· Private foundation
Mills Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
63% of Mills Family Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Vipassana Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 8 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year Mills Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 10 organizations, $24k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k25 grants · $14k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NO CAL VIPASSANA CENTER | $10,000 |
| VIPASSANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| PARIYATTI | $1,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| PETS LIFELINE ANIMAL SHELTER | $500 |
| ALZHEIMERS FOUNDATION | $500 |
| UCSF FOUNDATION | $500 |
| THOUSAND CURRENTS | $500 |
| UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS | $500 |
| BERKELEY HUMANE SOCIETY | $500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $250 |
| HEIFER INTERNATIONAL | $250 |
| MARIN AREA LAND TRUST | $250 |
| NATIONAL PARKS FOUNDATION | $250 |
| Individual grant recipient | $250 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–20, $500) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
23 repeat relationships: 21 still active in FY2021, 2 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- PPARIYATTI4× · 2020–2024 · $4k · revenue +8%
- AFALZHEIMER'S FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC5× · 2020–2024 · $3k · revenue +83%
- YFYOSEMITE FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $1k · revenue +32%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $10k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $5k
- UCUCSF CANCER FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $1k
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.
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.
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
Ca fwd drives action to identify solutions that can be taken to scale to meet the challenges the state is facing. the organization is driven by the belief that regional solutions across the state will help ensure economic, environmental,…
To research and develop healthy climate solutions comprising global food security, ecosystem regeneration and carbon balance in seas and soils.
The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.
Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.
Our mission is to protect local nature and farmland to ensure a healthy environment for everyone.
Fossil Free California works to end financial support for climate-damaging fossil fuels and promotes the transition to a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
Clsa advances californias world-leading life sciences innovation ecosystem by advocating for effective national, state and local public policies and supporting entrepreneurs and life sciences businesses.
The Sierra Fund (TSF) is a non-profit organization with a mission to restore ecosystem and community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada.
Optimizing the clean energy transition - 100%+ clean energy economy for the 100%.
Our mission is to build a unique institute that bridges basic research and drug discovery, and that attracts the best and brightest scientists, physicians and students to work together synergistically to find cures for neglected human…
How this is measured
16 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. 16 of the 48 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds Vipassana Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds PARIYATTI ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S FOUNDATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds THOUSAND CURRENTS ↗
- Who funds THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YOSEMITE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Project Open Hand ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds FINCA INTERNATIONAL INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds Flockworks ↗
- Who funds LATINO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION ↗
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
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Mills Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mills Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Mills Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Mills 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.
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