· Private foundation
Ellison Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k39 grants · $138k
- $10k–50k48 grants · $803k
- $50k–250k15 grants · $1.4M
- $250k+1 grant · $252k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MARY'S PLACE | $252,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| OVERLAKE MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH | $150,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF KING COUNTY | $100,000 |
| SEATTLE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| BROTHERS FOR LIFE | $100,000 |
| SUN VALLEY TOUR DE FORCE | $100,000 |
| VINE MAPLE PLACE | $100,000 |
| NORTHWEST EDUCATION ACCESS | $50,000 |
| SEATTLE UNIVERSITY | $50,000 |
| KIDVANTAGE | $50,000 |
| VISION HOUSE | $50,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY | $50,000 |
| CAMP KOREY | $50,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $1.8M) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 11% 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +24% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
85 repeat relationships — 52 still active in FY2024, 33 since wound down; 51 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
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 FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $644k 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
- OHOVERLAKE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $1.0M · revenue +61%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION4× · 2021–2024 · $650k · revenue +11%
- MPMaris Place5× · 2020–2024 · $481k · revenue +80% · 41% of their budget
Funded once
- SCSEATTLE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL-ODESSA BROWN CAMPAIGNone grant, 2020 · $400k
- CRCristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High Schoolone grant, 2023 · $250k
- SCSEATTLE CHILDREN'Sone grant, 2020 · $200k
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.
KCSARC is the largest and most comprehensive non-profit provider of sexual assault services in King County and Washington State. Our vision is a community free of sexual violence. Our mission is to: give voice to victims, their families,…
Seattle humane promotes the human-animal bond by saving and serving pets in need, regardless of age, ability, circumstance or geography.
Disability rights washington's mission is to advance the dignity, equality, and self determination of people with disabilities. we work to pursue justice on matters related to human and legal rights.
Siff is a seattle-based 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education.
Seattle jobs initiative (sji) creates opportunities for people to support themselves and their families through living-wage careers.
United way of snohomish county improves lives for families in snohomish county by bringing people, resources, and strategy together.
Life science washington is a non-profit trade and professional association dedicated to promoting innovation and responsible growth in the life sciences and biomedical industries in the state of washington. promotion and education are…
Building changes advances equitable responses to homelessness in washington state, with a focus on children, youth, and families. we work at the intersection of housing, education, and health systems, partnering with communities and public…
The association of washington cities builds connections between our state's diverse cities and towns, while providing our members with the support needed to thrive through delivery of data-driven education, nationally recognized pooling…
To provide economic development financing to serve the needs of small businesses in the state of washington that would not qualify for private financing under conventional financing criteria.
The washington area community investment fund (wacif) is a nonprofit community loan fund focused on increasing equity and economic opportunity in the washington, dc area's underserved communities. wacif's mission is driven is driven by…
To cultivate leaders and community partnerships to advance environmental justice.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Make-a-Wish Foundation of Alaska & Washington and the most unlike its peers is Institute for Media Analysis Inc. 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.
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 26 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 12% 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.
143 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. 143 of the 260 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
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
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 OVERLAKE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF KING COUNTY ↗
- Who funds Maris Place ↗
- Who funds CAMP KOREY ↗
- Who funds NORTHWEST EDUCATION ACCESS ↗
- Who funds Seattle Children's Foundation ↗
- Who funds Brothers for Life ↗
- Who funds KIDVANTAGE ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School ↗
- Who funds VINE MAPLE PLACE ↗
- Who funds FOOD LIFELINE ↗
- Who funds OVERLAKE SERVICE LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds RAINIER SCHOLARS ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds BLAINE COUNTY HUNGER COALITION INC ↗
- Who funds LA CASA HOGAR ↗
- Who funds FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER ↗
- Who funds RECOVERY CAFE ↗
- Who funds KINDERING CENTER ↗
- Who funds WESTSIDE BABY ↗
- Who funds VISION HOUSE ↗
- Who funds BELLEVUE BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS INC ↗
- Who funds Rwanda Girls Initiative ↗
- Who funds INTREPID EVENTS INC ↗
- Who funds SAINT FRANCES CABRINI CHARITABLE SERVICES ↗
- Who funds MONTPELIER DOWNTOWN COMMUNITY ASSOC ↗
- Who funds FIND VENTURES CO ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE FOR MEDIA ANALYSIS INC ↗
- Who funds LAHAI HEALTH ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER OF SNOHOMISH COUNTY ↗
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: The Norcliffe Foundation · Seattle Foundation · Puget Sound Energy Foundation · Moccasin Lake Foundation · United Way of King County · Medina Foundation · Credit Unions in the State of Washington · Aven Foundation · Lucky Seven Foundation · Harnish Foundation · M J Murdock Charitable Trust · Grousemont 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 Ellison 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.
- High Desert Museum — 11% of income from government
- Girls Inc of the Pacific Northwest — 4% of income from government
- Migrant Justice Inc — 0% of income from government
- Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Inc — 0% of income from government
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc — 0% of income from government
- The Vermont Community Foundation — 0% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Ellison Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Ellison 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.