· Private foundation
The Draper Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k41 grants · $111k
- $10k–50k37 grants · $605k
- $50k–250k28 grants · $2.5M
- $250k+8 grants · $3.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION | $1,000,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS FDN INC | $500,000 |
| BIZWORLD FOUNDATION | $500,000 |
| THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH | $500,000 |
| RAVENSWOOD EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $333,333 |
| BAYORG | $250,000 |
| BRINK TECHNOLOGY INC | $250,000 |
| LIBERTAS INSTITUTE | $250,000 |
| CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER | $200,000 |
| BRINK TECHNOLOGY INC | $200,000 |
| VOTING BLOCK USA INC | $175,000 |
| UCLA | $150,000 |
| ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION | $150,000 |
| BIZWORLD FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| POINT OWOOD FOUNDATION INC | $100,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $2.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +23% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
86 repeat relationships: 49 still active in FY2024, 37 since wound down; 38 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
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 FY2024, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.4M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CPCALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER5× · 2017–2024 · $2.2M · revenue +144% · 32% of their budget
- TITHE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE6× · 2017–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +185%
- BFBizworld Foundation8× · 2017–2024 · $1.5M · revenue +35% · 80% of their budget
Funded once
- MMAKESCHOOLORGone grant, 2021 · $1.0M
- DHDRAPER HERO INSTITUTEone grant, 2018 · $805k · revenue -101% · 29% of their budget
- TDThe Daniel R Sayre Memorial Foundationone grant, 2023 · $200k · revenue -92%
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.
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.
The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
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.
Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…
The mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…
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.
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…
Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…
The association serves its members by creating resources that enable california school administrators to develop and apply creative leadership and management skills and in turn, improve the educational process for all students.
How this is measured
154 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. 154 of the 224 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
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ↗
- Who funds DRAPER RICHARDS KAPLAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA POLICY CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds Bizworld Foundation ↗
- Who funds RAVENSWOOD EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Libertas Network ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds DRAPER HERO INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Brink Technology Inc ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CARLA AND DAVID CRANE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds ART OF LIVING FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ENDEAVOR GLOBAL INC (F/K/A THE ENDEAVOR INITIATIVE INC) ↗
- Who funds BAYORG ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds REFUGEE RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATION ↗
- Who funds CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds THE SEMINAR NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds The Daniel R Sayre Memorial Foundation ↗
- Who funds POINT O'WOODS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds TIE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LISTEN FIRST PROJECT 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: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Marin Community Foundation · The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · The Palo Alto Community Fund · The San Francisco Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Bothin Foundation · Philanthropic Ventures Foundation · The Yelp Foundation · Tides Foundation · The Bessemer Giving Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Draper Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Draper Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
- Icivics Inc: 13% of income from government
- The Trustees of the Smith College: 1% of income from government
- Food for the Poor Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Draper Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Draper 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.
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