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· Private foundation

Lester Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$21k
Granted FY2024still arriving
18
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What you fund
0199% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Education$83kArts & Culture$33kYouth Development$22kPhilanthropy$12kHealth$10kHuman Services$9kEnvironment$6kReligion$5kOther$0
02FY2024 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$500
Median grant
4
States reached
$212k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Purdue for Life Foundation$5,000
Allied Arts$2,500
Sigma Chi Foundation$2,000
Crested Butte Land Trust$1,500
Impact Oklahoma$1,500
Indiana University Foundation$1,000
Oklahoma Arts Insitute Foundation$1,000
Bishop McGuiness Catholic High School$1,000
Crested Butee Center for the Arts$500
Oklahoma School of Science and Math$500
YMCA Of Greater Oklahoma$500
Boys & Girls Club OK County$500
Catholic Charities$500
Oklahoma Center of Nonprofits$500
Teen Recovery Solutions$500
02The need
03

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 (FY17–24, $13k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%Impact Oklahoma: $2k → 16%YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City: $500 → 16%YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City: $500 → 16%YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City: $500 → 16%YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City: $500 → 16%YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City: $500 → 16%YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City: $500 → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $2k → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $2k → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $2k → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $1k → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $1k → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $1k → 16%Impact Oklahoma: $1k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein 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 — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$173k · 26 repeat orgs$17k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +38% since the first grant, against -19% for the ones you funded once.

26 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

26
12

Total granted

$173k
$13k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+38%
-19%

Still filing today

73%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentOther

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

  • YL
    YOUNG LIFE
    4× · 2017–2020 · $19k · revenue +59%
  • SC
    Sigma Chi Foundation
    8× · 2017–2024 · $13k · revenue +32%
  • AA
    ALLIED ARTS OF OKLAHOMA INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $13k · revenue +36%

Funded once

  • IH
    INTEGRIS Health Foundation Inc
    one grant, 2018 · $6k · revenue -19%
  • WF
    White Fields Inc
    one grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue -49%
  • MH
    Mercy Health Foundation
    one grant, 2023 · $1k

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.

1
Oklahoma City University

Inspired by a culture of creativity, Oklahoma City University fosters an immersive, personalized experience that welcomes and prepares students to pursue boundless opportunities.

Education
2
Oklahoma State University Foundation

Unite donor passions with university priorities to elevate the impact of oklahoma state university.

Education
3
Oklahoma Hall of Fame

The oklahoma hall of fame preserves oklahomas unique history while promoting pride in our great state through each of its programs and the gaylord-pickens museum. the association honors our states rich tradition by telling oklahomas story…

Arts & Culture
4
Opportunity Scholarship Fund

The Opportunity Scholarship Fund is a scholarship granting organization that provides scholarships to Oklahoma prek-12 students to attend accredited private schools in our state. Once a student has received a scholarship, that student and…

Education
5
The University of Tulsa

The university of tulsa is a student-centered research university that cultivates interconnected learning experiences to explore complex ideas and create new knowledge in a spirit of free inquiry. guided by our commitment to diversity,…

Education
6
Osteopathic Founders Foundation

The mission of the osteopathic founders foundation is to support osteopathic medical education, to enhance the public's understanding of osteopathic medicine, and to improve the health of the community through projects consistent with the…

Health
7
Oklahoma Educational Memorial Trust Fdn

Providing, maintaining and issuing scholarships to eligible nominees or applicants for admission to college or for contributions to regularly maintained scholarship funds of other federal tax exempt colleges and universities with an…

Education
8
Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc

The State Chamber is a statewide membership organization. Our purpose is to be the unified voice of business and the most effective advocacy organization at the State Capitol.

9
Oklahoma Newspaper Foundation
Arts & Culture
10
University of the Ozarks

True to our christian heritage, we prepare students from diverse religious, cultural, educational and economic backgrounds to live life fully.

Education
11
The Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation

To create and administer permanent charitable endowments to strengthen Methodist ministries in Oklahoma.

12
Oklahoma Baptist University

As a christian liberal arts university, oklahoma baptist university transforms lives by equipping students to pursue academic excellence, integrate faith with all areas of knowledge, engage a diverse world, and live worthy of the high…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Oklahoma Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Young Men's Christian Association of Greater Oklahoma City. 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

25 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
24/25
Grantees still filing
16/25
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Purdue Foundation — $17,500 · OtherPurdue FoundationBishop McGuiness Catholic High Scho — $8,000 · OtherBishop McGuiness Catholic High SchoCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF OKLAHOMA CITY INC — $4,500 · OtherCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCES…Oklahoma Center of Nonprofit — $3,000 · OtherArchdiocesan Development Fund — $3,000 · OtherINTEGRIS Health Foundation Inc — $6,000 · OtherINTEGRIS Health Foundation IncSpecial Olympics Oklahoma Inc — $4,000 · OtherSpecial Olympics Oklahoma Inc+21 more — $15,500 · Other+21 morePurdue Research Foundation — $20,000 · EducationPurdue Research FoundationSigma Chi Foundation — $12,500 · EducationSigma Chi FoundationOKLAHOMA CITY GEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $10,000 · EducationOKLAHOMA CITY GEOLOGICAL FOU…Indiana University Foundation — $4,000 · EducationIndiana University Foundatio…+1 more — $500 · EducationALLIED ARTS OF OKLAHOMA INC — $12,500 · Arts & CultureALLIED ARTS OF OKLA…OKLAHOMA ARTS INSTITUTE INC — $8,000 · Arts & CultureOKLAHOMA ARTS INSTI…OKLAHOMA ARTS INSTITUTE FOUNDATION — $5,000 · Arts & CultureOKLAHOMA ARTS INSTI…DEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL INC — $4,000 · Arts & CultureDEADCENTER FILM FES…THE CENTER FOR THE ARTS — $3,000 · Arts & CultureTHE CENTER FOR THE …YOUNG LIFE — $19,000 · Youth DevelopmentYOUNG LIFEIMPACT OKLAHOMA INC — $10,000 · Human ServicesYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER OKLAHOMA CITY — $3,000 · Human ServicesOKLAHOMA SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS FOUNDATION — $9,000 · PhilanthropyTEEN RECOVERY SOLUTIONS INC — $1,500 · PhilanthropyCRESTED BUTTE LAND TRUST — $6,000 · Environment
Other$61,500Education$47,000Arts & Culture$32,500Youth Development$19,000Human Services$13,000Philanthropy$10,500Environment$6,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetPurdue Research Foundation — $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetYOUNG LIFE — $19,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSigma Chi Foundation — $12,500 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetALLIED ARTS OF OKLAHOMA INC — $12,500 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetIMPACT OKLAHOMA INC — $10,000 over 8y, 0.4% of budgetOKLAHOMA CITY GEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetOKLAHOMA SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS FOUNDATION — $9,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetOKLAHOMA ARTS INSTITUTE INC — $8,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetCRESTED BUTTE LAND TRUST — $6,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetINTEGRIS Health Foundation Inc — $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOKLAHOMA ARTS INSTITUTE FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF OKLAHOMA CITY INC — $4,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetIndiana University Foundation — $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetDEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL INC — $4,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetSpecial Olympics Oklahoma Inc — $4,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR THE ARTS — $3,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER OKLAHOMA CITY — $3,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTEEN RECOVERY SOLUTIONS INC — $1,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetWhite Fields Inc — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetA CHANCE TO CHANGE FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMAYFLOWER MEDICAL OUTREACH INC — $1,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetUPWARD TRANSITIONS INC — $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCASA OF OKLAHOMA COUNTY INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FOUNDATION INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOKLAHOMA CENTER FOR NONPROFITS INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 Purdue Research Foundation
  • Who funds YOUNG LIFE
  • Who funds Sigma Chi Foundation
  • Who funds ALLIED ARTS OF OKLAHOMA INC
  • Who funds IMPACT OKLAHOMA INC
  • Who funds OKLAHOMA CITY GEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
  • Who funds OKLAHOMA SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS FOUNDATION
  • Who funds OKLAHOMA ARTS INSTITUTE INC
  • Who funds CRESTED BUTTE LAND TRUST
  • Who funds INTEGRIS Health Foundation Inc
  • Who funds OKLAHOMA ARTS INSTITUTE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF OKLAHOMA CITY INC
  • Who funds Indiana University Foundation
  • Who funds DEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL INC
  • Who funds Special Olympics Oklahoma Inc
  • Who funds THE CENTER FOR THE ARTS
  • Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER OKLAHOMA CITY
  • Who funds TEEN RECOVERY SOLUTIONS INC
  • Who funds White Fields Inc
  • Who funds A CHANCE TO CHANGE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds MAYFLOWER MEDICAL OUTREACH INC
  • Who funds UPWARD TRANSITIONS INC
  • Who funds CASA OF OKLAHOMA COUNTY INC
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FOUNDATION INC

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.

El and Thelma Gaylord FoundationOK30.4× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: El and Thelma Gaylord Foundation · Inasmuch Foundation · American Fidelity Foundation · Oklahoma City Community Foundation Inc · Harris Foundation Inc · The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation · Communities Foundation of Oklahoma · Rainbolt Family Foundation · The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation · Kirkpatrick Foundation Inc · Macklanburg-Hulsey Foundation Inc · Fred Jones Family 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 Lester Family 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
202122232425
no gov · 100%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 1%
  • Oklahoma Arts Institute Inc1% of income from government
  • Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City Inc1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
10get no government money at all
8report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Lester Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Lester Family 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 44 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph