· Private foundation
Porter Sesnon Foundation
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SANTA CRUZ ANIMAL SHELTER FOUNDATION | $4,000 |
| LAND TRUST OF SC COUNTY | $4,000 |
| SISKIYOU LAND TRUST | $4,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $4,000 |
| ONE WORLD CHILDREN'S FUND | $4,000 |
| ANZA-BORREGO FOUNDATION | $2,500 |
| MOUNTAIN LION FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| HOMELESS SERVICE CENTER | $1,000 |
| PAWS | $1,000 |
| SEMPERVIRENS FUND | $1,000 |
| WORLD WILDLIFE FUND | $1,000 |
| ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND | $1,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD | $1,000 |
| CAPE | $1,000 |
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 (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 95% 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.
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.
19 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2020, 5 since wound down.
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 FY2020, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- TSTHE SISKIYOU LAND TRUST4× · 2017–2020 · $12k · revenue +663%
- AFANZA-BORREGO FOUNDATION2× · 2018–2020 · $8k · revenue +63%
- SCSanta Cruz SPCA and Humane Society3× · 2017–2019 · $7k · revenue +14%
Funded once
- SSSHAKESPEARE SANTA CRUZ NSC GRANTone grant, 2017 · $5k
- CCChristmas Circle Community Parkgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +57%
- FOFRIENDS OF OLYMPIA STATION INC DBA TANDY BEAL & COMPANYone grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue -9%
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.
The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species
The Volcan Mountain Foundation's mission is to preserve Volcan Mountain Range in its natural state for all generations.
Nature collective's mission is to drive a passion for nature for all. we think inclusively and diversely when serving those devoid of nature those who remember nature and want to connect back to it and those who have an affinity with…
Protect, manage and preserve lands and wildlife having unique natural resources and cultural qualities within and near the foothills of the sierra nevada range.
Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…
The Wildlands Conservancy's dual mission is to preserve the beauty and biodiversity of the earth and to provide programs so that children may know the wonder and joy of nature.
The mission of the Big Sur Land Trust is to inspire love of the land and conservation of our treasured landscapes.
Save mount diablo's mission is to preserve mount diablo's peaks, surrounding foothills, and watersheds; and its sustaining diablo range, through land acquisition and preservation strategies designed to protect the mountain's natural…
To conserve natural resources, agricultural land and open spaces for present and future generations.
Wildlands Network works to reconnect, restore and rewild North America so that life-in all its diversity-can thrive.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is California State Parks Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Friends of Olympia Station Inc Dba Tandy Beal & Company. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
15 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. 15 of the 24 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 One World Childrens Fund ↗
- Who funds THE SISKIYOU LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds Borrego Art Institute ↗
- Who funds ANZA-BORREGO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Santa Cruz SPCA and Humane Society ↗
- Who funds SANTA CRUZ COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SEMPERVIRENS FUND ↗
- Who funds Christmas Circle Community Park ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF OLYMPIA STATION INC DBA TANDY BEAL & COMPANY ↗
- Who funds HOUSING MATTERS ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Mountain Lion Foundation ↗
- Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HUMANE FARMING ASSOCIATION ↗
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: Community Foundation Santa Cruz County · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Network for Good · American Endowment Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Porter Sesnon 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 Porter Sesnon Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Porter Sesnon 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.