Skip to content

· Private foundation

Spencer Johnson Family 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.

$45k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$20k
Largest
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 2024.

International$90kPhilanthropy$44kEnvironment$15kHuman Services$11kHealth$10kCivil Rights$10kYouth Development$5k
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$15,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$407k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GOOD360$20,000
NORTH SHORE COMMUNITY COMMUNITY LAND TRUST$15,000
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF HAWAII FOUNDATION$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:

Its human-services grants (FY22–22, $11k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%THE BRIGID ALLIANCE: $11k → 17%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
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
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation

To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Animals
2
Washington Office On Latin America

To advance human rights and social justice in the americas.

International
3
Direct Action for Women Now World-Wide Inc Formerly Indias Daughters Inc
Philanthropy
4
Conservation International Foundation

Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.

Environment
5
The Fund for Peace Inc

Building bridges across diverse sectors, and developing innovative technologies and tools for policy makers. a leader in the conflict assessment and early warning field, the fund for peace focuses on the problems of weak and failing…

International
6
We Are Family Foundation

The we are family foundation celebrates the vision of a global family by creating and supporting programs that inspire and educate people about mutual respect, understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity.

Civil Rights
7
International Bridges to Justice

In recognition of the fundamental principles of the universal declaration of human rights, international bridges to justice (ibj) is dedicated to protecting the basic legal rights of ordinary citizens in developing countries. specifically,…

Crime & Legal
8
Water for People

Water for people exists to develop high quality water and sanitation, accessible to all, and sustained by strong communities, businesses, and governments, working in ten countries; guatemala, honduras, tanzania, peru, bolivia, uganda,…

International
9
Management Sciences for Health Inc

(msh) saves lives and improves the health of the world's poorest (see schedule o) and most vulnerable people by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health.

International
10
Parliamentarians for Global Action

Parliamentarians for global action (pga) is a non-partisan ngo network of legislators from all regions of the world acting in their individual capacity to advocate for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law; peace and human security;…

International
11
World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment
12
International Crisis Group

Crisis group works to prevent and resolve deadly conflict around the world by informing and influencing the perceptions and actions of policymakers and other key conflict actors. to this end, we endeavour to talk to all sides and provide…

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The San Diego Foundation; the most unlike its peers is The Byrnes Family Foundation. 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

9 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. 9 of the 13 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)
9/9
Grantees still filing
8/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE WATER PROJECT INC: $26,500 · InternationalTHE WATER PROJECT INCGOOD360: $20,000 · InternationalGOOD360WOMEN FOR WOMEN INTERNATIONAL: $10,500 · InternationalWOMEN FOR WOMEN INTERNATIONALMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $10,000 · InternationalMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INCNORTH SHORE COMMUNITY COMMUNITY LAND TRUST: $15,000 · OtherNORTH SHORE COMMUNITY COMMUN…MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC AKA DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: $11,314 · OtherMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA…AMERICAN NEAR EAST REFUGEE AID AKA ANERA: $11,314 · OtherAMERICAN NEAR EAST REFUGEE A…COMIC RELIEF US: $5,000 · OtherCOMIC RELIEF USThe Byrnes Family Foundation: $3,550 · OtherThe Byrnes Family FoundationTHE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $40,000 · PhilanthropyTHE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATIONAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF HAWAII FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Civil RightsAMERICAN CIV…TREVOR PROJECT INC: $10,000 · Civil RightsTREVOR PROJE…THE BRIGID ALLIANCE INC: $11,380 · Human Services
International$67,000Other$46,178Philanthropy$40,000Civil Rights$20,000Human Services$11,380

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WATER PROJECT INC: $26,500 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetGOOD360: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BRIGID ALLIANCE INC: $11,380 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWOMEN FOR WOMEN INTERNATIONAL: $10,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF HAWAII FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTREVOR PROJECT INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Byrnes Family Foundation: $3,550 over 2y, 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Spencer Johnson Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Spencer Johnson Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    2report 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, 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Spencer Johnson Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Spencer Johnson Family 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 13 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Spencer Johnson Family’s filings →

    More from the funding graph