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Epispace Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Epispace 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.

$735k
Granted FY2022
13
Grants FY2022
7
States reached
$230k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

77% of Epispace Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Bank Of America Charitable Gift Fd, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year Epispace Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 11 organizations, $735k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

1
’17
2
’18
2
’19
2
’20
12
’21
11
’22
5
’23
3
’24

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

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Public Safety & Disaster$1.2MPhilanthropy$1.1MArts & Culture$288kHealth$265kFood & Nutrition$210kCommunity Improvement$120kInternational$110kHousing & Shelter$90kOther$0
02FY2022 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2022

  • $10k–50k8 grants · $145k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $590k
$20,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$6.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
RCS EMPOWERS INC$230,000
BANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE GIFT FUND$160,000
PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC$100,000
COUNTERPULSE$50,000
SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY$50,000
BRILLIANT CORNERS$25,000
ABLE WORKS$20,000
TIDES CENTER$20,000
REPRESENTUS EDUCATION FUND$20,000
ACCESS LIVING OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO$20,000
DECRIMINALIZE SEX WORK$15,000
CREATIVITY EXPLORED$15,000
CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 85% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%THE EFFING FOUNDATION: $15k → 8%REPRESENTUS EDUCATION FUND: $20k → 12%BANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $488k → 16%HIDDEN VILLA: $10k → 8%URBAN HABITAT PROGRAM: $5k → 10%ABLE WORKS: $20k → 10%CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%ASSIST INTERNATIONAL: $110k → 12%UBW INC: $50k → 20%DECRIMINALIZE SEX WORK: $15k → 10%PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES: $287k → 12%COMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 14%PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC: $100k → 16%ACCESS LIVING OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $20k → 14%PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE: $50k → 8%REPRESENTUS EDUCATION FUND: $20k → 12%THE TRUST FOR HIDDEN VILLA: $5k → 8%BLACK MUSIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP INCUBATOR: $50k → 10%INTERNET SECURITY RESEARCH GROUP: $5k → 10%CALIFORNIA YIMBY EDUCATION FUND: $10k → 12%PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES: $75k → 12%THE TRUST FOR HIDDEN VILLA: $5k → 8%COUNTERPULSE: $30k → 10%PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES: $55k → 12%SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $100k → 8%THE KELSEY: $30k → 10%PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES: $53k → 12%SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $50k → 8%BRILLIANT CORNERS: $25k → 10%SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $50k → 8%CREATIVITY EXPLORED: $15k → 10%SECOND HARVEST: $10k → 8%COUNTERPULSE: $50k → 10%COUNTERPULSE: $50k → 10%COUNTERPULSE: $50k → 10%HOSPITALITY HOUSE: $10k → 10%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

IL
WI
NY
MA
RI
CA
CO
NC
SC
DC
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.

52%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 7 repeat orgs$1.2M to everyone else

7 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2022, 2 since wound down; 8 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

7
12

Total granted

$1.2M
$696k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-17%
+46%

Still filing today

100%
58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 38% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k 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
Civil RightsHealthCommunity ImprovementPublic BenefitHousing & ShelterEducationOther
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

  • PS
    PORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC
    7× · 2017–2023 · $769k · revenue -17% · 85% of their budget
  • SH
    SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY
    3× · 2021–2023 · $200k · revenue -4%
  • C
    CounterPulse
    4× · 2019–2024 · $180k · revenue +34%

Funded once

  • PF
    PARTNERSHIP FOR INCLUSIVE DISASTERS STRATEGIES
    one grant, 2017 · $433k
  • AI
    ASSIST INTERNATIONAL INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $110k · revenue +51%
  • UI
    UBW INC
    one grant, 2021 · $50k
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
Center for Humane Technology

Center for Humane Technology is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that the most consequential technologies actually serve humanity. We bring clarity to how the tech ecosystem works in order to shift the incentives that drive it.

Science & Tech
2
Rescape California

ReScape addresses climate change by providing a regenerative, nature-based whole systems foundation for landscaping education, workforce development and policy.Foundational to our work is a whole systems watershed framework that…

Environment
3
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
4
CarbonPlan

Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.

Environment
5
Center for Democracy and Technology

Advocating for public policies that advance democratic values in the digital age.

Civil Rights
6
Housing Trust Silicon Valley

Our mission at housing trust silicon valley, is to use transformative housing finance and public and private partnerships to create more equitable and affordable communities.

Housing & Shelter
7
Transformca dba Transform

Transform works to ensure that people of all incomes thrive in a world safe from climate chaos.

Community Improvement
8
CalMatters

Our team of experienced journalists, with the time and resources to dig deep, is committed to meaningfully informing Californians about the players, politics, and interests that shape the issues that affect their lives.

Civil Rights
9
Enterprise Community Investment Inc

All our efforts support our strategic goals to increase housing supply, advance racial equity and build resilience and upward mobility.the organization raises private capital through investment and by forming effective partnerships.…

Housing & Shelter
10
Employ America

To promote macroeconomic policies that ensure the sustained advancement of labor market outcomes for all american workers, i.e. tight labor markets, higher wages and better quality employment.

Employment
11
Ffwd

FFWD accelerates the growth of technology nonprofits by providing financial and human capital to help scale technology solutions for education, environmental, health, and human rights issues.

Philanthropy
12
Coop Careers Inc

Building a movement of diverse, upwardly mobile college grads overcoming underemployment through digital skills and peer connections.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago; the most unlike its peers is Black Music Entrepreneurship Incubator. 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

24 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. 24 of the 30 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
24/24
Grantees still filing
11/24
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE GIFT FD: $1,088,000 · PhilanthropyBANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE GIFT FDPARTNERSHIP FOR INCLUSIVE DISASTERS STRATEGIES: $433,033 · OtherPARTNERSHIP FOR INCLUSIVE DISASTE…CounterPulse: $180,000 · OtherCounterPulsePORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC: $100,000 · OtherPORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INCUBW INC: $50,000 · OtherBlack Music Entrepreneurship Incubator: $50,000 · OtherRepresentUs Education Fund: $40,000 · Other+15 more: $218,000 · Other+15 morePORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC: $769,434 · Civil RightsPORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC+1 more: $15,000 · Civil RightsRCS EMPOWERS INC: $230,000 · HealthCREATIVITY EXPLORED INC: $15,000 · HealthSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $200,000 · Food & NutritionASSIST INTERNATIONAL INC: $110,000 · InternationalPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $50,000 · EducationBRILLIANT CORNERS: $25,000 · Education
Philanthropy$1,088,000Other$1,071,033Civil Rights$784,434Health$245,000Food & Nutrition$200,000International$110,000Education$75,000

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 budgetBANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE GIFT FD: $1,088,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPORTLIGHT STRATEGIES INC: $769,434 over 7y, 85% of budgetRCS EMPOWERS INC: $230,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $200,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCounterPulse: $180,000 over 4y, 3.7% of budgetASSIST INTERNATIONAL INC: $110,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBlack Music Entrepreneurship Incubator: $50,000 over 1y, 6.7% of budgetRepresentUs Education Fund: $40,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetKELSEY: $30,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetBRILLIANT CORNERS: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCalifornia YIMBY Education Fund: $20,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTRUST FOR HIDDEN VILLA: $20,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTIDES CENTER: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAccess Living of Metropolitan Chicago: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetABLE WORKS: $20,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetCREATIVITY EXPLORED INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetDecriminalize Sex Work: $15,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetTHE ACCESS FUND: $15,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetCOMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUND: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BAIL PROJECT INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIndependent Arts & Media: $8,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetUrban Habitat Program: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetINTERNET SECURITY RESEARCH GROUP: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

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…The San Francisco Fou…Tides FoundationThe William & Flora H…The Ford FoundationMorgan Stanley Global…Vanguard Charitable E…American Endowment Fo…American Online Givin…Network for GoodDonor Advised Charita…National Philanthropi…
Silicon Valley Community FoundationCA22.8× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Tides Foundation · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · The Ford Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Epispace Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Epispace Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Epispace Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Epispace 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 30 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 Epispace’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