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Mercy Lab at a glance

· Private foundation

Mercy Lab

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.

$185k
Granted FY2025still arriving
3
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$120k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Youth Development$435kEducation$431kCivil Rights$280kAnimals$33kHealth$20k
02FY2025 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $65k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $120k
$40,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$3.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking$120,000
Youth Guidance$40,000
TAKE STOCK IN CHILDREN$25,000
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 69% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Cancer Commons: $10k → 8%A Place Called Home: $35k → 14%Eden Academy: $25k → 10%Take Stock in Children: $28k → 13%Miami Veterinary Foundation: $15k → 15%Trinity International University: $324k → 8%Youth Guidance: $50k → 14%Cancer Commons: $10k → 8%A Place Called Home: $10k → 14%Take Stock in Children: $26k → 13%Youth Guidance: $40k → 14%Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking: $120k → 14%TAKE STOCK IN CHILDREN: $25k → 13%Youth Guidance: $30k → 14%Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking: $80k → 14%Take Stock in Children: $1k → 13%Youth Guidance: $15k → 14%Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking: $40k → 14%Take Stock in Children: $1k → 13%Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking: $40k → 14%Take Stock in Children: $1k → 13%After School All Stars: $60k → 14%After School All Stars: $60k → 14%After School All-Stars: $40k → 14%After-School All-Stars: $40k → 14%After School All Stars: $30k → 14%After-School All-Stars: $25k → 14%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.

68%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$817k · 6 repeat orgs$382k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +13% since the first grant, against -2% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
4

Total granted

$817k
$382k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+13%
-2%

Still filing today

100%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationCrime & LegalHealthOther
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

  • CT
    COALITION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY & TRAFFICKING
    4× · 2022–2025 · $280k · revenue +11%
  • AA
    AFTER-SCHOOL ALL-STARS
    6× · 2017–2024 · $255k · revenue +103%
  • TI
    TSIC INC DBA/TAKE STOCK IN CHILDREN
    6× · 2019–2025 · $82k · revenue +13%

Funded once

  • TI
    Trinity International University
    one grant, 2018 · $324k · revenue -69%
  • EA
    Eden Academy Inc
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue -2%
  • RC
    RIVER CITY COMMUNITY ANIMAL HOSPITAL INC
    one grant, 2017 · $18k
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
Palo Alto University Inc

Advancing human understanding through education, research, and practice in behavioral science

Education
2
National College Advising Corps Inc

College advising corps (cac) is the nation's largest nonprofit service organization dedicated to advancing educational equity and expanding opportunity for all high school students. cac provides college enrollment and career guidance to…

Education
3
Achievekids

Achievekids schools provide individualized and multi-disciplinary programs that deliver special education, mental health, and family support services for students ages 5 to 22 who have complex and often severe developmental, emotional, and…

Education
4
Didi Hirsch Psychiatric Service

The roots of the los angeles didi hirsch psychiatric service dba didi hirsch mental health services ("dhmhs") extend back to the 1930s, when a group of women funded psychiatric care for people whose lives were devastated by the depression.…

Health
5
Communities in Schools of Jacksonville Inc

To surround students at risk of dropping out with caring adults embedded in schools who provide a community of support with safe places to learn and grow, a focus on graduation to ensure successful futures with a marketable skills, and…

Education
6
College Match

College match partners with high schools in los angeles county to identify high-achieving, low-income high school students and provide them with the necessary tools and guidance to get into top-ranked colleges with significant financial…

Education
7
Southern California University of Health Sciences

The mission of southern california university of health sciences (scu) is to educate students as competent, caring and successful practitioners of integrative healthcare. the university is committed to providing excellence in academics,…

Education
8
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
9
Community Solutions Inc

Positively impacting the lives of our clients and their communities by providing services that facilitate skill development, enhance responsible citizenship, and increase overall well-being.

Health
10
Stem Advantage

Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. STEM Advantage mentors, prepares, and inspires first-generation, low-income, and underserved college students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). We level…

Youth Development
11
Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America

Leadership enterprise for a diverse america (leda) empowers a community of exceptional young leaders from under-resourced backgrounds by supporting their higher education and professional success in order to create a more inclusive and…

Education
12
Los Angeles Team Mentoring Inc

Los Angeles Team Mentorings (LATM) mission is to guide middle school students growing up in challenging urban environments to recognize and reach their full potential. See Schedule O for more details.

Youth Development
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is After-School All-Stars; the most unlike its peers is Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking. 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

9 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. 9 of the 10 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
6/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Trinity International University: $324,192 · EducationTrinity International UniversityYouth Guidance: $135,000 · EducationYouth GuidanceCOALITION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY & TRAFFICKING: $280,000 · Crime & LegalCOALITION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY & TRA…TSIC INC DBA/TAKE STOCK IN CHILDREN: $81,500 · Crime & LegalTSIC INC DBA/TAKE STOCK IN CHILDRE…AFTER-SCHOOL ALL-STARS: $255,000 · OtherAFTER-SCHOOL ALL-STARSA PLACE CALLED HOME: $45,000 · OtherA PLACE CALLED HOMEEden Academy Inc: $25,000 · OtherEden Academy IncRIVER CITY COMMUNITY ANIMAL HOSPITAL INC: $17,600 · OtherMIAMI VETERINARY FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · OtherCANCER COMMONS: $20,000 · Health
Education$459,192Crime & Legal$361,500Other$357,600Health$20,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTrinity International University: $324,192 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCOALITION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY & TRAFFICKING: $280,000 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetAFTER-SCHOOL ALL-STARS: $255,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetYouth Guidance: $135,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTSIC INC DBA/TAKE STOCK IN CHILDREN: $81,500 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetA PLACE CALLED HOME: $45,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCANCER COMMONS: $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetMIAMI VETERINARY FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 5.3% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.7× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Mercy Lab funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mercy Lab. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Mercy Lab?

    Find your warmest path to Mercy Lab 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 10 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

    Play a game based on Mercy Lab’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