Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Agouron Institute

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.

$1.8M
Granted FY2025still arriving
25
Grants FY2025still arriving
10
States reached
$441k
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 FY20172025.

Science & Tech$15MEducation$3.6MEnvironment$373kHealth$35kRecreation & Sports$8k
02FY2025 · 25 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k10 grants · $63k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $138k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $374k
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.2M
$10,000
Median grant
10
States reached
$11M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY$441,222
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY$430,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY$370,590
JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY$106,725
UNIVERSIDAD DE CONCEPCION$100,000
UNIVERSITY OF CA SANTA CRUZ$96,857
LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH FOUNDATION$70,000
GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES$35,000
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CA SAN DIEGO$30,000
MCGILL UNIVERSITY$17,500
EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY$15,000
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CA BERKELEY$10,000
BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY$10,000
MARINE BIOLOGICAL LAB$10,000
THE GEOBIOLOGY SOCIETY$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 84% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MASSACHUSSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOL: $137k → 8%WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSITUTE: $95k → 8%SELKIRK CONSERVATION ALLIANCE: $120k → 12%PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: $451k → 16%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $371k → 7%UC BERKELEY: $82k → 10%UC REGENTS RIVERSIDE: $77k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF CA SANTA CRUZ: $359k → 13%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $5.3M → 14%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $516k → 17%GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES: $77k → 7%PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: $83k → 11%VIRGINIA POLTECHNIC FELLOWSHIP: $103k → 21%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: $117k → 11%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $107k → 19%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $115k → 10%MASSACHUSSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOL: $78k → 8%WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSITUTE: $80k → 8%PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: $441k → 16%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $125k → 7%UC BERKELEY: $79k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF CA SANTA CRUZ: $97k → 13%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $815k → 14%PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: $80k → 11%VIRGINIA POLTECHNIC FELLOWSHIP: $75k → 21%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: $89k → 11%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $98k → 19%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $85k → 10%PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: $435k → 16%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $77k → 7%REGENTS OF THE UNIV OF CA BERKELEY: $77k → 10%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $800k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $109k → 14%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $76k → 10%THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: $86k → 16%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $614k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $91k → 14%PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD UNIV: $85k → 8%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $430k → 14%PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD UNIV: $85k → 8%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $407k → 14%PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD UNIV: $83k → 8%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $270k → 14%PRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD UNIV: $77k → 8%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $260k → 14%CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $154k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $381k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $255k → 14%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.

Which US states your grants reach

NH
ID
MN
IL
NY
MA
IA
IN
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
CO
MO
VA
MD
NM
TN
NC
SC
DC
GA
FL

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 8% of The Agouron Institute’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

The Agouron Institutelessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 5.9% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$16M · 45 repeat orgs$629k to everyone else

45 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2025, 27 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

45
36

Total granted

$16M
$595k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+35%
+38%

Still filing today

27%
17%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $34k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationScience & TechHealthEnvironmentRecreation & SportsOther

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

  • CI
    CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
    9× · 2017–2025 · $9.0M · revenue +35%
  • GR
    GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $358k · revenue +43%
  • The Trustees of Princeton University
    4× · 2018–2023 · $207k · revenue +8%

Funded once

  • YU
    YALE UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2018 · $72k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2019 · $70k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2017 · $67k

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
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
2
The Graduate School of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research

The graduate school of the stowers institute for medical research ("gssimr") exempt purpose is to provide graduate education that will prepare scholars for scientific research in the biological sciences.

Education
3
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
4
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
6
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
7
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
8
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

9
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
10
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
11
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
12
Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…

Science & Tech

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the most unlike its peers is Bahamas Marine Ecocentre. 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 52 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number24%0%<5yr15%4%5–10yr20%11%10–20yr17%11%20–35yr11%32%35–55yr13%43%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%0%<5yr15%0%5–10yr20%4%10–20yr17%7%20–35yr11%10%35–55yr13%80%55yr+

The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/34
the rest of the field
14%
26,003/186,944

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.

05the grantee network

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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 23 of the 90 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
23/23
Grantees still filing
18/23
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY — $9,014,530 · EducationCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — $741,045 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIATHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $667,965 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITYTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $516,000 · Education+7 more — $853,660 · Education+7 morePENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY — $1,413,308 · OtherPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITYPRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD UNIV — $553,223 · OtherPRESIDENT & FELLOWS OF HARVARD UNIVREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA — $455,907 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIAUNIVERSIDAD DE CONCEPCION — $300,000 · OtherLIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH FOUNDATION — $275,000 · OtherSELKIRK CONSERVATION ALLIANCE — $235,600 · OtherMASSACHUSSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOL — $233,000 · OtherJOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY — $231,069 · OtherYALE UNIVERSITY — $228,252 · Other+62 more — $2,899,461 · Other+62 moreGORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES INC — $358,050 · Science & TechNEW YORK STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY CENTER INC — $20,000 · Science & Tech+2 more — $15,000 · Science & TechBAHAMAS MARINE ECOCENTRE — $137,000 · EnvironmentTHE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE — $64,000 · HealthBACTERIAL LOCOMOTION AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION — $5,000 · HealthNorthwestern University — $16,000 · Recreation & Sports
Education$11,793,200Other$6,824,820Science & Tech$393,050Environment$137,000Health$69,000Recreation & Sports$16,000

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 budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY — $9,014,530 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — $741,045 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $667,965 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK — $516,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES INC — $358,050 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetLIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH FOUNDATION — $275,000 over 6y, 2.5% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College — $258,791 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSELKIRK CONSERVATION ALLIANCE — $235,600 over 4y, 80% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University — $206,932 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $200,276 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY — $144,136 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE — $64,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetIndiana University Foundation — $32,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY — $25,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetNEW YORK STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY CENTER INC — $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNorthwestern University — $16,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGeochemical Society — $10,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOUNDATION — $8,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Salk Institute for Biological Studies — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBACTERIAL LOCOMOTION AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION — $5,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetAMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES — $3,025 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
  • Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY
  • Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
  • Who funds GORDON RESEARCH CONFERENCES INC
  • Who funds LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Trustees of Dartmouth College
  • Who funds SELKIRK CONSERVATION ALLIANCE
  • Who funds The Trustees of Princeton University
  • Who funds University of Chicago
  • Who funds WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
  • Who funds BAHAMAS MARINE ECOCENTRE
  • Who funds THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

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.

The Simons Foundation IncNY13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Simons Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 The Agouron Institute 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 20%3%10%23%40%your share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 11%
  • The Trustees of Princeton University11% of income from government
  • Amherst College Trustees0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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 The Agouron Institute?

Find your warmest path to The Agouron Institute 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 90 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph