arts & Culture+4 more — $190,000 · Arts & CultureMEALS ON WHEELS DIABLO REGION — $300,000 · Human ServicesWe Care Services For Children — $197,500 · Human ServicesBAY AREA RESCUE MISSION — $165,000 · Human ServicesVillage Community Resource Center — $160,000 · Human ServicesFIRST PLACE FOR YOUTH — $155,000 · Human ServicesTRINITY CENTER WALNUT CREEK — $120,000 · Human ServicesMONUMENT CRISIS CENTER — $115,000 · Human ServicesWHITE PONY EXPRESS — $105,000 · Human ServicesCOPE Family Support Center Inc — $100,000 · Human ServicesCocoKids Inc — $95,000 · Human Services+1 more — $41,800 · Human ServicesTANDEM PARTNERS IN EARLY LEARNING — $258,000 · EducationCALIFONIA STATE UNIVERSITY EAST BAY FOUNDATION INC — $150,000 · EducationBiotech Partners — $125,000 · EducationTeach for America Inc — $105,000 · EducationMT DIABLO EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $95,000 · EducationBRIDGE BUILDERS TO THE NEW GENERATION — $90,000 · EducationAIM HIGH FOR HIGH SCHOOL — $80,000 · EducationSAINT MARY'S COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA — $75,000 · EducationWALNUT CREEK LIBRARY FOUNDATION — $62,850 · EducationCommunity Resources for Science — $61,700 · EducationBay Area Creative BAC — $55,000 · Education+4 more — $135,000 · EducationCONTRA COSTA FAMILY JUSTICE ALLIANCE — $417,500 · Crime & LegalSTAND FOR FAMILIES FREE OF VIOLENCE — $304,525 · Crime & LegalContra Costa Senior Legal Services — $72,500 · Crime & LegalSHELTER INC — $193,000 · Housing & ShelterContra Costa Interfaith Transitional Housing Inc — $160,000 · Housing & ShelterShepherds Gate — $155,000 · Housing & ShelterWinter Nights Family Shelter Inc — $150,000 · Housing & ShelterSAN PABLO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION INC — $50,000 · Housing & ShelterHOUSE OF LOVING HANDS — $35,000 · Housing & ShelterEAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $340,000 · PhilanthropyRichmond Community Foundation — $180,000 · PhilanthropyFOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE — $90,000 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY OF THE BAY AREA — $80,000 · PhilanthropyKRISTI YAMAGUCHI'S ALWAYS DREAM — $45,000 · Philanthropy
Other$18,722,700Arts & Culture$1,895,000Human Services$1,554,300Education$1,292,550Crime & Legal$794,525Housing & Shelter$743,000Philanthropy$735,000

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetDiablo Regional Arts Association — $800,000 over 3y, 47% of budgetCONTRA COSTA FAMILY JUSTICE ALLIANCE — $417,500 over 3y, 2.4% of budgetJOHN MUIR HEALTH FOUNDATION — $400,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetCALIFORNIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC — $355,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetEAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $340,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetOPPORTUNITY JUNCTION INC — $311,000 over 3y, 3.6% of budgetSTAND FOR FAMILIES FREE OF VIOLENCE — $304,525 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetMEALS ON WHEELS DIABLO REGION — $300,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetTANDEM PARTNERS IN EARLY LEARNING — $258,000 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetEast Bay Center for the Performing Arts — $235,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetRYSE INC — $230,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetMEALS ON WHEELS CONTRA COSTA INC — $230,000 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetGREATER RICHMOND INTERFAITH PROGRAM GRIP — $225,000 over 3y, 4.8% of budgetBAY AREA LEGAL AID — $225,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetUJIMA FAMILY RECOVERY SERVICES — $220,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetRUBICON PROGRAMS INC — $200,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetLoaves and Fishes of Contra Costa — $200,000 over 3y, 2.9% of budgetWe Care Services For Children — $197,500 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetSHELTER INC — $193,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetMONUMENT IMPACT — $188,000 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetRichmond Community Foundation — $180,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetBAY AREA RESCUE MISSION — $165,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetMindful Life Project — $162,500 over 3y, 1.6% of budgetContra Costa Interfaith Transitional Housing Inc — $160,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetVillage Community Resource Center — $160,000 over 3y, 8.9% of budgetFIRST PLACE FOR YOUTH — $155,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetShepherds Gate — $155,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetWinter Nights Family Shelter Inc — $150,000 over 3y, 8.8% of budgetCALIFONIA STATE UNIVERSITY EAST BAY FOUNDATION INC — $150,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetLINDSAY WILDLIFE MUSEUM — $130,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetYES Nature to Neighborhoods — $130,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetBiotech Partners — $125,000 over 3y, 6.5% of budgetDIABLO BALLET — $120,000 over 2y, 5.3% of budgetTRINITY CENTER WALNUT CREEK — $120,000 over 3y, 3.1% of budgetWest Contra Costa Public Education Fund — $115,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetMONUMENT CRISIS CENTER — $115,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetCONTRA COSTA CRISIS CENTER — $115,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetGIRL SCOUTS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — $105,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetWHITE PONY EXPRESS — $105,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $105,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOPE Family Support Center Inc — $100,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetCIVICORPS — $100,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetMT DIABLO EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $95,000 over 3y, 28% of budgetSPECIAL OLYMPICS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INC — $95,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetCocoKids Inc — $95,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBRIDGE BUILDERS TO THE NEW GENERATION — $90,000 over 3y, 5.5% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR STUDENTS RISING ABOVE — $90,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetLincoln — $87,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budget
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 Diablo Regional Arts Association ↗
  • Who funds CONTRA COSTA FAMILY JUSTICE ALLIANCE ↗
  • Who funds JOHN MUIR HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
  • Who funds EAST BAY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds OPPORTUNITY JUNCTION INC ↗
  • Who funds STAND FOR FAMILIES FREE OF VIOLENCE ↗
  • Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS DIABLO REGION ↗
  • Who funds TANDEM PARTNERS IN EARLY LEARNING ↗
  • Who funds East Bay Center for the Performing Arts ↗
  • Who funds RYSE INC ↗
  • Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS CONTRA COSTA INC ↗
  • Who funds GREATER RICHMOND INTERFAITH PROGRAM GRIP ↗
  • Who funds BAY AREA LEGAL AID ↗
  • Who funds UJIMA FAMILY RECOVERY SERVICES ↗
  • Who funds RUBICON PROGRAMS INC ↗
  • Who funds Loaves and Fishes of Contra Costa ↗
  • Who funds We Care Services For Children ↗
  • Who funds SHELTER INC ↗

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.

East Bay Community Fo…The San Francisco Fou…Lowell Berry Foundati…Bernard E & Alba Witk…Kaiser Foundation Hos…Contra Costa Regional…San Jose Mercury News…Tipping Point Communi…Antioch Community Fou…Justice Justice Found…The Morris Stulsaft F…Richmond Community Fo…
East Bay Community FoundationCA108.6× affinity76 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: East Bay Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Lowell Berry Foundation · Bernard E & Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals · Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation · San Jose Mercury News Wish Book Fund Inc · Tipping Point Community · Antioch Community Foundation Attn Keith Archuleta · Justice Justice Foundation · The Morris Stulsaft Foundation · Richmond Community 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 Dean and Margaret Lesher 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 9%
  • Reach Out and Read Inc — 9% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
62report 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

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Dean and Margaret Lesher 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 352 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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