· Private foundation
Heller Family 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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $177k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LUCKY DUCK FOUNDATION | $120,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD | $56,500 |
| NORTH COUNTY LBGTQ RESOURSE | $30,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC | $10,000 |
| BE WELL THERAPY (YOGA FOR CANCER) | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY21–21, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
7 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 2 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, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MMMainly Mozart Inc6× · 2017–2022 · $155k · revenue +31%
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY5× · 2017–2022 · $150k · revenue +45%
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE PACIFIC SOUTHWEST5× · 2017–2022 · $140k · revenue +104%
Funded once
- TATHE ARC OF SAN DIEGOone grant, 2023 · $80k · revenue -8%
- NCNORTH COUNTY LGBTQ RESOURSEone grant, 2024 · $20k
- NCNORTH COUNTY LGBTQ RESOURCEone grant, 2023 · $20k
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.
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 university of san diego is a contemporary catholic university, grounded in the liberal arts and anchored along an international border, advancing academic excellence to create a more inclusive, sustainable and hopeful world.
Pitzer College produces engaged socially responsible citizens of the world through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary liberal arts education emphasizing social justice, intercultural understanding and environmental sensitivity.…
A diverse and sustainable learning community dedicated to discovery and excellence in teaching, scholarship and practice, pacific university inspires students to think, care, create and pursue justice in our world.
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
To deliver accessible world-class student experiences by providing quality programs and services that ensure student success through meaningful learning. to be an inclusive and innovative university serving life-long learners who…
Scu is a catholic and jesuit institution that makes student learning its central focus, promotes faculty and staff learning in its various forms, and exhibits organizational learning.
Our institutional mission is to educate and prepare students to be ethical leaders and socially responsible global citizens who incorporate the dominican values of study, reflection, community and service into their lives.
To educate women to develop their intellect and talents through active participation in a community of scholars, so that as graduates they may contribute to society through public and private lives of leadership, service, integrity and…
Arcadia university's pioneering, global, integrated, liberal arts, and professional learning experience cultivates leaders who are intellectually fearless and uniquely prepared for life and work. our highly regarded, values-based learning…
Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
Pursuing excellence in research learning and engagement to foster global citizenship and advance a sustainable and just society across British Columbia Canada and the world.
How this is measured
10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 17 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds Mainly Mozart Inc ↗
- Who funds SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds LUCKY DUCK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE PACIFIC SOUTHWEST ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
- Who funds THE ARC OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds DVine Path Inc ↗
- Who funds NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC ↗
- Who funds University of the Pacific ↗
- Who funds NORTH COAST REPERTORY THEATRE ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · The San Diego Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Heller Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Heller Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Heller Family’s filings →