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Riff Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Riff Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$4.2M
Granted FY2020
60
Grants FY2020
21
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of Riff Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year Riff Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 46 organizations, $4M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

9
’18
46
’20
0
’21
0
’22
2
’23
0
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Philanthropy$27MCivil Rights$2.1MCrime & Legal$575kCommunity Improvement$565kInternational$500kEmployment$300kHuman Services$195kEnvironment$160kOther$0
02FY2020 · 60 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • $10k–50k16 grants · $220k
  • $50k–250k42 grants · $3.5M
  • $250k+2 grants · $500k
$75,000
Median grant
21
States reached
$32M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Thousand Currents$250,000
Grassroots International$250,000
Demos$100,000
NEO Philanthropy$100,000
Indigenous Environmental Network$100,000
Individual grant recipient$100,000
Florida Immigrant Coalition$100,000
Council on American Islamic Relations MN$100,000
Community Initiatives$100,000
Voces de la Frontera$100,000
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos En Lucha$100,000
Southerners on New Ground$100,000
Mijente Support Committee$100,000
Transgender Law Center$100,000
NDN Collective$100,000
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 (FY18–20, $995k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 75% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Tewa Women United: $75k → 12%Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native: $75k → 14%Mecalfe Park Community Bridges: $10k → 17%Rural Utah Project Education Fund: $10k → 8%Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights: $100k → 14%Southeastern Transgender Center: $50k → 19%Juntos: $70k → 22%Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women: $75k → 14%Voces de la Frontera: $100k → 17%HEART Women & Girls: $50k → 14%Mujeres Unidas y Activas: $100k → 10%Voces de la Frontera: $100k → 17%Ubuntu Village: $20k → 23%African Communities Together: $10k → 17%Indigenous Rights Center: $10k → 14%Tides Center: $70k → 10%Affect Real Change: $70k → 10%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.

Which US states its grants reach

AK
VT
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
SD
PA
CA
UT
VA
MD
AZ
NM
AR
TN
DC
LA
MS
AL
GA
FL
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.

28%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.5M · 8 repeat orgs$3.9M to everyone else

8 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2020, 0 since wound down; 47 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call). Read against FY2020, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
8

Total granted

$1.5M
$485k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+136%
+336%

Still filing today

88%
13%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’20’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’20’23
Human ServicesCommunity ImprovementCivil RightsPublic BenefitInternationalCrime & LegalOther
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

  • COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
    2× · 2018–2020 · $250k · revenue +136%
  • EJ
    Essie Justice Group
    2× · 2018–2020 · $200k · revenue +105%
  • VOCES DE LA FRONTERA INC
    2× · 2018–2020 · $200k · revenue +381%

Funded once

  • CD
    Centro De Trabajadores Unidos En Lucha
    one grant, 2018 · $100k
  • TJ
    TGI Justice Project
    one grant, 2018 · $100k
  • FT
    FAMILIA TRANS QUEER LIBERATION MOVEMENT
    one grant, 2018 · $75k
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
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
2
Detention Watch Network

Detention Watch Network seeks to end the cruel system of immigration detention via programs of grassroots organizing, strategic communications, and collective advocacy.

Human Services
3
Fuerza LaboralPower of Workers

Fuerza Laboral is a workers' rights center whose mission is to shift the balance of power in our economy in favor of workers by educating, training, and organizing workers to become community leaders; taking direct action to recover unpaid…

Education
4
Forward Together

Forward Together is a national reproductive justice organization that centers people, families, and communities who experience reproductive oppression. They prioritize queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color and utilize…

Health
5
Center for Racial and Gender E Nfp

Workers Rights

Civil Rights
6
Asian Immigrant Women Advocates Inc

Asian Immigrant Women Advocates empowers low-income, limited English speaking immigrant women and youth through education, leadership development and civic participation programs.

Human Services
7
LexCollective

LexCollective is a not-for-profit organization that addresses the most extreme forms of social, racial, economic, and environmental injustices around the world, such as mass atrocities, human trafficking, environmental destruction, and…

International
8
Colectiva Legal Del Pueblo

Colectiva Legal del Pueblo is a non-hierarchal collective organization founded for and by undocumented immigrants working to build community leadership and power for migrant justice through legal services, advocacy and education.

Civil Rights
9
Fund for Justice

Fund for Justice is a nationally connected social impact research and advocacy organization that works to achieve fundamental, systemic reform by addressing policies and practicies that prevent individuals from reaching their full…

Crime & Legal
10
Justice Action Center

Justice Action Center JAC pilots an innovative model that advances the rights of immigrant communities by connecting cutting-edge impact litigation and compelling narrative and communications content. The purpose of JAC is to advance the…

Civil Rights
11
Equal Justice Society

The Equal Justice Society (EJS) is transforming the nations consciousness on racethrough law, social science, and the arts. EJS works to dismantle structural andinstitutional racism to advance robust equal protection under the Fourteenth…

Civil Rights
12
Latino Union of Chicago

Latino Union works to defend the rights and dignity of contingent workers, including the right to immigrate, work, live free of oppression and violence, and provide for oneself and one's family.

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (See) Inc; the most unlike its peers is St James Infirmary. 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

50 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. 50 of the 65 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)
21
Early backer (in before they grew)
48/50
Grantees still filing
29/50
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc: $26,426,500 · PhilanthropyAmalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc+1 more: $250,000 · PhilanthropyIndividual grant recipient: $210,000 · OtherCentro De Trabajadores Unidos En Lucha (CTUL): $100,000 · OtherTGI Justice Project: $100,000 · OtherNew Orleans Workers Center for Racial Jus: $85,000 · OtherNEO Philanthropy Inc: $150,000 · OtherDEMOS A NETWORK FOR IDEAS AND ACTION LTD: $100,000 · OtherHIGHLANDER RESEARCH & EDUCATION CENTER INC: $100,000 · OtherMIJENTE SUPPORT COMMITTEE: $150,000 · OtherST JAMES INFIRMARY: $100,000 · OtherINDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: $100,000 · OtherFarmworker Association of Florida Inc: $85,000 · OtherCENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS EN LUCHA: $100,000 · Other+21 more: $905,000 · OtherVOCES DE LA FRONTERA INC: $200,000 · Human ServicesCOALITION TO STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST NATIVE WOMEN: $150,000 · Human ServicesMujeres Unidas y Activas: $100,000 · Human ServicesGEORGIA LATINO ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INC: $100,000 · Human ServicesTEWA WOMEN UNITED: $75,000 · Human ServicesAffect Real Change Inc: $70,000 · Human ServicesTIDES CENTER: $70,000 · Human ServicesJUNTOS: $70,000 · Human ServicesHEART Women & Girls: $50,000 · Human ServicesSOUTHEASTERN TRANSGENDER RESOURCE: $50,000 · Human Services+5 more: $60,000 · Human ServicesGRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL INC: $250,000 · InternationalTHOUSAND CURRENTS: $250,000 · InternationalAlliance for Global Justice Corp: $110,000 · InternationalCOUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS MINNESOTA: $100,000 · Civil RightsTransgender Law Center: $100,000 · Civil RightsGRASSROOTS GLOBAL JUSTICE: $100,000 · Civil RightsSOUTHERNERS ON NEW GROUND INC: $100,000 · Civil RightsFlorida Immigrant Coalition Inc: $100,000 · Civil RightsNATIVE MOVEMENT: $150,000 · Community ImprovementNDN COLLECTIVE INC: $110,000 · Community ImprovementDRUM Desis Rising Up and Moving Inc: $100,000 · Community ImprovementINQUIRING SYSTEMS INC: $50,000 · Community ImprovementLAWYERS FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT INC: $20,000 · Community ImprovementEssie Justice Group: $200,000 · Crime & LegalINITIATE JUSTICE: $170,000 · Crime & Legal
Philanthropy$26,676,500Other$2,285,000Human Services$995,000International$610,000Civil Rights$500,000Community Improvement$430,000Crime & Legal$370,000

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 budgetAmalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc: $26,426,500 over 4y, 3.2% of budgetCOMMUNITY INITIATIVES: $250,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetGRASSROOTS INTERNATIONAL INC: $250,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetTHOUSAND CURRENTS: $250,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetEssie Justice Group: $200,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetVOCES DE LA FRONTERA INC: $200,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetINITIATE JUSTICE: $170,000 over 2y, 6.8% of budgetCOALITION TO STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST NATIVE WOMEN: $150,000 over 2y, 8.6% of budgetNEO Philanthropy Inc: $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMIJENTE SUPPORT COMMITTEE: $150,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetNATIVE MOVEMENT: $150,000 over 2y, 5.7% of budgetNDN COLLECTIVE INC: $110,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAlliance for Global Justice Corp: $110,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetHIGHLANDER RESEARCH & EDUCATION CENTER INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMujeres Unidas y Activas: $100,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetCOUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS MINNESOTA: $100,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetTransgender Law Center: $100,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetGEORGIA LATINO ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INC: $100,000 over 1y, 6.8% of budgetGRASSROOTS GLOBAL JUSTICE: $100,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetINDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: $100,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetST JAMES INFIRMARY: $100,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetSOUTHERNERS ON NEW GROUND INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetDRUM Desis Rising Up and Moving Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 5.0% of budgetCENTRO DE TRABAJADORES UNIDOS EN LUCHA: $100,000 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetDEMOS A NETWORK FOR IDEAS AND ACTION LTD: $100,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetFlorida Immigrant Coalition Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetFarmworker Association of Florida Inc: $85,000 over 1y, 7.3% of budgetSOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS (SEE) INC: $75,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTEWA WOMEN UNITED: $75,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetTIDES CENTER: $70,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJUNTOS: $70,000 over 1y, 9.6% of budgetCHINESE PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHEART Women & Girls: $50,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetUnited Workers Association Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetINQUIRING SYSTEMS INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetEquality Arizona: $20,000 over 1y, 6.9% of budgetMIGRANT JUSTICE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetPoder in Action: $20,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetLAWYERS FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetUBUNTU VILLAGE NOLA: $20,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetMETCALFE PARK COMMUNITY BRIDGES INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetMEN & WOMEN IN PRISON MINISTRIES: $10,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetINDIGENOUS RIGHTS CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetTHE BLACK SWAN ACADEMY INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetSTEWARDSHIP UTAH FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAFRICAN COMMUNITIES TOGETHER INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% 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.

Amalgamated Charitabl…Tides FoundationProteus Fund IncNew Venture FundCommon Counsel Founda…NEO Philanthropy IncImpactassetsincRockefeller Philanthr…Groundswell FundTides CenterSolidaire Network IncNovo Foundation
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation IncDC51.9× affinity27 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Tides Foundation · Proteus Fund Inc · New Venture Fund · Common Counsel Foundation · NEO Philanthropy Inc · Impactassetsinc · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Groundswell Fund · Tides Center · Solidaire Network Inc · Novo Foundation

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Migrant Justice Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
16report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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 Riff Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Riff 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 65 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.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Riff’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