· Private foundation
Ess Family 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.
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.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| OUR LADY OF LIGHT | $1,500 |
| OUR LADY OF THE LAKE | $1,500 |
| AMERICAN CORNERSTONE INSTITUTE | $100 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 36% of your 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 +97% since the first grant, against +20% for the ones you funded once.
10 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 1 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100 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
- RFRIDGEVIEW FOUNDATION2× · 2020–2023 · $8k · revenue +97%
- SASCALPEL AT THE CROSS INC2× · 2021–2023 · $2k · revenue +179%
SMILE TRAIN INC2× · 2021–2023 · $1k · revenue +8%
Funded once
- HCHIGHLANDS CHURCHone grant, 2023 · $6k
- FAFOOD ALLERGY RESEARCH & EDUCATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $2k · revenue +68%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $1k
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.
The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…
Asco association promotes the common business interests of its members by: (1) advocating for policies that improve the quality of cancer care; (2) maintaining the highest standards of oncology medical care through programs supporting…
See schedule o:asco is a professional oncology society committed to conquering cancer through research, education, and promotion of the highest quality patient care.
Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.
The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…
Engage actively and continuously in medical research, education and training in the practice of medicine in conjunction with the department of family medicine of the indiana university school of medicine and indiana university…
The purpose of the association is the promotion of educational and professional association interests including but not limited to the promotion of the interests of radiology and the interests and study of the socioeconomic aspects of the…
Jewelers of america, the most trusted and influential voice of the jewelry industry, empowers and unites its members through expert guidance and advocacy, driving excellence, integrity, and success in an ever-changing marketplace.
The american college of allergy, asthma & immunology promotes excellence in the practice of the subspecialty of allergy and immunology.
The foundation's mission is to improve the oral health of all californians by supporting the dental profession and its efforts to meet community needs.
To assure that dermatologists have access to the highest quality education, research and innovations in the field, and that patients and the public have access to the highest quality medical and surgical dermatologic care and to…
A nonprofit scientific research organization that develops vaccines and antibodies for hiv, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Judicial Watch Inc and the most unlike its peers is Smile Train Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 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. 10 of the 23 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
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 RIDGEVIEW FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOOD ALLERGY RESEARCH & EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds SCALPEL AT THE CROSS INC ↗
- Who funds SMILE TRAIN INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds JUDICIAL WATCH INC ↗
- Who funds COLLEGE OF SAINT BENEDICT ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CORNERSTONE INSTITUTE INC ↗
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Ess Family 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.
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.