California · Private foundation
Mercury Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $28M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 6
- Grants FY2025
- 10
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 40%
- First-time grantees FY2024
Read this first · the figures below need context
54% of Mercury Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
- Median grant, FY2025
- $3,000,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $15,000,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 2 to 13
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 3
- Total assets, FY2025
- $249M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 40% of the organizations Mercury Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 5% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $545k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 5 | $13M | 20% |
| FY2024 | 10 | $12M | 40% |
| FY2023 | 4 | $7.5M | 0% |
| FY2022 | 3 | $5.5M | 0% |
| FY2021 | 13 | $7.6M | 15% |
| FY2020 | 13 | $7.2M | 77% |
| FY2019 | 4 | $5.2M | 100% |
| FY2018 | 2 | $7.9M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2018 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc | $18,000,000 | 7 | 1% |
| Planned Parenthood Los Angeles | $10,750,000 | 7 | 2% |
| Panthera Corporation | $7,500,000 | 7 | 4% |
| The Center for Reproductive Rights Inc | $5,500,000 | 4 | 3% |
| Natural Resources Defense Council Inc | $5,500,000 | 4 | 1% |
| NAACP Legal Defense & Educ Fund Inc | $2,750,000 | 3 | 2% |
| Immigrant Legal Resource Center | $1,000,000 | 2 | 3% |
| Downtown Women's Center | $1,000,000 | 2 | 3% |
| Treepeople Inc | $700,000 | 1 | 10% |
| Sea Shepherd Conservation Society | $550,000 | 2 | 4% |
Show all 18 grantees
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc | $18,000,000 | 7 | 1% |
| Planned Parenthood Los Angeles | $10,750,000 | 7 | 2% |
| Panthera Corporation | $7,500,000 | 7 | 4% |
| The Center for Reproductive Rights Inc | $5,500,000 | 4 | 3% |
| Natural Resources Defense Council Inc | $5,500,000 | 4 | 1% |
| NAACP Legal Defense & Educ Fund Inc | $2,750,000 | 3 | 2% |
| Immigrant Legal Resource Center | $1,000,000 | 2 | 3% |
| Downtown Women's Center | $1,000,000 | 2 | 3% |
| Treepeople Inc | $700,000 | 1 | 10% |
| Sea Shepherd Conservation Society | $550,000 | 2 | 4% |
| The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc | $500,000 | 1 | 1% |
| World Wildlife Fund Inc | $400,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Food Finders Inc | $250,000 | 1 | 1% |
| Sea Shepherd Legal | $150,000 | 1 | 19% |
| Fflv USA | $15,000 | 1 | 1% |
| Kitten Rescue | $10,000 | 1 | 1% |
| Los Angeles Lgbt Center | $10,000 | 1 | 0% |
| Westridge School for Girls Inc | $5,000 | 1 | 0% |
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 5 recipients with no EIN on record ($11M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Mercury Foundation supplied at peak.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Mercury Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Mercury 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 Mercury Foundation
- How much does Mercury Foundation give?
- Mercury Foundation reported 6 grants totaling $28,000,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 2 and 13 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Mercury Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (64%), Health (19%), Civil Rights (5%).
- Who are Mercury Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2018 to FY2025: Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc ($18M), Planned Parenthood Los Angeles ($11M), Panthera Corporation ($7.5M).
- Does Mercury Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 40% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Mercury Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Mercury Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, Amazonsmile Foundation.
- Where is Mercury Foundation based?
- Mercury Foundation is based in CA.
Play a game based on Mercury’s filings →