· Private foundation
Sunkara Family Foundation
Its FY2020 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 FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2020
- Under $10k7 grants · $9k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $64k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $74k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BOSTON UNIVERSITY | $74,477 |
| HIGHER ONE FOUNDATION INC | $37,888 |
| BROWN UNIVERSITY | $26,309 |
| YMCA OF SILICON VALLEY | $3,251 |
| TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION CENTER | $2,740 |
| MVLA FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| KIWANIS CLUB OF LOS ALTOS FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| MOUNTAIN VIEW HIGH SCHOOL | $620 |
| SANTA CLARA HIGH SCHOOL | $58 |
| CALPIRG | $20 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY19–20, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +40% since the first grant, against +12% for the ones you funded once.
15 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2020, 8 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (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 FY2020, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $41k 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
TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY3× · 2018–2020 · $185k · revenue +40%- YMYOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF SILICON VALLEY2× · 2019–2020 · $5k · revenue +2%
- TSTiE Silicon Valley Inc dba Indus Entrepreneurs2× · 2017–2018 · $4k · revenue +0%
Funded once
- ILINDIA LITERACY PROJECTone grant, 2019 · $2k · revenue +12%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $2k · revenue +39%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone 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.
Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)
Perc is dedicated to advancing conservation through markets, incentives, property rights, and partnerships.
The resource renewal institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively.
Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.
Project drawdown's mission is to drive meaningful climate action by advancing science-based solutions and strategies. project drawdown's work is focused on three pillars: science - advancing science-based climate solutions and strategies;…
We bring science, policy, and proven solutions directly to communities working to restore the integrity and natural connectivity of the landscapes in which they live. (see schedule o)
To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.
Darksky international restores the nighttime environment and protects communities from the harmful effects of light pollution through outreach, advocacy, and conservation.
Increase societal understanding of the earth system through scientific research and education.
The international snow leopard trust aims to ethically conserve snow leopards and their high mountain ecosystems through partnerships with indigenous peoples and local communities, and through research to improve the understanding of snow…
Iatp works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.
Ocean conservancy unites science, people, and policy to protect our ocean, today and for generations to come.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is California State Parks Foundation and the most unlike its peers is TiE Silicon Valley Inc dba Indus Entrepreneurs. 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 57 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% 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 13% 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.
20 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. 20 of the 41 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 BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF SILICON VALLEY ↗
- Who funds TiE Silicon Valley Inc dba Indus Entrepreneurs ↗
- Who funds INDIA LITERACY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds KIWANIS CLUB OF LOS ALTOS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Last Chance for Animals ↗
- Who funds THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTION FUND INC ↗
- Who funds SIERRA CLUB ↗
- Who funds PENINSULA OPEN SPACE TRUST ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YOSEMITE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Sunkara Family 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.
- Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
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.