· Private foundation
Robert R Sprague Foundation
Its FY2025 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 FY2021–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k10 grants · $174k
- $50k–250k9 grants · $845k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION ORANGE COUNT | $160,000 |
| CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $110,000 |
| THE GUIBOARD CENTER | $100,000 |
| MANHATTAN BEACH EDUCATION FOUNDATIO | $100,000 |
| THE UCLA FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVER | $100,000 |
| HOUSING WORKS | $75,000 |
| CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES | $50,000 |
| THE MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDAT | $50,000 |
| HERMOSA BEACH EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $30,000 |
| KING HARBOR YOUTH FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| PACIFIC ELEMENTARY | $20,000 |
| CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY - PASADENA | $20,000 |
| MARINE MAMMAL CARE CENTER | $20,000 |
| SURFRIDER FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY21–23, $105k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +28% since the first grant, against +5% for the ones you funded once.
26 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k 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
- HWHOUSING WORKS5× · 2021–2025 · $375k · revenue +65%
- CHChildren's Hospital Los Angeles5× · 2021–2025 · $250k · revenue +34%
- MBMANHATTAN BEACH EDUCATION FOUNDATION3× · 2023–2025 · $160k · revenue +9%
Funded once
Save The Children Federation Incone grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue -13%
COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INCone grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue -6%
GLOBALGIVING FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2022 · $25k · 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.
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…
The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…
Chcf is dedicated to advancing meaningful, measurable improvements in the way the health care delivery system provides care to the people of california, particularly those with low incomes and those whose needs are not well served by the…
The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
The league of california community foundations promotes and strengthens community foundations in california. through collaboration and shared learning among member foundations and building partnerships with private and public entities, we…
To support educational, research and public functions and programs of the riverside campus of the university of california.
The association serves its members by creating resources that enable california school administrators to develop and apply creative leadership and management skills and in turn, improve the educational process for all students.
California ocean science trust (ost) is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating progress towards a healthy and productive ocean future for california. created by state legislation, ost bridges the gap between cutting-edge…
As the only community foundation for the ocean, The Ocean Foundation's 501(c)(3) mission is to improve global ocean health, climate resilience, and the blue economy. We create partnerships to connect people in the communities in which we…
To improve the quality of life for the diverse communities we serve providing affordable and comprehensive healthcare and education in a welcoming multi-cultural environment.
Serves the mission of the university by supporting and engaging in research, entrepreneurship, community service, sponsored programs and the acquisition of private resources.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is California Community Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Jacaranda Foundation Inc. 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 31 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% 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.
28 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. 28 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 CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HOUSING WORKS ↗
- Who funds UCLA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF ORANGE COUNTY AND THE INLAND EMPIRE INC ↗
- Who funds Children's Hospital Los Angeles ↗
- Who funds MANHATTAN BEACH EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL DEFENDERS INTERNATIONAL INC US ↗
- Who funds KING HARBOR YOUTH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MARINE MAMMAL CARE CENTER LOS ANGELES ↗
- Who funds JACARANDA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HERMOSA BEACH EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY GREATER SAN GABRIEL VALLEY ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds THE PAINTED TURTLE ↗
- Who funds ECHOES OF HOPE ↗
- Who funds Save The Children Federation Inc ↗
- Who funds COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC ↗
- Who funds GLOBALGIVING FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR DISASTER PHILANTHROPY INC ↗
- Who funds DIRECT RELIEF ↗
- Who funds SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds PEACE 4 KIDS ↗
- Who funds SKID ROW HOUSING TRUST ↗
- Who funds YOUNG & HEALTHY ↗
- Who funds CRYSTAL COVE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds WALK WITH SALLY ↗
- Who funds SOUTH BAY FRIENDS FOUNDATION ↗
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: California Community Foundation · Pasadena Community Foundation · The Ralph M Parsons Foundation · The Annenberg Foundation · Sempra Foundation · The Rose Hills Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · Greater Horizons · The William C Bannerman Foundation · S Mark Taper Foundation · Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase 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 Robert R Sprague 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.
- Save the Children Federation Inc — 30% of income from government
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 Robert R Sprague Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Robert R Sprague 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.