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Szekely Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Szekely Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$171k
Granted FY2024still arriving
20
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

59% of Szekely Family Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to The San Diego Foundation, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 11 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.

Organizations named directly on the return

0
’17
0
’18
0
’19
0
’20
16
’21
0
’22
10
’23
11
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0183% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Philanthropy$349kArts & Culture$65kEnvironment$65kCrime & Legal$46kInternational$26kCivil Rights$24kHuman Services$18kReligion$17kOther$0
02FY2024 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k19 grants · $71k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
$5,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$2.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
San Diego Foundation$100,000
New American Museum$6,000
Pachama Alliance$5,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
San Diego History Center$5,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
Los Cimientos Alliance$5,000
MAIA - Previously Starfish$5,000
Ilan Lael Foundation$5,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
Bioneers$5,000
Re-wild Your Campus$5,000
San Diego Natural History Museum$2,500
Arawaka$2,000
Commonweal$2,000
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 (FY24–24, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 50% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 8%Fight for the Forgotten: $2k → 10%Commonweal: $2k → 8%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
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

48%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$115k · 9 repeat orgs$126k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +36% since the first grant, against +32% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
26

Total granted

$115k
$83k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+36%
+32%

Still filing today

89%
42%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 39% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $43k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’23’24
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesSocial ScienceEnvironmentInternationalEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • EL
    ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ALLIANCE WORLDWIDE
    2× · 2021–2023 · $25k · revenue +32%
  • CH
    COLLECTIVE HERITAGE INSTITUTE
    3× · 2021–2024 · $20k · revenue +109%
  • COMMONWEAL
    3× · 2021–2024 · $12k · revenue +142%

Funded once

  • M
    MAIAgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +109%
  • LC
    Los Cimientos Alliance
    one grant, 2023 · $5k
  • UE
    UNIHI EDUCATION FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue +27%
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.

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
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
2
Museo De Las Americas

The Museo De Las Americas is dedicated to educating our community through collecting preserving interpreting and exhibiting the diverse arts and cultures of the Americas from ancient to contemporary through innovative exhibitions and…

Arts & Culture
3
Nature and Culture International

Nature and culture international conserves biologically diverse landscapes in latin america, in concert with local cultures, for the well-being of the planet.

Environment
4
Center for the study of the Americas

Within the Americas promoting dialogue and research, producing studies and reports, conducting courses and conferences particularly in the areas of agroecology and food security

—
5
The Conversationalist
—
6
San Diego Museum of Art

To inspire, educate and cultivate curiosity through great works of art.

Arts & Culture
7
San Diego Habitat Conservancy

Acquire, manage and protect land in perpetuity that supports sensitive habitats and species, and to educate and inspire people and communities as stewards and advocates of their natural environment.

Arts & Culture
8
Nature Collective

Nature collective's mission is to drive a passion for nature for all. we think inclusively and diversely when serving those devoid of nature those who remember nature and want to connect back to it and those who have an affinity with…

Environment
9
The Mountain Institute Inc

Advance the well- being of mountain people and conservation of mountain environments.

—
10
Multinational Exchange for Sustainable a Mesa andor Mesa Inc

MESA connects and cultivates sustainable farmers and food systems leaders around the world.

Education
11
Amazon Watch Inc

To protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with Indigenous communities in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon Basin's…

Environment
12
Institute for New Global Politics Inc

The Institute for New Global Politics is a California-based educational nonprofit corporation organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes. It is an independent and nonpartisan thinktank dedicated to educating the general…

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 Americas Foundation Inc. 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

29 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. 29 of the 50 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)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
26/29
Grantees still filing
17/29
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $275,000 · PhilanthropyTHE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION+1 more: $1,000 · PhilanthropyENVIRONMENTAL LAW ALLIANCE WORLDWIDE: $25,000 · OtherENVIRONMENTAL LAW ALLIANCE WORLD…SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $10,000 · OtherSAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETYIlan Lael Foundation: $9,500 · OtherIlan Lael FoundationMAIA: $10,000 · OtherMAIAThe San Diego River Park Foundation: $7,000 · Other+27 more: $93,000 · Other+27 morePresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $15,000 · EducationSOCIAL GOOD FUND INC: $7,000 · EducationHUMMINGBIRD TRANSFORMATIONAL LIVING CENTER: $2,500 · EducationINVESTIGATIVE NEWSOURCE: $2,000 · EducationNEW AMERICANS MUSEUM INC: $8,500 · Arts & CultureSAN DIEGO SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY: $7,500 · Arts & CultureSAMUEL LAWRENCE FOUNDATION: $5,000 · Arts & CultureOLD GLOBE THEATRE: $2,500 · Arts & CultureARAWAKA INC: $2,000 · Arts & CultureCOLLECTIVE HERITAGE INSTITUTE: $20,000 · Social ScienceESALEN INSTITUTE: $2,500 · Social ScienceCOMMONWEAL: $12,000 · Human ServicesUSA FOR UNFPA INC: $2,105 · Human ServicesTHE JUSTIN WREN FOUNDATION: $2,000 · Human ServicesThe Pachamama Alliance: $15,000 · EnvironmentWild Farm Alliance: $1,000 · Environment
Philanthropy$276,000Other$154,500Education$26,500Arts & Culture$25,500Social Science$22,500Human Services$16,105Environment$16,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $275,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL LAW ALLIANCE WORLDWIDE: $25,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCOLLECTIVE HERITAGE INSTITUTE: $20,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Pachamama Alliance: $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMONWEAL: $12,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMAIA: $10,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetSAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $10,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetNEW AMERICANS MUSEUM INC: $8,500 over 2y, 6.4% of budgetSAN DIEGO SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY: $7,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSOCIAL GOOD FUND INC: $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe San Diego River Park Foundation: $7,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetUNIHI EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetMADRE INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSAMUEL LAWRENCE FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetSAN DIEGO REPERTORY THEATRE INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetESALEN INSTITUTE: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOLD GLOBE THEATRE: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUSA FOR UNFPA INC: $2,105 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLa Jolla Historical Society: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE JUSTIN WREN FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAS FOUNDATION INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetINVESTIGATIVE NEWSOURCE: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetARAWAKA INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMIRAGLO FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWild Farm Alliance: $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetRotary Camp Pendleton Foundation fka Pendleton Community Service Fund: $1,000 over 1y, 0.6% 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.

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.

Jewish Community Foun…The San Diego Foundat…The Conrad Prebys Fou…The Parker FoundationPrice Philanthropies …Rancho Santa Fe Found…Girard FoundationSamuel I & John Henry…Leichtag FoundationCalifornia HumanitiesAlumbra Innovations F…David C Copley Founda…
Jewish Community Foundation of San DiegoCA26.6× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · The San Diego Foundation · The Conrad Prebys Foundation · The Parker Foundation · Price Philanthropies Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · Girard Foundation · Samuel I & John Henry Fox Foundation · Leichtag Foundation · California Humanities · Alumbra Innovations Foundation · David C Copley Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get 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 · 0–15%
    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 Szekely Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Szekely 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 50 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 Szekely Family’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home