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Oregon · Private foundation

Merchant Family 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.

$100k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
11
Grants FY2025
20
Organizations funded FY2024
55%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$5,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$25,000
Organizations funded a year
9 to 20
FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
3
Total assets, FY2025
$406k
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 55% of the organizations Merchant Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 51% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 49% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $36k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesFood & NutritionPhilanthropyEnvironmentReligionOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving11$100k27%
FY202420$71k55%
FY202312$51k50%
FY202211$35k18%
FY202115$53k67%
FY20209$45kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$107kHealth$94kFood & Nutrition$65kYouth Development$35kHuman Services$21kInternational$14kEnvironment$13kCommunity Improvement$13kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
MI
NY
OR
NJ
CA
AZ
DC

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 28 grantees
All grantees of Merchant Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Victory Academy Inc$75,00031%
Meals on Wheels People Inc$47,00050%
Clackamas Community College Foundation$30,00030%
Community Cancer Fund$18,00050%
Portland Community College Foundation Inc$17,50020%
Medical Teams International$13,00050%
Oregon Food Bank$10,00010%
Financial Beginnings$9,00020%
American Friends of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation$7,00030%
Tillamook Estuaries Partnership$6,00020%
Sunshine Pantry$5,0001n/a
Khesed Church$5,0001n/a
With Love Oregon Inc$3,00030%
Helping One Woman$2,00014%
St Mary's Food Bank Alliance$2,00010%
The Howard University$2,00020%
Good Samaritan Ministries$1,00010%
The Rose Church$1,0001n/a
Young Life$1,00010%
Linfield University$1,00010%
University of Oregon Foundation$1,00010%
B-17 Alliance Foundation$1,00020%
Collective Church Inc$1,0001n/a
Pacific University$1,00010%
Luis Palau Association$1,00010%
The University of Puget Sound$1,00010%
The Trustees of Princeton University$1,00010%
Illinois Institute of Technology$1,00010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 13 recipients with no EIN on record ($91k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Merchant Family Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetVictory Academy Inc: $75,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetMeals on Wheels People Inc: $47,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetClackamas Community College Foundation: $30,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetCommunity Cancer Fund: $18,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetPortland Community College Foundation Inc: $17,500 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetMedical Teams International: $13,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetOregon Food Bank: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFinancial Beginnings: $9,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetAmerican Friends of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation: $7,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTillamook Estuaries Partnership: $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWith Love Oregon Inc: $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetHelping One Woman: $2,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetSt Mary's Food Bank Alliance: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Howard University: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGood Samaritan Ministries: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYoung Life: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLinfield University: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Oregon Foundation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetB-17 Alliance Foundation: $1,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetPacific University: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLuis Palau Association: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe University of Puget Sound: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIllinois Institute of Technology: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 24.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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 Oregon Community FoundationOR21.7× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Oregon Community Foundation · Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation Trust · The Reser Family Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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.

Compare Merchant Family Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Merchant Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Merchant 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.

About Merchant Family Foundation

How much does Merchant Family Foundation give?
Merchant Family Foundation reported 11 grants totaling $100,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 9 and 20 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Merchant Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (27%), Health (24%), Food & Nutrition (17%).
Who are Merchant Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Victory Academy Inc ($75k), Meals on Wheels People Inc ($47k), Clackamas Community College Foundation ($30k).
Does Merchant Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 55% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Merchant Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Merchant Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Oregon Community Foundation, Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation Trust, The Reser Family Foundation.
Where is Merchant Family Foundation based?
Merchant Family Foundation is based in OR.

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 43 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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