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· Private foundation

R D Ford Foundation

Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$38k
Granted FY2021
7
Grants FY2021
2
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What you fund
0188% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172021.

Education$99kReligion$23kHealth$14kHuman Services$13kArts & Culture$7kInternational$5kFood & Nutrition$4kHousing & Shelter$4kOther$0
02FY2021 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k6 grants · $13k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
$1,500
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY$25,000
Individual grant recipient$8,000
PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM$1,508
SIMI VALLEY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION$1,500
ZOE INTERNATIONAL$1,000
Individual grant recipient$900
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON$500
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–18, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%MIDNIGHT MISSION: $2k → 14%MIDNIGHT MISSION: $2k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

80%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$150k · 12 repeat orgs$38k to everyone else

12 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2021, 7 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
14

Total granted

$150k
$30k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+43%
+125%

Still filing today

42%
14%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21
Human ServicesReligionHealthPhilanthropyArts & CultureOther

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

  • SA
    SENIOR ADVOCATES OF THE DESERT
    3× · 2017–2020 · $9k · revenue +112%
  • PA
    PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM FOUNDATION
    4× · 2017–2021 · $6k · revenue +39%
  • MF
    MIO Frontiers
    2× · 2017–2018 · $5k · revenue +11%

Funded once

  • JM
    JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2019 · $10k
  • ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $2k · revenue +125%
  • CC
    CALVARY CHAPEL CHURCH
    one grant, 2019 · $2k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

As a leading academic healthcare organization, our mission is to elevate the health status of the communities we serve.(see schedule o for continuation)(continued)-we deliver exceptional healthcare enhanced by research and education-we…

Health
2
Sutter Bay Hospitals

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
3
Doheny Eye Institute

To further the conservation, improvement and restoration of human eyesight" (mrs. doheny - 1947).

4
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc

The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…

Health
5
Sutter Bay Medical Foundation

Mission statement: mission: caring for our patients first and our people always. vision: to be the most comprehensive, integrated and connected health system for getting and staying well. values: excellence - we deliver high-quality,…

Health
6
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
7
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…

Health
8
Pasadena Hospital Association Ltd

Huntington Health stands for community. We stand for compassion. But more than anything, Huntington stands for health. Providing world-class health care is our specialty, and it's what we've been doing for the San Gabriel Valley since…

Health
9
San Diego Biomedical Research Institute

The SDBRI mission is to find new ways to predict and prevent cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease, neurological disorders and HIV infection, and to accelerate medical advances that maintain health and improve quality of life.

Health
10
John Muir Health

The mission of john muir is to improve the health of the communities we serve with quality and compassion.

Health
11
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…

Health
12
Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation

Partners In Health (PIH) is a non-profit, global health organization that fights social injustice by bringing the benefits of modern medical science first and foremost to the most vulnerable communities worldwide. In Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda,…

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is St Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc and the most unlike its peers is Senior Advocates of the Desert. 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

8 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 28 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY — $85,000 · OtherSAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITYTEHACHAPI FOURSQUARE CHURCH — $14,000 · OtherTEHACHAPI FOURSQUARE CHURCHJAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY — $10,000 · OtherJAMES MADISON UNIVERSITYIndividual grant recipient — $8,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient — $6,000 · Other+15 more — $26,400 · Other+15 moreSENIOR ADVOCATES OF THE DESERT — $8,500 · Human ServicesTHE MIDNIGHT MISSION — $4,000 · Human ServicesMIO Frontiers — $5,000 · ReligionZOE INTERNATIONAL — $4,500 · ReligionSimi Valley Hospital Foundation dba Adventist Health Simi Valley Fdtn — $8,500 · PhilanthropyPETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM FOUNDATION — $6,008 · Arts & CultureST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC — $2,000 · HealthUNITED BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION INC — $500 · Health
Other$149,400Human Services$12,500Religion$9,500Philanthropy$8,500Arts & Culture$6,008Health$2,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetSimi Valley Hospital Foundation dba Adventist Health Simi Valley Fdtn — $8,500 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetPETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM FOUNDATION — $6,008 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMIO Frontiers — $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetZOE INTERNATIONAL — $4,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MIDNIGHT MISSION — $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 Simi Valley Hospital Foundation dba Adventist Health Simi Valley Fdtn
  • Who funds SENIOR ADVOCATES OF THE DESERT
  • Who funds PETERSEN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM FOUNDATION
  • Who funds MIO Frontiers
  • Who funds ZOE INTERNATIONAL
  • Who funds THE MIDNIGHT MISSION
  • Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC
  • Who funds UNITED BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.

Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 R D Ford 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%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 · 0–10%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to R D Ford Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to R D Ford 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 28 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2023) is on record but names no grant recipient in the published copy, so the figures above are from FY2021, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph