· Private foundation
Stephenson 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
71% of Stephenson Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to The Board Of Trustees Of The Leland Stanford Junior University, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 18 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k16 grants · $33k
- $10k–50k10 grants · $165k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $200k
- $250k+1 grant · $850k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HOOVER INSTITUTION | $850,000 |
| FOLDS OF HONOR | $100,000 |
| AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE | $50,000 |
| FOLDS OF HONOR | $50,000 |
| HARVARD UNIVERSITY | $25,000 |
| CURE ALZHEIMER'S FUND | $25,000 |
| CAL MATTERS | $25,000 |
| LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY (SIEPR) | $25,000 |
| KIPP BAY AREA SCHOOLS | $15,000 |
| SPIRIT OF AMERICA | $10,000 |
| THE DAWN REDWOODS TRUST | $10,000 |
| ANTI CORRUPTION FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| POSTPARTUM SUPPORT CENTER | $10,000 |
| UCLA CANCER CENTER FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| WILMINGTON FRIENDS SCHOOL | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 34% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 49% of Stephenson Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 61% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 48%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +68% since the first grant, against +41% for those funded once.
36 repeat relationships: 16 still active in FY2024, 20 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $37k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- FOFOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $531k · revenue +103%
- ADALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RESEARCH FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $150k · revenue +147%
- CLCLIMATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL INC3× · 2021–2023 · $125k · revenue +18%
Funded once
Texas 2036graduatedone grant, 2020 · $200k · revenue +68%
CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +64%- AWANGEL WINGS NETWORK INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $40k · revenue +34%
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.
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.
Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
Help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.
The National Academy of Public Administration is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit, non partisan Organization established in 1967 and chartered by Congress in 1984. See Schedule O
Organization mission the observer research foundation america orf america is an independent, non-partisan, and nonprofit organization in washington dc dedicated to addressing policy challenges facing the united states, india, and their…
Cna is a non-profit research organization that operates the center for naval analyses, a federally funded research center that has supported the navy and marine corps for nearly seventy years, and the institute for public research that…
American foreign service association (afsa) is both the principal advocate for the long-term institutional wellbeing of the professional career foreign service and responsible for safeguarding the interest of afsa members. (continued on…
To provide accurate, objective information and analysis on international strategic issues for legislators, diplomats, foreign affairs analysts, international business leaders, economists, the military, defense commentators, journalists,…
The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.
Making our government work better is a daunting task, and we are a small organization seeking to transform a government that employs millions of civilians and manages trillions of dollars in taxpayer revenue needed to protect public…
The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…
The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.
How this is measured
40 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. 40 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds FOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Texas 2036 ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RESEARCH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CLIMATE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds KIPP BAY AREA SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds CalMatters ↗
- Who funds ALL STARS HELPING KIDS INC ↗
- Who funds Bay Area Womens Sports Initiative ↗
- Who funds STOP THE ADDICTION FATALITY EPIDEMIC (SAFE) PROJECT US ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN INNOVATION ↗
- Who funds ANGEL WINGS NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds Delta Waterfowl Foundation ↗
- Who funds Spirit of America Worldwide ↗
- Who funds Ducks Unlimited Inc ↗
- Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds Josephy Center for Arts and Culture ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Marin Community Foundation · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · The Stanley S Langendorf Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Greater Houston Community Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Stephenson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Stephenson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
- Josephy Center for Arts and Culture: 7% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Stephenson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Stephenson 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.
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