How much did JOHNNY CARSON FOUNDATION grant in FY2023?

Education$25MHealth$6.5MHuman Services$4.2MYouth Development$2.2MPhilanthropy$1.8MArts & Culture$1.5MFood & Nutrition$1.4MAnimals$515kHousing & Shelter$413kOther$24M

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2019

museum renovationsfullertonreachmediauscdavidsound

2020

wifi hotspotsfilmcovidcalibraska artswheelchaircopdgreater

2021

indiacovidgroupmove

2022

futureukraine reliefsoundcopdmovevillageteaching

2023

technologywaterflood victimsexhibitairukrainecomedy

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2023 · 250 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2023

Under $10k40 grants · $195k
$10k–50k166 grants · $3.3M
$50k–250k35 grants · $3.2M
$250k+9 grants · $8.7M

$15,000

Median grant

States reached

$164M

Total assets

Largest grants

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION$5,020,000
FAITH REGIONAL HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION$1,100,000
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA$529,000
NORTH FORK AREA TRANSIT$500,000
LA REGIONAL FOOD BANK$455,000
WESTSIDE FOOD BANK$330,000
HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES$295,000
CALIFORNIA SCIENCE CENTER$255,000
NATIONAL COMEDY CENTER$250,000
ALLIANCE FOR COLLEGE READY PUBLIC SCHOOLS$202,500
UCLA FOUNDATION$195,000
NORFOLK SENIOR CITIZENS CENTER$175,000
TEACH FOR AMERICA$155,000
PAT TILLMAN FOUNDATION$150,000
CHRYSALIS FOUNDATION$130,000

02The need

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY18–23, $4.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 11%. 92% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

Where the work is directed

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

About 36% of JOHNNY CARSON FOUNDATION’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 50% of the giving stays in CA; read by stated purpose it is 84% — more of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

JOHNNY CARSON FOUNDATIONlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

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 foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge

repeat funding

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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$66M · 277 repeat orgs$2.1M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +39% since the first grant, against +31% for the ones you funded once.

277 repeat relationships — 226 still active in FY2023, 51 since wound down; 23 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

277

Total granted

$66M

$1.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%

+31%

Still filing today

53%

51%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.0M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesEducationArts & CulturePhilanthropyHealthYouth DevelopmentOther

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

UO
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION
6× · 2018–2023 · $23M · revenue +35%
FR
FAITH REGIONAL HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION
6× · 2018–2023 · $3.8M · revenue +8% · 36% of their budget
HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES
6× · 2018–2023 · $1.7M · revenue +175%

Funded once

US
USC SCHOOL OF CINEMATIC ARTS
one grant, 2018 · $125k
LC
LINCOLN CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
one grant, 2019 · $75k
DS
DISABLED SPORTS EASTERN SIERRA
one grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue +14%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

League of California

The league of california community foundations promotes and strengthens community foundations in california. through collaboration and shared learning among member foundations and building partnerships with private and public entities, we…

Philanthropy

Los Angeles College Prep Academy

Public charter school offering college preparatory education to students in northeast l.a.

Education

California Forward

California forward (ca fwd) brings people together across regions to improve government and create resilient growth statewide.

Public Benefit

Drew Child Development Corporation

Preparing the children of watts-willowbrook, compton, and south los angeles to succeed and thereby strengthen our community's future

Human Services

Los Angeles Conservation Corps

The la conservation corps creates equitable opportunities for young people to build resilience in themselves, their communities and the environment through a program of work, education and support.

Employment

Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

Chamber's vision: a thriving region for all

—

Los Angeles Business Council

The los angeles business council uniting the power of business with the power of government for education and advocacy to promote environmental and economic sustainability.

—

Los Angeles County

To assist persons with developmental disabilities.

Human Services

California Changelawyers

California changelawyers is a statewide foundation whose mission is to build a better justice system for all californians. changelawyers empowers the next generation of lawyers, judges, and activists to create a more diverse legal…

Social Science

California College of the Arts

To educate students of diverse backgrounds in areas of fine arts, architecture, design, & writing.

Education

Women's Foundation of California

Women's foundation of california amplifies the voices and experiences of community leaders, redistributes knowledge, power, and resources, and mobilizes communities and funders to advance justice for all.

—

Los Angeles Children's Chorus

Los angeles children's chorus provides choral music education of the highest quality to young people who represent richly diverse racial, economic, and cultural backgrounds.

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Orthopaedic Institute for Children and the most unlike its peers is Children of the Night. 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 31 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.5% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

0.5%1/211

the rest of the field

13%

8,615/67,673

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.

06the grantee network

206 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

197/206

Grantees still filing

159/206

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Education$25,275,800Other$26,451,365Health$6,510,000Human Services$4,157,000Youth Development$2,152,500Philanthropy$1,798,500Arts & Culture$1,528,400

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.

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.

The Ralph M Parsons FoundationCA76.6× affinity41 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Ralph M Parsons Foundation · The Annenberg Foundation · The Rose Hills Foundation · California Community Foundation · Weingart Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · Joseph Drown Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles · La84 Foundation · Great Public Schools Now · S Mark Taper Foundation · Wm Keck 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 organisation JOHNNY CARSON 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.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: WITH LOVE GRANDMA INC.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

insufficient risk

Limited financial data in public filings.

Track record & reputation

low risk

7 years of Form 990 filings, still active.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 770457309 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on WITH LOVE GRANDMA INC, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
WatchSustained operations— Filing through 2023; revenue contracted over the period.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 100% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Johnny Carson Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Johnny Carson Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

JOHNNY CARSON FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Where the work is directed

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

206 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Johnny Carson Foundation?

More from the funding graph

JOHNNY CARSON FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Where the work is directed

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

206 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Johnny Carson Foundation?

More from the funding graph