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California · Private foundation

The George Lucas Educational Foundation

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.

$1.0M
Granted FY2023
8
Grants FY2023
7
Organizations funded FY2023
0%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief

Read this first · the figures below need context

50% of The George Lucas Educational Foundation’s FY2023 grant dollars went to President And Fellows Of Harvard College, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2023 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.

Organizations named directly on the return

2
’20
4
’21
5
’22
4
’23

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

Median grant, FY2023
$50,499
Largest grant, FY2023
$503,048
Organizations funded a year
4 to 10
FY2020 to FY2023
States reached, FY2023
7
Total assets, FY2023
$3.2M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 0% of the organizations The George Lucas Educational Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23
EducationRecreation & SportsOther
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
FY20237$500k0%
FY202210$933k40%
FY20216$864k83%
FY20204$1.3Mn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2023.

Education$5.7MScience & Tech$2.7MRecreation & Sports$200kSocial Science$100k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
PA
CA
CO
GA
TX

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2023, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Michigan State University$1,900,2344n/a
The Concord Consortium Incorporated$296,69822%
New York University$200,00030%
Northwestern University$200,00030%
Mathaction$100,000256%
Sfusd$39,0811n/a

Plus 7 recipients with no EIN on record ($821k), not named here.

Compare The George Lucas Educational Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The George Lucas Educational Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The George Lucas Educational 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 George Lucas Educational Foundation

How much does The George Lucas Educational Foundation give?
The George Lucas Educational Foundation reported 8 grants totaling $1,003,547 in its FY2023 IRS filing. It funded between 4 and 10 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.
What does The George Lucas Educational Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2023, its largest causes are Education (65%), Science & Tech (31%), Recreation & Sports (2%).
Who are The George Lucas Educational Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2023: Michigan State University ($1.9M), The Concord Consortium Incorporated ($297k), New York University ($200k).
Does The George Lucas Educational Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The George Lucas Educational 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.
Where is The George Lucas Educational Foundation based?
The George Lucas Educational 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 17 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record but names no grant recipient in the published copy, so the figures above are from FY2023, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

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