· Private foundation
The Blue Oak Charitable Fund
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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
95% of The Blue Oak Charitable Fund’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year The Blue Oak Charitable Fund named its own grantees at scale: 12 organizations, $808k. It is dated, not current.
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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2018
- Under $10k9 grants · $30k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $87k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $441k
- $250k+1 grant · $251k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FRIENDS OF UNIVERSIDAD F M INC | $251,000 |
| ATLAS NETWORK | $212,600 |
| GUANACASTE DRY FOREST CONSERVATION | $125,000 |
| STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY | $53,000 |
| FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION | $50,000 |
| BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| REASON FOUNDATION | $21,900 |
| HOPE CRISIS REPONSE NETWORK | $20,000 |
| SOUTHERN LAKE COUNTY FIREFIGHERS AS | $10,000 |
| FOUNDATION FOR GOVT ACCOUNTABILITY | $10,000 |
| FISHER CENTER FOR ALZHEIMERS RESEARCH | $7,500 |
| CATO INSTITUTE | $7,100 |
| REUNION MINISTRIES | $6,500 |
| HUMANE SOCIETY OF SONOMA COUNTY | $3,000 |
| THE VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP | $2,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–23, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 47% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
22 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2018, 3 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2025, 23% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $17k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- SFSTUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC2× · 2017–2018 · $203k · revenue +49%
- TRTHE REASON FOUNDATION4× · 2017–2020 · $201k · revenue +80%
- FFFoundation for Economic Education Inc2× · 2017–2018 · $200k · revenue +66%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $261k
- NSNEVADA SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALSgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue +272%
- HRHUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $75k · revenue +648%
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.
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,…
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.
The mission of the institute for in vitro sciences (iivs) is to drive the optimization and application of scientifically robust in vitro methods that are accepted by regulatory agencies and adopted by industry worldwide. to create a forum…
At the internet society foundation, we focus on funding initiatives that strengthen the internet in function and reach so that it can effectively serve all people. our work advances the vision of the internet society (isoc): the internet…
Using legal advocacy to make advances in science and technology safer for people and the planet.
Marin humane transforms lives through exceptional animal care, humane education, and advocacy. every day, marin humane inspires compassion and positive relationships between people and animals.
Isd-us is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to defending democracy and individual rights against threats to public safety and national security. isd-us is at the forefront of analyzing and innovating solutions…
The institute for defense analyses is organized for the purpose of applied research. the institute for defense analyses provides independent and objective scientific and technological expertise to assist national security decision-makers…
Our mission is to invest in and accelerate the development of the most promising future leaders in biomedical research with global impact.
Finreglab is a d.c.-based research organization working at the intersection of financial innovation and public policy. our mission is to advance technology and data use to help people and small businesses manage their financial lives,…
Institute for the future is the world's leading futures organization. our mission is to prepare the world to create better, more equitable futures by disrupting short-term thinking with visions of transformative possibilities.
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.
How this is measured
27 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 27 of the 49 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 VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds STUDENTS FOR LIBERTY INC ↗
- Who funds THE REASON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Foundation for Economic Education Inc ↗
- Who funds NEVADA SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CATO INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE MONT PELERIN SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE ↗
- Who funds THE MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HUMANE SOCIETY OF SONOMA COUNTY ↗
- Who funds TRAINED UP ↗
- Who funds THE VEGETARIAN RESOURCE GROUP ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL RELIEF TEAMS ↗
- Who funds Minnie Cannon Boosters ↗
- Who funds THE BASTIAT SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds CANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE INC ↗
- Who funds THE GOOD FOOD INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds Nutritionfactsorg Inc ↗
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: Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Blue Oak Charitable Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Blue Oak Charitable Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
- Neads Inc: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Blue Oak Charitable Fund?
Find your warmest path to The Blue Oak Charitable Fund 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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