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Sanders Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sanders Family 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.

$210k
Granted FY2025still arriving
3
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$175k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.1MSocial Science$90kRecreation & Sports$20kInternational$20kEducation$14kPublic Benefit$10k
02FY2025 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $35k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $175k
$25,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$489k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LOS ANGELES OPERA$175,000
OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL$25,000
LOS ANGELES WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL$10,000
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 87% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL: $38k → 10%UC REGENTS (UCLA): $14k → 10%LOS ANGELES SPORTS COUNCIL FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%METROPOLIS ENSEMBLE: $9k → 13%NEW MUSIC USA: $10k → 17%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $35k → 20%OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL: $38k → 10%LOS ANGELES SPORTS COUNCIL FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%NEW MUSIC USA: $3k → 17%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $35k → 20%OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL: $38k → 10%LOS ANGELES PARKS FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $25k → 20%OJAI MUSIC FESTIVAL: $25k → 10%LOS ANGELES OPERA: $175k → 14%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $20k → 20%LOS ANGELES OPERA: $175k → 14%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $15k → 20%LOS ANGELES OPERA: $175k → 14%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $15k → 20%LOS ANGELES OPERA: $75k → 14%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $10k → 20%LOS ANGELES OPERA: $50k → 14%BETH MORRISON PROJECTS: $10k → 20%LA OPERA: $25k → 14%LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC: $5k → 14%THE INDUSTRY PRODUCTIONS: $5k → 14%USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: $5k → 14%USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: $5k → 14%RAND CORPORATION: $30k → 14%RAND CORPORATION: $30k → 14%RAND CORPORATION: $30k → 14%LOS ANGELES WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL: $10k → 14%LOS ANGELES WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL: $10k → 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
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 9 repeat orgs$68k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
6

Total granted

$1.2M
$68k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+18%
+31%

Still filing today

78%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureRecreation & SportsPublic BenefitInternationalOther
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

  • OF
    OJAI FESTIVALS LTD
    6× · 2017–2025 · $188k · revenue +15%
  • BM
    BETH MORRISON PROJECTS INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $165k · revenue +74%
  • The Rand Corporation
    3× · 2019–2021 · $90k · revenue +16%

Funded once

  • LO
    LA OPERA
    one grant, 2017 · $25k
  • UR
    UC REGENTS
    one grant, 2019 · $14k
  • LA
    LOS ANGELES PARKS FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +33%
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
Los Angeles Opera Company

To serve the public by producing world-class opera that preserves, promotes and advances the art form while embodying the diversity, spirit and artistic sensibility unique to los angeles. we envision an engaged and enlightened community in…

Arts & Culture
2
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Society Inc

The orchestra pursues its mission, "to enrich and connect our community through intimate and transformative musical experiences which exemplify and foster artistic excellence, education and innovation," through the blend of traditional…

Arts & Culture
3
International Contemporary Ensemble Foundation Inc

With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the international contemporary ensemble-as a commissioner and performer at the highest level-amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music…

Arts & Culture
4
Los Angeles Master Chorale Association
Arts & Culture
5
Foundation for Modern Opera
—
6
Composers Now Inc

Composers Now empowers all living composers cleebrates the diversity of their voices and honors the significance of their artistic contributions to the cultural fabric of society

Arts & Culture
7
American Composers Forum

To advocate for and support living composers

Arts & Culture
8
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Inc

The baltimore symphony orchestra's (bso) mission is to promote, organize, manage and maintain a symphony orchestra for the city of baltimore and the state of maryland and to hold, sponsor, and present musical concerts by the baltimore…

Arts & Culture
9
Seattle Symphony Orchestra Inc

To present symphonic music of the highest quality in a distinctive way for the cultural enrichment, education, engagement and enjoyment of the people of our community.

Arts & Culture
10
Los Angeles International Dance Festival
—
11
Lyric Opera of Chicago

We believe in the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric Opera of Chicago exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance the…

Arts & Culture
12
San Diego Opera Association

Mission: the mission of san diego opera is to deliver exceptional performances and exciting, accessible programs to diverse audiences, focusing on community partnerships, and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice. as…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New Music Usa Inc; the most unlike its peers is Metropolis Ensemble 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 15 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
9/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LOS ANGELES OPERA: $650,000 · OtherLOS ANGELES OPERALA OPERA: $25,000 · Other+3 more: $34,400 · OtherOJAI FESTIVALS LTD: $187,500 · Arts & CultureOJAI FESTIVALS LTDBETH MORRISON PROJECTS INC: $165,000 · Arts & CultureBETH MORRISON PROJECTS INCLUNA COMPOSITION LAB INC: $35,000 · Arts & CultureLUNA COMPOSITION LAB INC+4 more: $31,500 · Arts & Culture+4 moreThe Rand Corporation: $90,000 · Public BenefitLOS ANGELES WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL AND TOWN HALL: $20,000 · InternationalLOS ANGELES PARKS FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Recreation & Sports
Other$709,400Arts & Culture$419,000Public Benefit$90,000International$20,000Recreation & Sports$10,000

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 budgetOJAI FESTIVALS LTD: $187,500 over 6y, 1.6% of budgetBETH MORRISON PROJECTS INC: $165,000 over 8y, 1.2% of budgetThe Rand Corporation: $90,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLUNA COMPOSITION LAB INC: $35,000 over 2y, 5.1% of budgetLOS ANGELES WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL AND TOWN HALL: $20,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetNEW MUSIC USA INC: $12,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetLOS ANGELES SPORTS COUNCIL FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetLOS ANGELES PARKS FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMETROPOLIS ENSEMBLE INC: $9,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetTHE INDUSTRY PRODUCTIONS INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetLOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

The Aaron Copland Fun…The Amphion Foundatio…California Community …National Philanthropi…Morgan Stanley Global…Donor Advised Charita…Vanguard Charitable E…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc Co Alter Kendrick & Baron LLPNY17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc Co Alter Kendrick & Baron LLP · The Amphion Foundation Inc Co Alter Kendrick & Baron LLP · California Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Sanders Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sanders Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%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
    4report 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.

    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 15 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Sanders 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