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Phelps Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Phelps Family Foundation

Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$454k
Granted FY2020
4
Grants FY2020
1
States reached
$350k
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 2020.

Health$747kEducation$659kPhilanthropy$350kScience & Tech$288kEnvironment$50kInternational$5kAnimals$5k
02FY2020 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k1 grant · $7k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $87k
  • $250k+1 grant · $350k
$86,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CITY OF HOPE$350,000
UCLA FOUNDATION$86,500
WORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY$10,000
THE LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA SOCIETY$7,000
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 (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 81% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%EDUCATION & RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR NUCLEAR MEDICINE & MOLECULAR IMAGING: $5k → 12%WORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY: $10k → 14%INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION: $5k → 14%SUMMIT LAND CONSERVANCY: $50k → 5%BUTTERFLY PAVILION: $5k → 5%INSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: $268k → 9%WORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY: $10k → 14%WORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY: $5k → 14%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $20k → 14%UCLA FOUNDATION: $250k → 14%UCLA FOUNDATION: $173k → 14%UCLA FOUNDATION: $150k → 14%UCLA FOUNDATION: $87k → 14%INFORMEDTOGETHER: $180k → 14%INFORMEDTOGETHER: $80k → 14%INFORMEDTOGETHER: $10k → 14%CITY OF HOPE: $350k → 14%THE LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA SOCIETY: $7k → 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 grantees
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
California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy

To harness the power of the human immune system and advanced computing technologies to create and translate scientific discoveries into next generation vaccines and therapies for prevention, control and cure of chronic diseases, enabling…

Health
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
International Biomedical Research Alliance

Our mission is to invest in and accelerate the development of the most promising future leaders in biomedical research with global impact.

Health
4
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

See schedule ouniversity corporation for atmospheric research (ucar), on behalf of, and in cooperation with its member university members, is engaged in the management of long-term atmospheric and related research and educational…

Science & Tech
5
University of California Irvine Foundation

The mission of the university of california, irvine foundation (uc irvine foundation) is to raise and manage private funds to support uc irvine's broader mission of excellence in teaching, research and public service. to this end, the uc…

Education
6
California Institute for BioMedical Research

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…

—
7
The California Medical Innovations Institute Inc

The Institute is a scientific research center dedicated to conducting basic and applied research to advance the understanding of human disease and the improvement of human health. The Institute fosters an innovative research environment…

Education
8
The Scripps Research Institute

The scripps research institute ("tsri") performs high impact basic biomedical research, improves the human condition by fostering translation of its discoveries into useful products and engages in the highest quality graduate scientific…

Health
9
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
10
Arc Research Institute

Our mission is to accelerate scientific progress, understand the root causes of disease, and narrow the gap between discoveries and impact on patients.

Health
11
International Life Sciences Institute

Ilsi is a global, nonprofit federation dedicated to generating and advancing emerging science and groundbreaking research to ensure foods are safe, nutritious and sustainable, and that they improve planetary and human health and well-being…

Science & Tech
12
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ucla Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Blood Cancer United 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

11 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. 11 of the 12 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)
10/11
Grantees still filing
7/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UCLA FOUNDATION: $659,150 · EducationUCLA FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $440,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION+1 more: $20,000 · EducationCITY OF HOPE: $350,000 · OtherCITY OF HOPEINFORMEDTOGETHER: $270,000 · OtherINFORMEDTOGETHERINSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: $267,750 · Science & TechINSTITUTE FOR …Summit Land Conservancy: $50,000 · EnvironmentWORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY: $25,000 · HealthBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $7,000 · HealthTHE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR NUCLEAR MEDICINE & MOLECULAR IMAGING: $5,000 · HealthINTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION: $5,000 · InternationalROCKY MOUNTAIN BUTTERFLY CONSORTIUM: $5,000 · Animals
Education$1,119,150Other$620,000Science & Tech$267,750Environment$50,000Health$37,000International$5,000Animals$5,000

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 budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $659,150 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $440,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: $267,750 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetSummit Land Conservancy: $50,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetWORLD MOLECULAR IMAGING SOCIETY: $25,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR NUCLEAR MEDICINE & MOLECULAR IMAGING: $5,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetINTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN BUTTERFLY CONSORTIUM: $5,000 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Donor Advised Charita…
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

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 Phelps Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Phelps Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
    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 Phelps Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Phelps 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.

    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 12 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2021) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2020, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Phelps Family’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