How much does The Ginkgo Fund give?

The Ginkgo Fund reported 20 grants totaling $2,902,500 in its FY2026 IRS filing. It funded between 17 and 29 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2025.

What does The Ginkgo Fund fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2026, its largest causes are Education (36%), Public Benefit (13%), Religion (11%).

Who are The Ginkgo Fund's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2026: The Caltech Y ($2.1M), Fcnl Education Fund ($1.7M), Friends Publishing Corporation ($880k).

Does The Ginkgo Fund fund new organizations?

In FY2025, 12% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Ginkgo Fund 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 Ginkgo Fund?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Gheens Foundation Inc, The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc, James Graham Brown Foundation Inc.

Where is The Ginkgo Fund based?

The Ginkgo Fund is based in NY.

The Ginkgo Fund

The Ginkgo Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ginkgo Fund

Its FY2026 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$2.9M

Granted FY2026still arriving

Grants FY2026still arriving

States reached

$750k

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$4.1MPublic Benefit$1.4MReligion$1.2MHuman Services$910kEmployment$600kScience & Tech$570kInternational$535kCivil Rights$500kOther$0

02FY2026 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2026

Under $10k1 grant · $8k
$10k–50k3 grants · $70k
$50k–250k11 grants · $925k
$250k+5 grants · $1.9M

$100,000

Median grant

States reached

$37M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST	$750,000
CALTECH	$400,000
FCNL EDUCATION FUND	$250,000
FRIENDS PUBLISHING CORPORATION	$250,000
NONVIOLENCE INSTITUTE	$250,000
SCHOOL ONE	$200,000
CHRISTOPHER 2X GAME CHANGERS	$100,000
AMHERST COLLEGE	$100,000
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE	$100,000
CENTER FOR EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES	$100,000
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF KENTUCKIANA	$75,000
CALTECH Y	$50,000
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEW ENGLAND	$50,000
NUCLEAR THREAT INITIATIVE	$50,000
COMMUNITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL	$50,000

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY20–26, $1.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$12M · 31 repeat orgs$765k to everyone else

31 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2026, 17 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2026 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$12M

$365k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%

+29%

Still filing today

77%

67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2026, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $400k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHuman ServicesReligionInternationalHealthAnimalsOther

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

TC
THE CALTECH Y
7× · 2020–2026 · $2.1M · revenue +42% · 48% of their budget
FP
FRIENDS PUBLISHING CORPORATION
7× · 2020–2026 · $880k · revenue +12%
UO
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE FOUNDATION INC
2× · 2021–2022 · $586k · revenue +13%

Funded once

EI
EVOLVE502 INCgraduated
one grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue +52%
UF
UCLA FOUNDATION - EMMITT INSTITUTE
one grant, 2024 · $100k
EC
EPISCOPAL CHURCH HOME FOUNDATION INC
one grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue -61%

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.

University Family Physicians Inc

Engage actively and continuously in medical research, education and training in the practice of medicine in conjunction with the department of family medicine of the indiana university school of medicine and indiana university…

—

United States Naval Institute

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.

—

Columbia College

Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.

Education

Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy Inc

To improve the quality of life for all kentuckians through research, education and advocacy on important policy issues facing the commonwealth.

Public Benefit

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science

The Common Application Inc

The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…

Education

University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education

Foreign Policy Research Institute

The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…

International

Institute for Nonprofit Practice Inc

The institute for nonprofit practice's mission is to transform communities by equipping the most promising nonprofit leaders with the skills, confidence, and resources they need to make their organizations effective, innovative, and…

Human Services

Point Park University

Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…

—

Fielding Graduate University

We provide exemplary interdisciplinary programs for a community of scholar-practitioners within a distributed learning model grounded in student-driven inquiry and leading to enhanced knowledge.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc; the most unlike its peers is Nuclear Threat Initiative 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

34 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. 34 of the 44 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

34/34

Grantees still filing

20/34

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$4,749,902Other$2,745,000Public Benefit$1,700,000Human Services$1,535,000Religion$1,240,000Philanthropy$1,110,000International$1,005,000

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.

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.

The Gheens Foundation IncKY32.3× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Gheens Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc · James Graham Brown Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Depository Inc · C E and S Foundation Inc · Lift a Life Foundation Inc · Cralle Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Corporate Depository Inc · Kosair Charities Committee Inc · LG&E and Ku Foundation Inc · Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels Inc · Republic Bank Foundation Inc

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%

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.

Play a game based on Ginkgo’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