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California · Private foundation

The Cheng Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$283k
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
7
Grants FY2024
11
Organizations funded FY2023
45%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$30,000
Largest grant, FY2024
$101,561
Organizations funded a year
5 to 13
FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
3
Total assets, FY2024
$7.9M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 45% of the organizations The Cheng Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 36% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $99k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
Arts & CultureEducationOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2024still arriving6$208k0%
FY202311$274k45%
FY20228$230k13%
FY20215$209k20%
FY20206$101k0%
FY201911$329k27%
FY201813$849k31%
FY201713$1.7Mn/a
95% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$1.7MEducation$690kEnvironment$350kHealth$260kPhilanthropy$225kHuman Services$55kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 13 grantees
All grantees of The Cheng Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Dance Conservatory of Pasadena School$827,561648%
Diavolo Dance Theatre$374,840315%
Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation$350,00070%
Grand Circle Foundation Inc$225,000719%
Loma Linda University Health$150,00020%
Chamber Music Northwest$115,00051%
The Park Academy$100,00071%
Palisades Charter High School$74,00010%
Trillium Family Services$55,00050%
Henry E Huntington Library and Art Gallery$20,02820%
Los Robles Master Chorale$20,000212%
California Presenters$10,00024%
Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre$1,0001n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 14 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.6M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

The Cheng Family Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 12 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDance Conservatory of Pasadena School: $827,561 over 6y, 48% of budgetDiavolo Dance Theatre: $374,840 over 3y, 15% of budgetMonterey Bay Aquarium Foundation: $350,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetGrand Circle Foundation Inc: $225,000 over 7y, 19% of budgetLoma Linda University Health: $150,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetChamber Music Northwest: $115,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetThe Park Academy: $100,000 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetPalisades Charter High School: $74,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTrillium Family Services: $55,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetHenry E Huntington Library and Art Gallery: $20,028 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLos Robles Master Chorale: $20,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetCalifornia Presenters: $10,000 over 2y, 4.1% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 12.

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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.3× affinity6 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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.

Compare The Cheng Family Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Cheng Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Cheng 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.

About The Cheng Family Foundation

How much does The Cheng Family Foundation give?
The Cheng Family Foundation reported 7 grants totaling $283,061 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 13 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does The Cheng Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (40%), Education (16%), Environment (8%).
Who are The Cheng Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Dance Conservatory of Pasadena School ($828k), Diavolo Dance Theatre ($375k), Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation ($350k).
Does The Cheng Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 45% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Cheng Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Cheng Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc, American Online Giving Foundation Inc, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund.
Where is The Cheng Family Foundation based?
The Cheng Family Foundation is based in CA.

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 29 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

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