California · Private foundation
Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $5.3M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 128
- Grants FY2025
- 134
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 23%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $25,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $300,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 97 to 134
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 2
- Total assets, FY2025
- $94M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 23% of the organizations Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 10% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $554k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 126 | $5.2M | 21% |
| FY2024 | 134 | $5.3M | 23% |
| FY2023 | 118 | $4.8M | 16% |
| FY2022 | 132 | $4.7M | 96% |
| FY2021 | 97 | $4.4M | 14% |
| FY2020 | 118 | $4.4M | 34% |
| FY2018 | 116 | $3.7M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2018 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diablo Regional Arts Association | $1,085,000 | 4 | 47% |
| First 5 Contra Costa | $873,100 | 4 | n/a |
| Contra Costa Family Justice Alliance | $622,500 | 4 | 2% |
| John Muir Health Foundation | $600,000 | 3 | 1% |
| California Symphony Orchestra Inc | $430,000 | 4 | 15% |
| Opportunity Junction Inc | $411,000 | 4 | 4% |
| Meals on Wheels Diablo Region | $410,000 | 4 | 2% |
| Stand for Families Free of Violence | $404,525 | 4 | 3% |
| Tandem Partners in Early Learning | $348,000 | 4 | 4% |
| Rubicon Programs Inc | $310,000 | 3 | 1% |
Show all 153 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 220 recipients with no EIN on record ($16M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 7 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 138 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: 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
How this is measured
Compare Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation with peer funders
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.
About Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation
- How much does Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation give?
- Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation reported 128 grants totaling $5,300,800 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 97 and 134 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (27%), Human Services (11%), Arts & Culture (11%).
- Who are Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2018 to FY2025: Diablo Regional Arts Association ($1.1M), First 5 Contra Costa ($873k), Contra Costa Family Justice Alliance ($623k).
- Does Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 23% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include East Bay Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, Lowell Berry Foundation.
- Where is Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation based?
- Dean and Margaret Lesher Foundation is based in CA.
Play a game based on Dean and Margaret Lesher’s filings →