· Private foundation
HELTS Foundation
Its FY2018 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
95% of HELTS Foundation’s FY2018 grant dollars went to Marin Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2018 names 5 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year HELTS Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $94k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2018.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k4 grants · $9k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $85k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| The Contemp Jewish Museum | $20,000 |
| Jewish Fam Children's Serv | $10,000 |
| Tulane University | $10,000 |
| George Mason University Foundation | $10,000 |
| Alive Free fka Omega Boys Club | $10,000 |
| San Francisco Court Appointed Spec | $2,500 |
| Tiba Foundation | $2,500 |
| Jewish Vocational Service | $2,500 |
| San Francisco Food Bank | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 99% of its 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.
8 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2017, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2017 (too recent to call). Read against FY2017, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2018, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $14k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TATHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND2× · 2017–2018 · $20k · revenue +72%
- GMGEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC2× · 2017–2018 · $20k · revenue +37%
- TFTiba Foundation2× · 2017–2018 · $4k · revenue +230%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $25k
- JCJewish Community Federation of SF Mone grant, 2018 · $11k
- JVJewish Vocational Serviceone grant, 2017 · $3k
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.
7 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. 7 of the 14 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.
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization HELTS Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from HELTS Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to HELTS Foundation?
Find your warmest path to HELTS 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 HELTS’ filings →