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Enlight Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Enlight Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$25M
Granted FY2022
23
Grants FY2022
5
States reached
$5.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

59% of Enlight Foundation’s FY2024 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. FY2024 names 16 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year Enlight Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 16 organizations, $25M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

14
’17
12
’18
17
’19
27
’20
14
’21
16
’22
10
’23
16
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$66MEducation$48MPublic Benefit$14MHealth$13MInternational$11MEnvironment$6.9MYouth Development$5.1MArts & Culture$3.7MOther$0
02FY2022 · 23 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2022

  • Under $10k1 grant · $3k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $445k
  • $250k+18 grants · $24M
$547,500
Median grant
5
States reached
$254M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ICONIQ EDUCATIONECONOMIC MOBILITY C$5,000,000
ICONIQ IMPACT OCEAN CO-LAB$3,333,334
WORLD SAVVY$3,000,000
SAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSP FOUNDATI$2,918,000
SYRACUS UNIVERSITY$2,000,000
DRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION$1,200,000
GIRL EFFECT$1,000,000
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY$935,280
Individual grant recipient$750,000
SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM NETWORK$717,550
CALMATTERS$586,000
GIVE 2 ASIA$547,500
CATCHLIGHT$519,000
CHILDREN'S HEALTH COUNCIL$500,000
PRESIDIO GRADUATE SCHOOL$412,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–19, $665k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 76% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%SIMPLY HELP FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%ANIMAL ASSISTED HAPPINESS INC: $10k → 8%CHRIS HONDROS FUND: $500k → 17%ANIMAL ASSISTED HAPPINESS INC: $150k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
MN
WI
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
MD
AZ
NM
DC
HI
TX
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

79%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$80M · 37 repeat orgs$21M to everyone else

37 repeat relationships: 18 still active in FY2022, 19 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, 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

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

37
48

Total granted

$80M
$5.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+23%
+32%

Still filing today

76%
40%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5.0M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureHealthInternationalPhilanthropyCivil RightsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TV
    THE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER
    3× · 2018–2020 · $9.3M · revenue +120%
  • SJ
    SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM NETWORK INC
    7× · 2017–2024 · $9.0M · revenue +68% · 51% of their budget
  • WS
    World Savvy
    8× · 2017–2024 · $8.2M · revenue +105% · 87% of their budget

Funded once

  • EV
    EVERYBODY VOTES
    one grant, 2019 · $2.0M
  • FR
    FANGCAO READING CIRCLE
    one grant, 2020 · $500k · revenue -94% · 75% of their budget
  • TC
    THE CHRIS HONDROS FUND
    one grant, 2018 · $500k · revenue -63% · 85% of their budget
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.

04Its field

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.

1
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
2
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
3
Ucsf Foundation Investment Company

The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.

Education
4
Silicon Schools Fund Inc

The mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…

Education
5
Golden Gate University

Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…

Education
6
Uc Santa Barbara Foundation

The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…

Education
7
Kqed Inc

See schedule okqed serves the people of northern california with a community-supported alternative to commercial media, providing the knowledge needed to make informed decisions; convening community dialogue; bringing the arts to everyone;…

Arts & Culture
8
Activate Global Inc

Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. activate partners with u.s. based funders, research institutions, and other pillars of the hard technology community to help entrepreneurial…

Environment
9
Ucla Foundation

The ucla foundation is the giving, receiving, and investing arm of the ucla campus. the foundation enables private donors to help build, sustain and advance one of the world's finest academic and research institutions. private philanthropy…

Education
10
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
11
The California Medical Innovations Institute Inc

The Institute is a scientific research center dedicated to conducting basic and applied research to advance the understanding of human disease and the improvement of human health. The Institute fosters an innovative research environment…

Education
12
AI4ALL

Ai4all's mission is to ensure that the next generation of ai leaders reflects humanity. ai4all is transforming the pipeline of ai practitioners who will shape ai for the benefit of humanity.

Youth Development
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Teach for All Inc; the most unlike its peers is Positive Change Can Happen. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

59 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. 59 of the 106 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.

13
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
59/59
Grantees still filing
35/59
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST: $56,666,666 · PhilanthropyNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUSTDRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION: $5,000,000 · PhilanthropyDRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION+4 more: $890,000 · PhilanthropySAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSP FOUNDATI: $7,157,792 · OtherSAN FRANCISCO GENERAL HOSP F…ICONIQ EDUCATIONECONOMIC MOBILITY C: $5,000,000 · OtherICONIQ EDUCATIONECONOMIC MOB…ICONIQ IMPACT OCEAN CO-LAB: $3,333,334 · OtherICONIQ IMPACT OCEAN CO-LABSCHWAB CHARITABLE DONOR ADVISED FUN: $3,034,616 · OtherSCHWAB CHARITABLE DONOR ADVI…PINEWOOD SCHOOL: $2,507,400 · OtherPINEWOOD SCHOOLTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $2,500,000 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSIT…VIA VOLUNTEERS IN ASIA: $2,075,400 · OtherEVERYBODY VOTES: $2,000,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $1,551,000 · OtherGOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC: $3,000,000 · OtherGOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC+57 more: $11,193,480 · Other+57 moreTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $12,389,187 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRU…SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM NETWORK INC: $9,020,150 · EducationSOLUTIONS JOURNA…SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: $2,000,000 · EducationSYRACUSE UNIVERS…+9 more: $1,021,511 · EducationWorld Savvy: $8,175,000 · InternationalWorld SavvyTilting Futures Incorporated: $5,475,000 · InternationalTilting Fut…Empowerment Works Inc: $1,148,178 · InternationalEmpowerment…AFRICAN LIBRARY PROJECT: $734,400 · InternationalGIVE2ASIA: $697,500 · International+2 more: $1,025,000 · International+2 moreTHE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER: $9,300,000 · Civil RightsTHE VOTER…DEMOCRACY WORKS INC: $3,000,000 · Civil RightsDEMOCRACY…CalMatters: $1,465,000 · Civil RightsCalMatter…Watson Institute: $3,550,734 · Youth DevelopmentGIRL EFFECT INC: $1,300,000 · Youth DevelopmentCHILDREN'S HEALTH COUNCIL INC: $4,500,000 · Health+8 more: $349,749 · Health
Philanthropy$62,556,666Other$43,353,022Education$24,430,848International$17,255,078Civil Rights$13,765,000Youth Development$4,850,734Health$4,849,749

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST: $56,666,666 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $12,389,187 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetTHE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER: $9,300,000 over 3y, 6.8% of budgetSOLUTIONS JOURNALISM NETWORK INC: $9,020,150 over 7y, 51% of budgetWorld Savvy: $8,175,000 over 8y, 87% of budgetTilting Futures Incorporated: $5,475,000 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetDRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION: $5,000,000 over 5y, 11% of budgetCHILDREN'S HEALTH COUNCIL INC: $4,500,000 over 4y, 4.8% of budgetWatson Institute: $3,550,734 over 8y, 44% of budgetDEMOCRACY WORKS INC: $3,000,000 over 2y, 10% of budgetGOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC: $3,000,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $2,500,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: $2,000,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCalMatters: $1,465,000 over 3y, 4.8% of budgetCatchLight: $1,415,500 over 3y, 47% of budgetGIRL EFFECT INC: $1,300,000 over 2y, 22% of budgetEmpowerment Works Inc: $1,148,178 over 2y, 21% of budgetPRESIDIO GRADUATE SCHOOL: $756,520 over 3y, 8.7% of budgetAFRICAN LIBRARY PROJECT: $734,400 over 3y, 56% of budgetART OF THE PIANO: $699,442 over 3y, 61% of budgetGIVE2ASIA: $697,500 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetTHE EARTH GENOME: $600,000 over 2y, 63% of budgetTHE GLOBAL HUNGER PROJECT: $525,000 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetFANGCAO READING CIRCLE: $500,000 over 1y, 75% of budgetTEACH FOR ALL INC: $500,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetTHE CHRIS HONDROS FUND: $500,000 over 1y, 85% of budgetCREW 2030: $466,900 over 3y, 49% of budgetPositive Change Can Happen: $400,000 over 1y, 100% of budgetASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO: $376,640 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetMAGICAL BRIDGE FOUNDATION: $220,000 over 3y, 7.8% of budgetTHE BATTERY FOUNDATION: $170,000 over 6y, 2.1% of budgetMorrissey-Compton Educational Center: $160,000 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetAnimal Assisted Happiness Inc: $160,000 over 2y, 41% of budgetNUS AMERICA FOUNDATION INC: $150,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetFlight School Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 25% of budgetMONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: $95,830 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSEQUOIA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $91,813 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $76,511 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSUTTER HEALTH: $76,204 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSQUASHDRIVE: $75,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetRADIUS BOOKS INC: $70,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetPALO ALTO ART CENTER FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 2y, 4.3% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMAIMONIDES MEDICAL CENTER: $46,212 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE EXPLORATORIUM: $40,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE KOHANAIKI FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetIntersection for the Arts: $20,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budget
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 THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER ↗
  • Who funds SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM NETWORK INC ↗
  • Who funds World Savvy ↗
  • Who funds Tilting Futures Incorporated ↗
  • Who funds DRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S HEALTH COUNCIL INC ↗
  • Who funds Watson Institute ↗
  • Who funds DEMOCRACY WORKS INC ↗
  • Who funds GOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds CalMatters ↗
  • Who funds CatchLight ↗
  • Who funds GIRL EFFECT INC ↗
  • Who funds Empowerment Works Inc ↗
  • Who funds PRESIDIO GRADUATE SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds AFRICAN LIBRARY PROJECT ↗
  • Who funds ART OF THE PIANO ↗
  • Who funds GIVE2ASIA ↗
  • Who funds THE EARTH GENOME ↗
  • Who funds THE GLOBAL HUNGER PROJECT ↗
  • Who funds FANGCAO READING CIRCLE ↗
  • Who funds TEACH FOR ALL INC ↗
  • Who funds THE CHRIS HONDROS FUND ↗
  • Who funds CREW 2030 ↗
  • Who funds Positive Change Can Happen ↗
  • Who funds ASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO ↗

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.

Silicon Valley Commun…Jewish Community Fede…The San Francisco Fou…Marin Community Found…The William & Flora H…Tides FoundationGs Donor Advised Phil…The David and Lucile …Lisa Stone Pritzker F…Skoll FundLos Altos Mountain Vi…The Skoll Foundation
Silicon Valley Community FoundationCA30.4× affinity22 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · The San Francisco Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Tides Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · Lisa Stone Pritzker Family Fund · Skoll Fund · Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation · The Skoll Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Enlight Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Enlight Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc: 6% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 106 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Enlight’s filings →

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