· Private foundation
Nature Defense Foundation
OUR MISSION AT SINDISA SANCTUARY IS TO PROVIDE A FOREVER HOME FOR RESCUED FARM ANIMALS AND TO SHARE THEIR JOY OF FREEDOM WITH OUR VISITORS ON 125 ACRES IN HEALDSBURG, CA.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2022–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k5 grants · $13k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WONDER DOG RESCUE | $150,000 |
| RETURN TO FREEDOM | $50,000 |
| ORVILLE SCHELL FARMS PRESERVE | $10,000 |
| CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH | $5,000 |
| BILLION OYSTER PROJECT | $5,000 |
| NEW YORK HARBOR SAILING FOUNDATION | $1,710 |
| ROLDA - ROMANIAN LEAGUE FOR DEFENSE OF ANIMALS | $1,000 |
| ACT BLUE CHARITIES | $400 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY22–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 90% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
7 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $18k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- RTRETURN TO FREEDOM INC3× · 2022–2024 · $128k · revenue +25%
- RIRIVERKEEPER INC2× · 2022–2023 · $15k · revenue +29%
- BOBILLION OYSTER PROJECT INC3× · 2022–2024 · $11k · revenue +159%
Funded once
- EAELEPHANT AID INTERNATIONALone grant, 2023 · $25k
- FOFRIENDS OF THE PUBLIC SQUAREone grant, 2023 · $25k
- MRMIRANDAS RESCUE INCone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue -40%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
World animal protection is a global organization working to end factory farming and wildlife exploitation. we expose cruel systems, promote animal-friendly alternatives, and influence policy change. for over 75 years, we've been rewriting…
Animal outlook is a national animal protection organization working to end the abuse of farmed animals using a variety of strategies, including investigations, legal advocacy, corporate and food system reform, and vegan outreach.
To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. enacting good laws depends upon electing good lawmakers, and we remind voters which candidates care about and support animal issues.
Protecting vital native predators & ending war on wildlife.
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
Founded in 1877, american humane association, dba american humane society (american humane) is committed to ensuring the safety, welfare and well-being of animals. our leadership programs are first to serve in promoting and nurturing the…
Exposing and eliminating animal cruelty.
To improve the health & well-being of animals through veterinary aid, response, training, research & local capacity building worldwide. We provide services to companion animals, horses, street dogs, livestock and marine animals including…
To pass animal protection laws, educate the public, and support humane candidates for office.
Orca conservancy is working on behalf of orcinus orca, the killer whale, and protecting the wild places on which it depends.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wildcare and the most unlike its peers is Humane World for Animals International. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 27 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
24 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 24 of the 39 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds WONDER DOG RESCUE ↗
- Who funds RETURN TO FREEDOM INC ↗
- Who funds Footloose Montana ↗
- Who funds RIVERKEEPER INC ↗
- Who funds BILLION OYSTER PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds MIRANDAS RESCUE INC ↗
- Who funds Defenders of Wildlife ↗
- Who funds WILDCARE ↗
- Who funds Nonhuman Rights Project Inc ↗
- Who funds Sonoma Ecology Center ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC ↗
- Who funds THE CORAL REEF ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds GREAT WHALE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue Inc ↗
- Who funds AINA MOMONA ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Institute for Responsible Technology ↗
- Who funds COLUMBIA-GREENE HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds FAUNALYTICS ↗
- Who funds MAUI HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds NEW YORK HARBOR SAILING FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Humane World for Animals International ↗
- Who funds Romanian League in Defense of Animals ↗
- Who funds ACTBLUE CHARITIES INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Network for Good · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Nature Defense Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Nature Defense Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Nature Defense 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.