· Private foundation
Moonlight Inspiration Foundation
Its FY2026 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2026.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Monterey Bay Aquarium | $2,000 |
| United Way of South Nevada | $1,000 |
| School of Nursing UO Rochester | $1,000 |
| New Jersey Institute for Disabiliti | $800 |
| New Orleans Museum of Art | $300 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–26) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 75% of its 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 20% of Moonlight Inspiration Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 38% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 32%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +105% since the first grant, against +3% for those funded once.
4 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2026, 2 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2026 (too recent to call).
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 FY2026, 73% 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
- SOSchool of Nursing UO Rochester4× · 2023–2026 · $4k
MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM FOUNDATION2× · 2025–2026 · $3k · revenue +105%- LGLoving Grace Church2× · 2022–2023 · $1k
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $817
- MCMonroe Carell Jr Childrens Hospitalone grant, 2024 · $800
- PFPacific Fleet Submarine Memorial Asone grant, 2022 · $500
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.
6 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 6 of the 16 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.
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Moonlight Inspiration Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Moonlight Inspiration Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Freedom Trail Foundation Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Moonlight Inspiration’s filings →