· Private foundation
Essential 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $2k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RISE UP INDUSTRIES | $15,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA | $15,000 |
| THE LEGACY - ROLF BENIRSCHKE INVITATIONAL | $10,000 |
| UNITED THROUGH READING | $10,000 |
| EASTLAKE MIDDLE SCHOOL | $750 |
| NAVY FLEET WEEK FOUNDATION | $500 |
| NASIC ASSOCIATION | $300 |
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 (FY17–24, $18k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-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 +34% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
15 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2024, 12 since wound down; 3 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, 56% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $16k 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
- UTUNITED THROUGH READING6× · 2017–2022 · $65k · revenue +178%
- PLPRIORITY LIVING INC2× · 2019–2020 · $45k · revenue +12%
- EEdify2× · 2019–2020 · $20k · revenue +111%
Funded once
- SGSOVEREIGN GRACE CHURCH (AKA - CITIZENS CHURCH LA)one grant, 2022 · $80k
- LLLEVERAGE LEADERSHIP CO PRIORITY LIVINGone grant, 2023 · $20k
- NMNAVY MARINE LEAGUEone grant, 2022 · $13k
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.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
To support, promote, and advance the mission of the naval academy.
Help the naval war college to: a. develop strategic and operational leaders: provide professional military education programs that are current, rigorous, relevant, and accessible to the maximum number of qualified u.s. officers and navy…
The navy memorial mission is to honor, recognize and celebrate the men and women of the sea services and the important contributions made by them while serving in the united states navy, marine corps, coast guard and merchant marine. the…
The nstmf's mission is to build inclusive stem communities across the united states. fundamental to these communities are the significant, inspirational connections we foster between the individuals who have received national recognition…
Connect is an innovation instigator established to cultivate san diego's life science and tech communities. a trusted partner for more than 30 years, we propel our region's entrepreneurs as they create and scale their companies from…
NextOp helps place talented enlisted service members and veterans into civilian careers through highly individualized preparation and an array of programming.
Advancing the art and science of navigation, positioning, and timing. the institute of navigation (ion) is a membership organization incorporated in january 1967 for the purpose of advancing the art and science of navigation through…
Our mission is to support the naval postgraduate school by providing funding and programmatic support for education, research, technology development, institutional initiatives, and community programs that advance national security and…
The mission of the foundation is to honor the legacy of military service through its programs and by its direct support of the marines' memorial association in fulfilling its mission to commemorate the sacrifices of our nation's veterans,…
Sof is called to empower warriors to find purpose, be resilient, and live well. we develop and provide customized treatment plans for veterans through our national network of partners.
Journeys of discovery that spark bold solutions to global challenges.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The San Diego Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Usa Softball of Southern California Santee. 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 32 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% 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.
29 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. 29 of the 51 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 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds UNITED THROUGH READING ↗
- Who funds PRIORITY LIVING INC ↗
- Who funds Edify ↗
- Who funds Rise Up Industries ↗
- Who funds NAVAL SUBMARINE LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds SUPPORT THE ENLISTED PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds SANTA FE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds MIRAMAR NATIONAL CEMETERY SUPPORT FDN ↗
- Who funds UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds USO OF METROPOLITAN NEW YORK INC ↗
- Who funds NAVY LEAGUE OF THE US-HONOLULU COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds ROLF BENIRSCHKE LEGACY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WORLD VISION INC ↗
- Who funds RISEN PROJECT FKA RISEN SON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAVED IN AMERICA ↗
- Who funds THE ROSIE NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds GOOD TIDINGS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MOVEMENT FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GREATER HAMPTON ROADS INC ↗
- Who funds William D Lynch Foundation For Children ↗
- Who funds THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ↗
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: Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · The San Diego Foundation · Midway Foundation Inc · Sempra Foundation · Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation · The Parker Foundation · The Cushman Foundation · Price Philanthropies Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · The Intuit Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund
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 Essential 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.