· Private foundation
Start It 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 FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| 5TH AVENUE THEATRE ASSOCIATION | $5,000 |
| SEATTLE THEATRE GROUP | $5,000 |
| VILLAGE THEATRE | $2,000 |
| EXPERIENCE LEARNING COMMUNITY | $2,000 |
| SEATTLE ART MUSEUM | $1,500 |
| WEST SEATTLE FOOD BANK | $1,500 |
| PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION | $1,500 |
| SANTA CLARA FOSTER & ADOPTIVE PARENTS ASSOCIATION | $1,000 |
| THEATRE DEVELOPMENT FUND INC | $1,000 |
| BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE | $1,000 |
| MUSEUM OF FLIGHT FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| THE ACTORS FUND OF AMERICA | $1,000 |
| A BROADER WAY FOUNDATION | $500 |
| BROADWAY CARES-EQUITY FIGHTS AIDS INC | $500 |
| THE SAFINA CENTER | $388 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 97% of your 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.
15 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 3 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, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k 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
- STSEATTLE THEATRE GROUP9× · 2017–2025 · $44k · revenue +95%
- ELEXPERIENCE LEARNING COMMUNITY9× · 2017–2025 · $34k · revenue +20%
- VTVILLAGE THEATRE9× · 2017–2025 · $32k · revenue +26%
Funded once
- CFCENTER FOR DISASTER PHILANTHROPY INCgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $3k · revenue +455%
- MSMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC - DOCTORS WITHOUTone grant, 2019 · $3k
- YGY Goldsmithone grant, 2019 · $2k
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.
On the Boards' mission is to invest in leading contemporary performing artists near and far and connect them to a diverse range of communities interested in forward-thinking art and ideas.
To thrill, inspire and educate through the shared experience of opera. seattle opera is vital to the dynamic cultural and civic life of our region and to the evolution of opera across the world.
Siff is a seattle-based 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education.
Artist Trust supports the livelihoods of artists working in all disciplines to create a more vibrant and equitable Washington State.
Sfbatco unites artists and audiences through live theatre that is reflective of the authentic perspectives and history of the san francisco bay area.
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.
The oregon shakespeare festival creates world-class theater, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.
Seattle repertory theatre collaborates with extraordinary artists to create productions and programs that reflect and elevate the diverse culture, perspectives, and life experiences of our region with the vision of putting theater at the…
Musical and other cultural performances and music education for youth
Ten Thousand Things awakens the creative spirit of audiences and artists by bringing essential and exceptional theater to people from all backgrounds and life experiences.
Stages makes plays and tells stories that invite everyone to live more deeply and love more boldly.
The theatres mission is to entertain, educate, and enlighten diverse communities. the second story provided performances to 4,627 mainstage, 76 improv, & 336 children, featuring local actors engaged in improving their craft through…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Seattle Theatre Group and the most unlike its peers is Santa Clara County Kinship Adoptive & Foster Parent Association. 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 32 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% 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 12% 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.
23 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. 23 of the 25 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 5TH AVENUE THEATRE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE THEATRE GROUP ↗
- Who funds EXPERIENCE LEARNING COMMUNITY ↗
- Who funds VILLAGE THEATRE ↗
- Who funds THEATRE DEVELOPMENT FUND INC ↗
- Who funds PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HISPANIC FEDERATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds THE CARL SAFINA CENTER INC THE SAFINA CENTER ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF FLIGHT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SANTA CLARA COUNTY KINSHIP ADOPTIVE & FOSTER PARENT ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds A BROADER WAY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BROADWAY CARESEQUITY FIGHTS AIDS INC ↗
- Who funds LIVING COMPUTER MUSEUM & LABS ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR DISASTER PHILANTHROPY INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDHAVEN ↗
- Who funds Broadway Bound Childrens Theatre ↗
- Who funds West Seattle Food Bank ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds Book-It Repertory Theatre ↗
- Who funds The Vera Project ↗
- Who funds SOUTH SEATTLE EMERALD ↗
- Who funds EQUITY IN EDUCATION COALITION ↗
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: Seattle Foundation · Artsfund · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · United Way of King County · Puget Sound Energy Foundation · Grousemont Foundation · Moccasin Lake Foundation · Raikes Foundation · The Norcliffe Foundation · Ash Family Foundation · Dv & Ida McEachern Charitable Tr · Apex 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 Start It 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.
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.