Skip to content
Lilac Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Lilac 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.

$58k
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$292kArts & Culture$14kEmployment$11kEnvironment$7kRecreation & Sports$7kAnimals$5kFood & Nutrition$5kHealth$4kOther$0
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k8 grants · $33k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $25k
$6,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$513k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
COLGATE UNIVERSITY$15,000
TAFT SCHOOL$10,000
EPIPHANY SCHOOL$7,000
SEATTLE ACADEMY$6,500
EPIPHANY SCHOOL$6,000
COLGATE UNIVERSITY$5,000
SEATTLE ACADEMY$5,000
SEATTLE ACADEMY$2,500
STEEP ROCK ASSOCIATION$500
AFTER SCHOOL ARTS PROGRAM INC (ASAP)$500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%FOOD RUNNERS: $5k → 10%MILLBROOK SCHOOL: $10k → 9%COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $15k → 11%COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $10k → 14%TAFT SCHOOL: $10k → 9%EQUINE EMPOWERMENT: $5k → 7%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $11k → 9%MILLBROOK SCHOOL: $10k → 9%COLGATE UNIVERSITY: $5k → 11%TAFT SCHOOL: $10k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $10k → 9%MILLBROOK SCHOOL: $10k → 9%TAFT SCHOOL: $10k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY: $9k → 9%MILLBROOK SCHOOL: $10k → 9%RUMSEY HALL SCHOOL INC: $10k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $8k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $8k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $7k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY: $7k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $6k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $6k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $5k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $5k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY: $5k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES (SAAS): $5k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $5k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $5k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $5k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY: $4k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES (SAAS): $4k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY: $3k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $10k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $3k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $8k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $3k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $6k → 9%FARESTART: $3k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $5k → 9%EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $3k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $5k → 9%FARESTART: $3k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $5k → 9%WASHINGTON EDUCATION AND SQUASH ACADEMY: $5k → 9%WASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $5k → 9%SEATTLE ACADEMY: $3k → 9%FARESTART: $3k → 9%RAINIER SCHOLARS: $5k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$311k · 14 repeat orgs$35k to everyone else

14 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
10

Total granted

$311k
$35k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+50%
+53%

Still filing today

64%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
EducationEnvironmentHealthEmploymentArts & CultureInternationalOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • ES
    EPIPHANY SCHOOL
    8× · 2017–2024 · $87k · revenue +87%
  • MS
    MILLBROOK SCHOOL
    4× · 2019–2022 · $40k · revenue +58%
  • TT
    THE TAFT SCHOOL CORPORATION
    3× · 2022–2024 · $30k · revenue +47%

Funded once

  • TS
    THE SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCESgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $9k · revenue +62%
  • FR
    FOOD RUNNERS
    one grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue -99%
  • EE
    Equine Empowerment
    one grant, 2018 · $5k
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Trillium Academy

The mission of trillium academy is to break away from conventional schooling and celebrate the incredible capabilities of twice-exceptional (2e) students, providing them with the learning environment they need to discover and develop their…

Education
2
Washington Leadership Academy Public Charter School

Wla combines best practices in teaching and learning, with the latest in educational technology to create an unparalleled high school experience. students will graduate from wla prepared for college, career, and lives of public leadership.

Education
3
Rainier Prep

Rainier prep provides public education to students in grades 5-8 in the highline area near seattle/tacoma. rainier prep seeks to prepare students for college, career readiness, and to become leaders in their communities.

Education
4
University Cooperative School

We take a joyful, community-oriented approach to raising engaged citizens, deep learners, and brave adventurers with the skills, creativity, and heart needed to better the world.

—
5
Explorer West an Independent Middle School

We empower young people to explore and grow their unique intellectual, ethical, and creative capabilities, and to treasure diversity and growth in others.

Education
6
Bullis School

Bullis school provides a student-centered balanced experience in academics, arts, athletics and community service. bullis uniquely prepares all students to become caring citizens and creative, critical thinkers who will thrive in…

Education
7
The San Francisco School

A private school that cultivates and celebrates the intellectual, imaginative, and humanitarian promise of each student in a community that practices mutual respect, embraces diversity, and inspires passion for learning.

—
8
Darrow School

Darrow school is dedicated to serving students with diverse backgrounds and abilities, building on each student's talents and interests to inspire enduring confidence for success in college and life. this mission is accomplished through…

Education
9
The Peak School

The peak school seeks to ignite a passion for learning, to develop students of diverse talents and backgrounds who think critically and act with integrity, and to graduate compassionate, confident, capable students who will embrace their…

Education
10
San Francisco Friends School

At san francisco friends school, students learn in a community grounded in the quaker values of reflection, integrity, peaceful problem-solving and stewardship. our teachers challenge students with a dynamic curriculum that inspires…

Education
11
Sonoma Charter School

Sonoma charter school seeks to achieve academic excellence through engaged learning in a setting that involves students, teachers, and parents.

Education
12
Harvard-Westlake School

Harvard-westlake strives to be a diverse and inclusive community united by the joyful pursuit of educational excellence, living and learning with integrity, and purpose beyond ourselves.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Taft School Corporation; the most unlike its peers is Equine Empowerment. 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

16 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. 16 of the 24 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/16
Grantees still filing
11/16
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $86,500 · EducationEPIPHANY SCHOOLMILLBROOK SCHOOL: $40,000 · EducationMILLBROOK SCHOOLTHE TAFT SCHOOL CORPORATION: $30,000 · EducationTHE TAFT SCHOOL CORPORATIONCOLGATE UNIVERSITY: $30,000 · EducationCOLGATE UNIVERSITYRUMSEY HALL SCHOOL INC: $12,000 · EducationRUMSEY HALL SCHOOL INCTHE SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $8,500 · EducationRAINIER SCHOLARS: $8,500 · EducationWASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WMS): $44,000 · OtherWASHINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL (WM…SEATTLE ACADEMY: $28,500 · OtherSEATTLE ACADEMYWASHINGTON EDUCATION & SQUASH ACADEMY FORMERLY SEATTLE URBAN SQUASH: $7,500 · OtherWASHINGTON EDUCATION & SQUASH AC…FOOD RUNNERS: $5,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $5,000 · Other+5 more: $10,000 · Other+5 moreFARESTART: $11,000 · EmploymentSTEEP ROCK ASSOCIATION INC: $6,500 · EnvironmentTHE WHITE MEMORIAL CONSERVATION CENTER: $2,000 · EnvironmentEquine Empowerment: $5,000 · HealthHUMBLE RANCH EDUCATION AND THERAPY CENTER: $2,000 · HealthAFTER SCHOOL ARTS PROGRAM INC: $3,000 · Arts & CultureVITAL VOICES GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP INC: $1,000 · International
Education$215,500Other$100,000Employment$11,000Environment$8,500Health$7,000Arts & Culture$3,000International$1,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEPIPHANY SCHOOL: $86,500 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetMILLBROOK SCHOOL: $40,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TAFT SCHOOL CORPORATION: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOLGATE UNIVERSITY: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetRUMSEY HALL SCHOOL INC: $12,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFARESTART: $11,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $8,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRAINIER SCHOLARS: $8,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetWASHINGTON EDUCATION & SQUASH ACADEMY FORMERLY SEATTLE URBAN SQUASH: $7,500 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetSTEEP ROCK ASSOCIATION INC: $6,500 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetFOOD RUNNERS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetAFTER SCHOOL ARTS PROGRAM INC: $3,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTHE WHITE MEMORIAL CONSERVATION CENTER: $2,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetVITAL VOICES GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

The Goldman Sachs Cha…Gs Donor Advised Phil…National Philanthropi…The Bank of America C…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift FundNY12.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Lilac Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lilac Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 19%
  • Steep Rock Association Inc: 19% of income from government
  • After School Arts Program Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 24 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Lilac’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home