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The Brain Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

The Brain Foundation

THE BRAIN FOUNDATION is organized and operated exclusively for educational, public, charitable, and scientific purposes.

$897k
Granted FY2024still arriving
11
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$140k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Health$3.9MEducation$90k
02FY2024 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$89,000
Median grant
8
States reached
$2.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNI OF CALIFORNIA BERKLEY$140,000
STANFORD UNIV SCHOOL OF MED$90,000
UNIV OF MIAMI MILLER SCHOOL$90,000
HASBRO CHILDRENS HOSPITAL$90,000
STANFORD UNI DEPT OF PSYCOLOG$89,178
UNI OF TEXAS SW MEDICAL CNTR$89,000
NOVA SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY$89,000
CHILDRENS HOSPITAL FOUNDATIO$70,000
WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE$50,000
UNI OF ARKANSAS FOR MEDICAL$50,000
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS$50,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 82% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%PHOENIX CHILDRENS HOSPITAL F: $100k → 11%MASSACHUSETTS GEN HOSPITAL: $83k → 16%STANFORD UNIV SCHOOL OF MED: $180k → 8%UNI OF CALIFORNIA BERKLEY: $140k → 10%SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $95k → 11%CA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FO: $100k → 14%UC OF CA REGENTS- DAVIS: $270k → 16%RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTIT: $25k → 11%ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: $99k → 17%UNI OF TEXAS SW MEDICAL CNTR: $89k → 14%THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $135k → 13%UNI OF ARKANSAS FOR MEDICAL: $50k → 17%FL ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDA: $65k → 11%NOVA SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY: $89k → 13%UNIV OF MIAMI MILLER SCHOOL: $90k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: $135k → 10%YALE UNIVERSITY: $90k → 12%WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE: $50k → 15%HASBRO CHILDRENS HOSPITAL: $90k → 14%STAR INSTITUTE FOR SENSORY PR: $85k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: $90k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: $50k → 19%SAINT PETERS FOUNDATION: $30k → 8%CHILDRENS HOSPITAL FOUNDATIO: $70k → 15%PHOENIX CHILDRENS HOSPITAL F: $100k → 11%MASSACHUSETTS GEN HOSPITAL: $83k → 16%STANFORD UNIV SCHOOL OF MED: $90k → 8%SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $90k → 11%CA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FO: $20k → 14%REGENTS OF UC CALIFORNIA: $150k → 16%ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: $99k → 17%FL ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDA: $50k → 11%YALE UNIVERSITY: $45k → 12%STAR INSTITUTE FOR SENSORY PR: $44k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: $45k → 13%SAINT PETERS FOUNDATION: $20k → 8%PHOENIX CHILDRENS HOSPITAL F: $20k → 11%STANFORD UNIV SCHOOL OF MED: $90k → 8%UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $20k → 11%CA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FO: $20k → 14%REGENTS OF UC CALIFORNIA: $69k → 16%SAINT PETERS FOUNDATION: $20k → 8%AUTISM DISCOVERY&TREATMENT FO: $90k → 11%STANFORD UNI DEPT OF PSYCOLOG: $89k → 8%REGENT OF UC CA: $45k → 16%REGENTS OF UC CALIFORNIA: $20k → 16%REGENT OF UC CA: $20k → 16%REGENTS OF UC CALIFORNIA: $20k → 16%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.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
WI
NY
MA
IN
NJ
CT
RI
CA
CO
KY
AZ
AR
NC
OK
TX
FL
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.

60%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.0M · 11 repeat orgs$1.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +22% since the first grant, against -16% for those funded once.

11 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
7

Total granted

$2.0M
$535k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%
-16%

Still filing today

82%
71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $807k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHealthPhilanthropyOther
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

  • PC
    Phoenix Children's Hospital Foundation
    3× · 2019–2022 · $220k · revenue +29%
  • ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
    2× · 2021–2022 · $198k · revenue +22%
  • TS
    THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
    2× · 2021–2022 · $185k · revenue +19%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
    one grant, 2023 · $135k
  • BO
    BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM
    one grant, 2023 · $135k
  • WF
    WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER
    one grant, 2021 · $100k · revenue -16%
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
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
2
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
3
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
4
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
5
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
6
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
7
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
8
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
9
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
10
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
11
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.…

—
12
The Rockefeller University

The rockefeller university (the university) is a world renowned center for research and graduate education in the biomedical sciences, chemistry, bioinformatics, and physics. the university's 73 laboratories conduct both clinical and basic…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Uc San Diego Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Autism Discovery and Treatment 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

18 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. 18 of the 31 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
12/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $593,900 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVISMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $166,100 · OtherMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDUNI OF CALIFORNIA BERKLEY: $140,000 · OtherUNI OF CALIFORNIA BERKLEYUNVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: $135,000 · OtherUNVERSITY OF OKLAHOMABOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM: $135,000 · OtherBOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYST…HASBRO CHILDRENS HOSPITAL: $90,000 · OtherSTANFORD UNI DEPT OF PSYCOLOG: $89,178 · OtherNOVA SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY: $89,000 · OtherUNI OF TEXAS SW MEDICAL CNTR: $89,000 · OtherST PETER'S FOUNDATION: $85,000 · OtherCHILDRENS HOSPITAL FOUNDATIO: $70,000 · Other+3 more: $150,000 · Other+3 moreTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $360,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STA…ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $197,646 · EducationICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAICALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $140,000 · EducationCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac: $135,000 · EducationUniversity of Notre Dame du LacYale University: $134,574 · EducationYale UniversityFLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $115,000 · EducationFLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION …The Research Foundation for The State University of New York: $92,816 · EducationThe Research Foundation for The State U…University of Miami: $90,000 · EducationUniversity of MiamiARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $70,000 · Education+2 more: $45,000 · EducationPhoenix Children's Hospital Foundation: $220,000 · HealthPhoenix Children's H…THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $185,000 · HealthTHE SCRIPPS RESEARCH…THE STAR CENTER FOUNDATION DBA STAR INSTITUTE FOR SENSORY PROCESSING: $128,750 · HealthTHE STAR CENTER FOUN…WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER: $100,000 · HealthWAKE FOREST UNIVERSI…Autism Discovery and Treatment Foundation Inc: $90,000 · HealthAutism Discovery and…American Friends of the University of Calgary Inc: $30,000 · Philanthropy
Other$1,832,178Education$1,380,036Health$723,750Philanthropy$30,000

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 BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $360,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPhoenix Children's Hospital Foundation: $220,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $197,646 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $185,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $140,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac: $135,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetYale University: $134,574 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE STAR CENTER FOUNDATION DBA STAR INSTITUTE FOR SENSORY PROCESSING: $128,750 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetFLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $115,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Research Foundation for The State University of New York: $92,816 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAutism Discovery and Treatment Foundation Inc: $90,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetUniversity of Miami: $90,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetST PETER'S FOUNDATION: $85,000 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $70,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Friends of the University of Calgary Inc: $30,000 over 1y, 25% of budgetRensselaer Polytechnic Institute: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • University of Miami: 5% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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 The Brain Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Brain 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 31 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 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 Brain’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