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Merry S Graham Charitable Foundation Trust of 12-9-21 at a glance

· Private foundation

Merry S Graham Charitable Foundation Trust of 12-9-21

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$78k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2025.

Environment$105kAnimals$36kRecreation & Sports$25kEducation$5kScience & Tech$2k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $8k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $70k
$10,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$653k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SUNFLOWER STAR LABORATORY$35,000
FRIENDS OF WNC NATURE CENTER$25,000
LLAMAS DEL SOL INC$10,000
BREVARD SCHOOL FOUNDATION$5,000
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES$1,500
SAN FRANCISCO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY$1,000
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 (FY23–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 95% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $2k → 10%SUNFLOWER STAR LABORATORY: $35k → 12%SEA OTTER SAVY: $20k → 13%SANTA BARBARA ZOOLOGICAL: $30k → 14%LLAMAS DEL SOL INC: $10k → 14%BREVARD SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $5k → 10%FLORIDA STATE PARK FOUNDATION: $25k → 19%SAN FRANCISCO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $1k → 10%SUNFLOWER STAR LABORATORY: $15k → 12%LLAMAS DEL SOL INC: $5k → 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 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
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
—
2
Friends of the Elephant Seal

Friends of the Elephant Sea is dedicated to educating people about elephant seals and other marine life and teaching stewardship for the ocean along the central coast of California. by providing docent/guide services year round at the…

Animals
3
Sonoma Botanical Garden
—
4
Seaworld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund
Environment
5
The Coral Reef and Marine Science Foundation Inc C/O James Bildner
—
6
Lowry Park Zoological Society of Tampa Inc

The mission of the Lowry Park Zoological Society of Tampa a/k/a ZooTampa at Lowry Park, is to rescue, rehabilitate and care for animals.(Expanded mission on Schedule O)ZooTampa creates exceptional personalized experiences that connect…

Animals
7
Conservation Society of California

Through management of oakland zoo, the conservation society of california deepens connection with animals, saves wildlife, and inspires champions for the natural world.

Animals
8
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

We inspire people to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering love, appreciation, and understanding of the sonoran desert.

Arts & Culture
9
Bayorg

Bay ecotarium is the largest non-profit 501(c)(3) watershed conservation group in the san francisco bay area committing to global climate resilience and ocean conservation, inspiring actionable environmental stewardship locally, and…

Arts & Culture
10
Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation

The mission of the monterey bay aquarium is to inspire conservation of the ocean. millions of people worldwide draw inspiration from the aquarium and look to us to advocate for the ocean and its wildlife.

Animals
11
Denver Zoological Foundation

Inspiring communities to save wildlife for future generations.

Animals
12
Greater Farallones Association

Gfa works in partnership with and on behalf of the greater farallones and cordell bank national marine sanctuaries to preserve, monitor, research, educate about and enhance these invaluable marine resources.

Animals
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Francisco Zoological Society; the most unlike its peers is Llamas Del Sol Inc. 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

8 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. 8 of the 9 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
0/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Individual grant recipient: $30,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientFriends of the WNC Nature Center Inc: $25,000 · OtherFriends of the WNC Nature Center IncBREVARD SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 · OtherBREVARD SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INCSunflower Star Laboratory: $50,000 · EnvironmentSunflower Star LaboratorySEA OTTER SAVVY: $20,000 · AnimalsSEA OTTER SAVVYLlamas Del Sol Inc: $15,000 · AnimalsLlamas Del Sol Inc+1 more: $1,000 · AnimalsFLORIDA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 · Recreation & SportsFLORIDA STATE PA…CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $1,500 · Arts & Culture
Other$60,000Environment$50,000Animals$36,000Recreation & Sports$25,000Arts & Culture$1,500

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 budgetSunflower Star Laboratory: $50,000 over 2y, 5.0% of budgetFriends of the WNC Nature Center Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetFLORIDA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetSEA OTTER SAVVY: $20,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetLlamas Del Sol Inc: $15,000 over 2y, 6.7% of budgetBREVARD SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $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.

American Online Givin…Amazonsmile Foundation
American Online Giving Foundation IncDE7.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · 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 Merry S Graham Charitable Foundation Trust of 12-9-21 funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Merry S Graham Charitable Foundation Trust of 12-9-21. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 9 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 Merry S Graham Charitable Foundation Trust of 12-9-21’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