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Faro Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Faro Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$738k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$225k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$4.6MEnvironment$1.9MCommunity Improvement$1.4MAnimals$432kPublic Safety & Disaster$415kEducation$400kHuman Services$250kHealth$114kOther$0
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$113,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE BUSHWICK STARR THEATER$225,000
THE WALDEN SCHOOL$150,000
Individual grant recipient$113,000
HARLEM GROWN INC$100,000
THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART$100,000
PROJECT ANGEL FOOD$50,000
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 (FY17–20, $239k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 38% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%WAVES FOR WATER INC: $149k → 10%MOTION PICTURE & TELEVISION FUND: $75k → 14%FOOD ON FOOT: $5k → 14%FOOD ON FOOT: $5k → 14%FOOD ON FOOT: $5k → 14%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

ID
NY
MA
OR
CA
CO
VA
DC
HI
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 10% of Faro Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Faro Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 2.9% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

69%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$7.4M · 14 repeat orgs$3.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +40% since the first grant, against +15% for those funded once.

14 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
38

Total granted

$7.4M
$3.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+40%
+15%

Still filing today

71%
61%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEnvironmentHuman ServicesPhilanthropyCommunity ImprovementEducationOther
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

  • HG
    HARLEM GROWN INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +222%
  • SC
    SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $400k · revenue +85%
  • TM
    THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES
    4× · 2022–2025 · $400k · revenue +2%

Funded once

  • KS
    KV SETTLEMENT LLC
    one grant, 2021 · $980k
  • UW
    UNITED WAY HARVEY RECOVERY FUND
    one grant, 2017 · $300k
  • K
    Kukolu
    one grant, 2023 · $300k · 53% 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
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
2
California Film Institute

The california film institute celebrates film and videos as art and education. its goal is to present and support emerging and established independent filmakers whose works address issues relevant to contemporary society. this is…

Arts & Culture
3
Food Forward Inc

Food forward fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people experiencing food insecurity, and inspiring others to do the same.

Food & Nutrition
4
Los Angeles Opera Company

To serve the public by producing world-class opera that preserves, promotes and advances the art form while embodying the diversity, spirit and artistic sensibility unique to los angeles. we envision an engaged and enlightened community in…

Arts & Culture
5
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

The Television Academy is dedicated to celebrating excellence, innovation and the advancement of the telecommunications arts and sciences through recognition, education and leadership, while fostering a diverse, inclusive and accessible…

—
6
Newfilmmakers Los Angeles

Works by emerging filmmkaers from around the world, providing the losangeles community of entertainment professionals and film goers with aconstant surge of monthly screening events. nfmla provides a forumwhere filmmakers can be recognized…

Arts & Culture
7
California Institute of Contemporary Art
—
8
Los Angeles Performance Practice

As creative producers, we are devoted to the production and presentation of groundbreaking experiences in contemporary performance that use innovative approaches to collaboration, technology, and social engagement. As a service…

Arts & Culture
9
Cangress Dba Los Angeles Community Action Network

Community organizing, education, advocacy, leadership development, direct services and organizational development for communities faced with immense poverty.

Community Improvement
10
Arts for La

Arts for la leads communities, artists and organizations to advocate for an equitable, healthy, and creative los angeles region through the arts.

Arts & Culture
11
Cooperation L a

The L.A. Co-op Lab is a collective that builds capacity for worker ownership in Los Angeles as a pathway toward a more equitable and democratic economy.

Arts & Culture
12
California College of the Arts

California college of the arts educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. benefitting from its san francisco bay area location, the college prepares…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Actors' Fund of America; the most unlike its peers is Upper Ojai Relief. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

35 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 35 of the 53 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
34/35
Grantees still filing
21/35
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE BUSHWICK STARR THEATER: $3,645,000 · OtherTHE BUSHWICK STARR THEATERKV SETTLEMENT LLC: $980,000 · OtherKV SETTLEMENT LLCIndividual grant recipient: $499,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipientUNITED WAY HARVEY RECOVERY FUND: $300,000 · Other+30 more: $1,269,593 · Other+30 moreHARLEM GROWN INC: $1,625,000 · EnvironmentHARLEM GROWN INCPACIFIC RIVERS: $156,856 · EnvironmentPACIFIC RIVERS+1 more: $46,863 · EnvironmentSHAKESPEARE & COMPANY INC: $400,000 · Arts & CultureSHAKESPEARE …THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $400,000 · Arts & CultureTHE MUSEUM O…THE WALDEN SCHOOL: $300,000 · Arts & CultureTHE WALDEN S…AMERICAN FRIENDS OF TIFF: $50,000 · Arts & CultureTHE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: $50,000 · Arts & CultureTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $200,000 · EducationALLIANCE COLLEGE-READY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $100,000 · EducationCOUNCIL FOR NATIVE HAWAIIAN ADVANCEMENT: $100,000 · EducationKukolu: $300,000 · Community ImprovementBig Sunday: $50,000 · Community ImprovementFREE THE WORK: $30,000 · Community ImprovementWAVES FOR WATER INC: $149,000 · Human ServicesMOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION FUND: $75,000 · Human ServicesFOOD ON FOOT: $15,000 · Human ServicesPROJECT ANGEL FOOD: $100,000 · HealthTHE GOODEN CENTER: $45,000 · Health
Other$6,694,093Environment$1,828,719Arts & Culture$1,200,000Education$400,000Community Improvement$380,000Human Services$239,000Health$145,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetHARLEM GROWN INC: $1,625,000 over 9y, 13% of budgetSHAKESPEARE & COMPANY INC: $400,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetTHE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART LOS ANGELES: $400,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetKukolu: $300,000 over 1y, 53% of budgetTHE WALDEN SCHOOL: $300,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $200,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWAVES FOR WATER INC: $149,000 over 1y, 9.1% of budgetCouncil on International Non-Theatrical Events Inc: $110,000 over 1y, 79% of budgetWHITE RIBBON ALLIANCE INC: $103,500 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetALLIANCE COLLEGE-READY PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetTHE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPROJECT ANGEL FOOD: $100,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetCOUNCIL FOR NATIVE HAWAIIAN ADVANCEMENT: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION FUND: $75,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSHELTER PARTNERSHIP INC: $60,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBig Sunday: $50,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetUNITED WAY INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF TIFF: $50,000 over 1y, 37% of budgetTHE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCENTURY VILLAGES AT CABRILLO INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetThe Pachamama Alliance: $46,863 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetTHE GOODEN CENTER: $45,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetLOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK: $35,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetARTHUR MILLER FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetFREE THE WORK: $30,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetThe Labelle Foundation Inc: $30,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetHollywood Indies Little League co Stanley M Brooks: $25,000 over 5y, 8.1% of budgetFULCRUM ARTS: $20,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetCAMP RAINBOW GOLD INC: $18,900 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetHUMANE SOCIETY OF VENTURA COUNTY: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFOOD ON FOOT: $15,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetLand is Life Inc: $7,500 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetJUST KEEP LIVIN FOUNDATION: $2,000 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.

California Community …Silicon Valley Commun…Network for GoodNational Philanthropi…Gs Donor Advised Phil…Paypal Charitable Giv…Charities Aid Foundat…Morgan Stanley Global…American Endowment Fo…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…The Bank of America C…
California Community FoundationCA18× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: California Community Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%4%15%34%60%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Shakespeare & Company Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
8report 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.

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 53 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Faro’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