How much does Flora L Thornton Foundation give?

Flora L Thornton Foundation reported 67 grants totaling $2,222,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 64 and 90 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2023.

What does Flora L Thornton Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (39%), Education (12%), Arts & Culture (11%).

Who are Flora L Thornton Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2018 to FY2024: Greenbelt Alliancepeople for Open Space ($720k), Greater Los Angeles Zoological Association ($587k), Environmental Defense Fund Incorporated ($550k).

Does Flora L Thornton Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Flora L Thornton Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Flora L Thornton Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Laney and Pasha Thornton Foundation, California Community Foundation, The Ralph M Parsons Foundation.

Where is Flora L Thornton Foundation based?

Flora L Thornton Foundation is based in CA.

Flora L Thornton Foundation

Flora L Thornton Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Flora L Thornton Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2.2M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$140k

Largest

01What it funds

0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Environment$6.4MEducation$1.9MArts & Culture$1.8MAnimals$1.6MHealth$1.1MPhilanthropy$986kFood & Nutrition$505kYouth Development$258kOther$0

02FY2024 · 67 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k13 grants · $50k
$10k–50k33 grants · $722k
$50k–250k21 grants · $1.4M

$25,000

Median grant

States reached

$34M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
GREENBELT ALLIANCE	$140,000
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND	$100,000
AS YOU SOW	$100,000
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY	$90,000
LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF LOS ANGELES	$75,000
CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER	$75,000
AFRICAN WILDLIFE FOUNDATION	$70,000
CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH	$70,000
CROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA	$70,000
SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER	$70,000
RAINFOREST ALLIANCE	$60,000
POPULATION MEDIA CENTER	$60,000
SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION	$60,000
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE	$55,000
THE CLIMATE CENTER	$55,000

02The need

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 (FY18–24, $64k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 84% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$14M · 103 repeat orgs$899k to everyone else

103 repeat relationships: 60 still active in FY2024, 43 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

103

Total granted

$14M

$849k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+25%

Still filing today

77%

59%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentArts & CultureEducationAnimalsHuman ServicesHealthOther

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

GA
GREENBELT ALLIANCEPEOPLE FOR OPEN SPACE
6× · 2018–2024 · $720k · revenue +42%
GL
GREATER LOS ANGELES ZOOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION
7× · 2018–2024 · $587k · revenue +26%
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED
7× · 2018–2024 · $550k · revenue +111%

Funded once

MS
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST (DAF) #9464
one grant, 2020 · $300k
MS
MORGAN STANLEY GIFT (DAF) #9464
one grant, 2019 · $125k
ED
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND -FISHERIES PHIL
one grant, 2018 · $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.

The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International

Friends of the Earth

Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…

Environment

Asociacion Interamericana Para La Defensa Del Ambiente

To strenghten people's ability to guarantee their individual and collective right to a healthy environment, via the development, implementation, and effective enforcement of national and international law.

Crime & Legal

World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment

Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation

To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Animals

Aquarium of the Pacific Corporation

The aquarium of the pacific's mission is to instill a sense of wonder, respect, and stewardship for the pacific ocean, its inhabitants, and ecosystems.

Animals

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech

California Institute for Biodiversity

Create and publish educational materials, conduct professional development, promote awareness, and sponsor research on the spectacular biological diversity of the State of CA.

Education

The Uc Davis Foundation

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

Education

Parks California

As california state parks' statutory non-profit partner, we have a clear mission - to help strengthen parks and inspire all people to experience these extraordinary places.

Environment

Association of California School Administrators

The association serves its members by creating resources that enable california school administrators to develop and apply creative leadership and management skills and in turn, improve the educational process for all students.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is As You Sow; the most unlike its peers is O Street Museum Foundation. 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

118 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. 118 of the 165 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

117/118

Grantees still filing

80/118

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$6,818,420Environment$3,701,000Education$1,916,000Arts & Culture$1,412,700Animals$1,242,000Health$782,500Food & Nutrition$405,000

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

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.

The Laney and Pasha Thornton FoundationCA34.7× affinity14 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Laney and Pasha Thornton Foundation · California Community Foundation · The Ralph M Parsons Foundation · The Rose Hills Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The Annenberg Foundation · Elbridge Stuart Foundation Dba Stuart Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · Mary a Crocker Trust · McNabb 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 Flora L Thornton Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Flora L Thornton Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

32report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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 Flora L Thornton Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Flora L Thornton 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.

Play a game based on Flora L Thornton’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