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National Foundation For Autism Research at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

National Foundation For Autism Research

The National Foundation for Autism Research (NFAR) is dedicated to improving the lives of autistic individuals by empowering them with equitable opportunities that promote independence, inclusion, and lifelong success, thereby strengthening the communities we serve.

$95k
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$10k
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.

Health$124kEducation$95kArts & Culture$20kRecreation & Sports$20kScience & Tech$19kEmployment$17kHuman Services$16kPhilanthropy$10kOther$0
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 8 grants below total $66,763, the rows itemized in this filing. The $94,855 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $28,092 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $27k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $40k
$10,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
San Diego Unified School Dist$10,235
Amandas Martial Arts$10,000
Fleet Science Center$10,000
Unscripted Learning$10,000
Ride Above Disability Center$8,000
Poway Unified School District$6,528
Encinitas Educational Found$6,000
Best Day Coffee LLC$6,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY18–24, $38k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%YMCA of San Diego County: $10k → 11%San Diego Center for Children: $6k → 11%San Diego Center for Children: $5k → 11%Beacons Inc: $10k → 11%Blissful Seeds: $7k → 11%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.

51%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$167k · 9 repeat orgs$158k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
19

Total granted

$167k
$136k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+16%
+28%

Still filing today

56%
63%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationPhilanthropyHealthCivil RightsOther
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

  • AS
    AUTISM SOCIETY SAN DIEGO INC
    3× · 2018–2023 · $23k · revenue +154%
  • PA
    Positive Action Community Theatre
    3× · 2018–2020 · $16k · revenue +16%
  • SD
    SAN DIEGO CENTER FOR CHILDREN
    2× · 2018–2019 · $11k · revenue +32%

Funded once

  • IM
    Intricate Mind Institute
    one grant, 2019 · $10k
  • BI
    BEACONS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +683%
  • AA
    Amandas Adapitve Martial Art
    one grant, 2023 · $10k
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
San Diego Junior Theatre

San Diego Junior Theatre (Junior Theatre) was incorporated in 1948 as a nonprofit corporation and is the oldest youth theatre in the nation, offering affordable camps, classes, and outreach programs for children ages 3-18; as well as six…

—
2
San Diego Jewish Academy

San Diego Jewish Academy empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.

Education
3
Arts Education Connection San Diego

Arts Education Connection San Diego engages professional teaching artists to provide high-quality arts education programs in all art forms for students, educators, families and communities, advocating for, leading and advancing education…

Arts & Culture
4
San Diego Coasters
Arts & Culture
5
The New Childrens Museum

The New Childrens Museum (the Museum) in San Diego is an arts-based childrens museum whose mission is to stimulate imagination, creativity, and critical thinking in children and families through inventive, engaging experiences with…

Arts & Culture
6
San Diego Youth Symphony & Conservatory

Since 1945, San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS) has served as a catalyst for investing in the future of young people through joyful and transformative music-making experiences. We reach over 2,500 students and families annually throughout San…

—
7
Discovery School of San Antonio

At Discovery School, our mission is to inspire and nurture the love of learning in young children and their families. The School offers an enhanced early childhood education for children 2 through 7 years to provide them with the skills…

Education
8
Institute for Applied Tinkering

Institute for Applied Tinkering IAT develops, practices and shares educational methods that challenge and support all children to engage deeply in their learning via real interests and real tools.

Youth Development
9
The Bay School

Founded in 1998, the bay school's mission is to provide scientifically based educational services and to contribute to research that serves children with autism. the year-round school educates students between the ages of five and…

Education
10
San Diego Tamil Palli

Tamil Academy

Education
11
Linda Vista Children's Center

We help children discover a way of dealing with life that is realistic, comfortable, and satisfying. Self-confidence is nurtured as children learn to rely on themselves and each other. The noncompetitive environment is one that allows each…

—
12
San Diego Ballet

Excite, entertain and enrich diverse audiences.

Unclassified
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is San Diego Center for Children; the most unlike its peers is Turtleback Education Foundation. 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

18 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. 18 of the 31 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
12/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

San Diego Unified School Dist: $31,100 · OtherSan Diego Unified School DistAUTISM SOCIETY SAN DIEGO INC: $22,500 · OtherAUTISM SOCIETY SAN DIEGO INCPoway Unified School District: $19,258 · OtherPoway Unified School DistrictREUBEN H FLEET SCIENCE CENTER: $18,685 · OtherREUBEN H FLEET SCIENCE CENTERRide Above Disability Center: $18,000 · OtherRide Above Disability CenterSAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: $15,849 · OtherSAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTIntricate Mind Institute: $10,000 · OtherAmandas Adapitve Martial Art: $10,000 · OtherAmandas Martial Arts: $10,000 · OtherBanyan Tree Educational Services: $9,304 · OtherSystems Technology Inc: $7,428 · Other+7 more: $42,081 · Other+7 moreSAN DIEGO CENTER FOR CHILDREN: $11,000 · Human ServicesSAN DIEGO CEN…BEACONS INC: $10,000 · Human ServicesBEACONS INCYMCA OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY: $9,500 · Human ServicesYMCA OF SAN D…BLISSFUL SEEDS INC: $7,000 · Human ServicesBLISSFUL SEED…Positive Action Community Theatre (PACT): $16,000 · Arts & CulturePositive Act…SAN DIEGO SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY: $10,000 · Arts & CultureSAN DIEGO SO…NEW VILLAGE ARTS INC: $5,000 · Arts & CultureNEW VILLAGE …Mainly Mozart Inc: $5,000 · Arts & CultureMainly Mozar…UNSCRIPTED LEARNING: $15,000 · EducationPOINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY: $5,000 · EducationTURTLEBACK EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $9,709 · PhilanthropyAUTISM TREE PROJECT INC: $5,800 · HealthFRIENDS OF VISTA HILL FOUNDATION: $2,500 · Civil Rights
Other$214,205Human Services$37,500Arts & Culture$36,000Education$20,000Philanthropy$9,709Health$5,800Civil Rights$2,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAUTISM SOCIETY SAN DIEGO INC: $22,500 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetREUBEN H FLEET SCIENCE CENTER: $18,685 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPositive Action Community Theatre (PACT): $16,000 over 3y, 9.7% of budgetUNSCRIPTED LEARNING: $15,000 over 2y, 7.3% of budgetSAN DIEGO CENTER FOR CHILDREN: $11,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSAN DIEGO SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTURTLEBACK EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $9,709 over 1y, 6.7% of budgetYMCA OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY: $9,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBanyan Tree Educational Services: $9,304 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBLISSFUL SEEDS INC: $7,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetENCINITAS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $6,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetAUTISM TREE PROJECT INC: $5,800 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetNEW VILLAGE ARTS INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetMainly Mozart Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetLAWRENCE FAMILY JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTERS OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPOINT LOMA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF VISTA HILL FOUNDATION: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

The San Diego Foundat…San Diego Imperial Co…Samuel I & John Henry…The Conrad Prebys Fou…The Nordson Corporati…Sempra FoundationJewish Community Foun…Walter J & Betty C Za…Pratt Memorial FundThe Cushman FoundationThe Thursday Club Fou…Boys and Girls Aid So…
The San Diego FoundationCA28× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Diego Foundation · San Diego Imperial Counties Developmental Services Foudation · Samuel I & John Henry Fox Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Sempra Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation · Pratt Memorial Fund · The Cushman Foundation · The Thursday Club Foundation · Boys and Girls Aid Society of San Diego Ltd

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 National Foundation For Autism Research funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from National Foundation For Autism Research. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%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 · 0–40%
    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 National Foundation For Autism Research?

    Find your warmest path to National Foundation For Autism Research 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 31 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 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

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    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