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· Private foundation

Stone Steps 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.

$306k
Granted FY2024still arriving
9
Grants FY2024still arriving
5
States reached
$200k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20212024.

International$1.2MEnvironment$45kYouth Development$16kCommunity Improvement$15kPhilanthropy$10kCrime & Legal$10kHuman Services$1kHousing & Shelter$500
02FY2024 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $6k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $100k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
$20,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$5.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ACUMEN FUND INC$200,000
SUSTAINABLE BUYERS GUIDE INC$20,000
STREET BUSINESS SCHOOL$20,000
GLOBAL WITNESS FOUNDATION$20,000
GLOBAL COMMUNITIES$20,000
AL OTRO LADO$10,000
SANERGY INC$10,000
SARARA INSTITUTE$5,000
THIRD AVENUE CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION (TACO)$500
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY21–24, $11k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%ELIZABETH STONE HOUSE: $1k → 16%AL OTRO LADO: $10k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.2M · 5 repeat orgs$97k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +52% since the first grant, against +6% for the ones you funded once.

5 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
4

Total granted

$1.2M
$41k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+52%
+6%

Still filing today

80%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $56k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
InternationalHuman ServicesEducationPhilanthropySocial ScienceEnvironmentOther

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

  • AF
    ACUMEN FUND INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $990k · revenue +52%
  • GC
    GLOBAL COMMUNITIES
    4× · 2021–2024 · $50k · revenue +23%
  • SI
    SANERGY INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $20k · revenue +53%

Funded once

  • The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue -9%
  • U
    UNCHARTED
    one grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue -87%
  • Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties
    one grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue +12%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Accion International

Our mission is to create a fair and inclusive economy where underserved people have quality financial choices and opportunities to improve their economic well-being. we find and help build innovative companies with the potential to reach…

International
2
Work on Climate

Supporting industry transformation towards climate-positive and make green careers transitions and driving the adoption of green workforce development practices broadly.

Environment
3
Actionaid Usa

Actionaid is an international network building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice. actionaid usa is the u.s. branch of actionaid international, which works in…

Social Science
4
Global Forest Generation

Global Forest Generation restores and protects forest ecosystems in partnership with grassroots leaders and local communities across vast landscapes which play a critical role in preserving water, protecting biodiversity, storing carbon,…

Environment
5
Climate Catalyst Inc

Climate catalyst sparks collective action to tackle the biggest climate challenges we face today: cutting emissions in heavy industries.

Environment
6
E3G Third Generation Environmentalism

E3g is a leading international not-for-profit think tank specialising in climate diplomacy harnessing expertise in the politics and economics of climate change.

Environment
7
Global Impact Investing Network Inc

The global impact investing network, inc. is dedicated to increasing the scale and effectiveness of impact investing to solve systemic problems facing people and the planet. impact investments are investments made into companies,…

Philanthropy
8
Well Aware Inc

Well Aware's mission is to provide innovative and sustainable solutions to water scarcity and contamination in East Africa.

International
9
Upaya Social Ventures

Upaya Social Ventures' mission is to create dignified jobs for people living in extreme poverty by building scalable businesses with investment and consulting support.

International
10
Activate Global Inc

Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. activate partners with u.s. based funders, research institutions, and other pillars of the hard technology community to help entrepreneurial…

Environment
11
Asociacion Interamericana Para La Defensa Del Ambiente

To strenghten people's ability to guarantee their individual and collective right to a healthy environment, via the development, implementation, and effective enforcement of national and international law.

Crime & Legal
12
Israel Venture Network

The Organization is at the forefront of the social business arena for fourth sector in Israel, nurturing and growing this emerging sector and generating sustainable social impact by providing Israel's social businesses with knowledge,…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Acumen Fund Inc and the most unlike its peers is Al Otro Lado. 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

13 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 13 of the 15 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/13
Grantees still filing
5/13
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ACUMEN FUND INC — $990,000 · InternationalACUMEN FUND INCGLOBAL COMMUNITIES — $50,000 · International+2 more — $45,000 · InternationalSTREET BUSINESS SCHOOL — $85,000 · EducationSUSTAINABLE BUYERS GUIDE INC — $20,000 · OtherWHIZZKIDS — $16,000 · OtherUNCHARTED — $10,000 · OtherGLOBAL WITNESS FOUNDATION — $20,000 · Social ScienceIMPACTASSETSINC — $10,000 · PhilanthropyCatalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties — $5,000 · PhilanthropyAL OTRO LADO — $10,000 · Human ServicesROXBURY STONE HOUSE INC — $1,000 · Human ServicesSARARA INSTITUTE — $5,000 · EnvironmentThird Avenue Charitable Organization — $500 · Food & Nutrition
International$1,085,000Education$85,000Other$46,000Social Science$20,000Philanthropy$15,000Human Services$11,000Environment$5,000Food & Nutrition$500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetACUMEN FUND INC — $990,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetSTREET BUSINESS SCHOOL — $85,000 over 4y, 1.7% of budgetGLOBAL COMMUNITIES — $50,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGLOBAL WITNESS FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSANERGY INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetAL OTRO LADO — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetIMPACTASSETSINC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNCHARTED — $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetSARARA INSTITUTE — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCatalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetROXBURY STONE HOUSE INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThird Avenue Charitable Organization — $500 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
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.

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.

Jewish Community Foundation of San DiegoCA15.3× affinity5 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Stone Steps 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 44%
  • Global Communities44% of income from government
  • Roxbury Stone House Inc29% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get 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
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Stone Steps Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Stone Steps 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 15 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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