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· Private foundation

Melvin & Geraldine Hoven 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.

$321k
Granted FY2025still arriving
22
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$70k
Largest
01What you fund
01FY2025 · 22 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k12 grants · $54k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $127k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $140k
$5,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$4.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Michael J Fox Foundation$70,000
Post$70,000
Second Harvest Food Bank$25,000
Yosemite Conservancy$20,000
CTA Disaster Relief Fund$20,000
Sweet Home Alumni Foundation$17,000
University of Oregon Foundation$15,000
Silicon Valley Education Foundation$10,000
Wildland Firefighter Foundation$10,000
Los Altos Mountain View Community F$10,000
Guide Dogs for the Blind$5,000
Save The Redwoods League$5,000
American Red Cross$5,000
MVLA High School Foundation$5,000
East Palo Alto Kids FDN$5,000
02The need
02

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 (FY25–25, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%American Red Cross: $5k → 8%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 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
Sonoma Valley Education Foundation

The Sonoma Valley Education Foundation exists to improve education by enriching teaching, inspiring learning, and advancing innovative programs that enable every student to succeed.

Philanthropy
2
The Sierra Fund

The Sierra Fund (TSF) is a non-profit organization with a mission to restore ecosystem and community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada.

Environment
3
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
4
Uc Riverside Foundation

To support educational, research and public functions and programs of the riverside campus of the university of california.

Education
5
Santa Barbara Education Foundation

Santa Barbara Education Foundation (SBEF) provides and supports programs that enrich the academic, artistic, and personal development of all students in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

Education
6
San Ramon Valley Education Foundation

The San Ramon Valley Education Foundation invests in education, supports parent organizations, and engages our community for the benefit of and in partnership with the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.

Education
7
Cal State East Bay Educational Foundation

To accept and manage restricted and unrestricted gifts benefiting california state university east bay. additionally, the trustees support the university through advocacy, development, personal contributions and counsel to the university's…

Education
8
Silicon Schools Fund Inc

The mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…

Education
9
Moraga Education Foundation

MEF raises funds to preserve and enhance educational opportunities for all students attending Moraga public schools, through a broad-based community effort.

Education
10
Walnut Creek Education Foundation K-12

Enhance the education of the students of Las Lomas High School and the schools within the Walnut Creek School District.

11
Sierra State Parks Foundation

The Sierra State Parks Foundation provides critically needed financial and professional support to the Lake Tahoe-Donner Sierra State Parks for Education, Restoration, and Cultural and Environmental Preservation in partnership with…

Recreation & Sports
12
California State University Foundation

Established in 1962, the foundation is the central foundation for the california state university (csu) system and serves the office of the chancellor. the foundation exists to support excellence in teaching and learning, and to serve the…

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Los Altos Educational Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Norcal Boxer Rescue. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

03the grantee network

15 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. 15 of the 22 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
1/15
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Post — $70,000 · OtherPostSecond Harvest Food Bank — $25,000 · OtherSecond Harvest Food BankCTA Disaster Relief Fund — $20,000 · OtherCTA Disaster Relief FundSWEET HOME ALUMNI FOUNDATION — $17,000 · OtherSWEET HOME ALUMNI FOUNDATIONLos Altos Mountain View Community F — $10,000 · OtherLos Altos Mountain View Community F+8 more — $34,000 · Other+8 moreTHE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH — $70,000 · HealthTHE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDA…YOSEMITE FOUNDATION — $20,000 · Recreation & SportsUNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION — $15,000 · EducationMountain View Educational Foundation — $5,000 · EducationWILDLAND FIREFIGHTER FOUNDATION — $10,000 · EnvironmentSAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE — $5,000 · EnvironmentSILICON VALLEY EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $10,000 · Community ImprovementAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $5,000 · Human ServicesGUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND INC — $5,000 · Human Services
Other$176,000Health$70,000Recreation & Sports$20,000Education$20,000Environment$15,000Community Improvement$10,000Human Services$10,000

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 budgetYOSEMITE FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWILDLAND FIREFIGHTER FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSILICON VALLEY EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMOUNTAIN VIEW LOS ALTOS HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLOS ALTOS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMountain View Educational Foundation — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetGUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEAST PALO ALTO KIDS FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetVENTANA WILDLIFE SOCIETY — $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNorcal Boxer Rescue — $2,000 over 1y, 0.6% 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.

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.

Silicon Valley Community FoundationCA15.7× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · Bright Funds Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Melvin & Geraldine Hoven 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 · 20%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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.

    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Melvin & Geraldine Hoven Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Melvin & Geraldine Hoven 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 22 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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