· Private foundation
Helen Russo 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GREEN VALLEY BAPTIST CHURCH | $1,215 |
| GREEN VALLEY CONCERT BAND | $1,000 |
| REID PARK ZOO | $600 |
| ST JUDE HOSPITAL | $400 |
| GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND | $400 |
| AMERICAN LEAGUE OF GREEN VALLEY | $225 |
| ROGER BACON HIGH SCHOOL | $75 |
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 (FY19–22, $775) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 3% of those 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 +30% since the first grant, against +24% for the ones you funded once.
16 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $400 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
- FIFRIENDS IN DEED INC5× · 2018–2024 · $2k · revenue +30%
- TAThe Animal League of Green Valley7× · 2018–2025 · $2k · revenue +34%
- RPREID PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY3× · 2023–2025 · $2k · revenue +11%
Funded once
- SASOUTHERN AZ HONOR FLIGHTone grant, 2018 · $1k
- UMUNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF GVone grant, 2022 · $300
- LSLUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTHWESTone grant, 2021 · $250 · revenue +24%
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.
United Food Bank unites communities to alleviate hunger.
To compassionately serve pets and the people who love them.
To feed, clothe and empower those struggling with hunger, poverty homelessness in the city of Mesa, Arizona area, by serving over 70,000 hot evening meals per year. (Continued on Schedule O, Statement 2)
Improving our community by providing exceptional, whole-person healthcare.
We save the most vulnerable animals and enrich the lives of pets and people.
At Animal Samaritans we champion compassion and respect for all living creatures, with a primary focus on dogs, cats, and the people who love them. We view pets not merely as animals, but as members of our families. As their guardians and…
On a mission to connect every person facing hunger with nutritious meals by maximizing food rescue. through direct service and community partnerships, feeding san diego provides more than 26 million meals each year to children, families,…
As a no-kill cat rescue, serving our community of Fountain Hills, AZ and surrounding areas, we are dedicated to rescuing cats and kittens left homeless for whatever reason and placing them in a loving, responsible, permanent home.
Bring healing and hope to the people of mexico.
Valley Humane Society (VHS) creates a brighter future for cats and dogs by encouraging and strengthening the bond between people and pets. VHS rescues and rehabilitates companion animals, champions responsible caretaking, shares pets'…
Liberty Wildlife nurtures the nature of Arizona by providing quality wildlife rehabilitation, environmental education and conservation consultation services for the community.
Donor Alliance saves and heals lives through organ and tissue donation. Donor Alliance is one of 55 Federally designated, non-profit organ procurement organizations serving Colorado and most of Wyoming. Additionally, it is a member of the…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest and the most unlike its peers is Green Valley Concert Band Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 28% 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 16% 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.
18 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. 18 of the 44 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 GREEN VALLEY CONCERT BAND INC ↗
- Who funds THE SHRINERS' HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS IN DEED INC ↗
- Who funds The Animal League of Green Valley ↗
- Who funds REID PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND INC ↗
- Who funds SAHUARITA FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE SOUTHWEST ↗
- Who funds Paws Patrol Inc ↗
- Who funds ST ANDREW'S CHILDREN'S CLINIC ↗
- Who funds Matthew 25 Ministries Inc ↗
- Who funds JUDICIAL WATCH INC ↗
- Who funds FAITH AND FREEDOM COALITION INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds Community Food Bank Inc ↗
- Who funds HOSPICE OF CINCINNATI INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds PRIESTS FOR LIFE ↗
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: Community Foundation for Southern Arizona · Arizona Community Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 Helen Russo 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.
- The Shriners' Hospital for Children — 6% of income from government
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.