· Private foundation
The Grado 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2022–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k17 grants · $62k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $15k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RONALD REAGAN HIGH SCHOOL BAND PARENTS ASSOCIATION | $15,000 |
| IRONWOOD RIDGE THEATER | $7,700 |
| BURNED OUT SURVIVORS FUND | $7,500 |
| ZION CITY CARE | $7,500 |
| THE EXPLORATORIUM | $7,500 |
| JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL BANDFLAGS PARENT | $5,000 |
| MUSIC FOR ALL INC | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| PTA MISSORUI CONGRESS AKA ALFRED L RENNER PTA | $3,500 |
| CHARITABLE CHILD FUND INC | $2,500 |
| SPRINGFIELD BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB INC | $2,000 |
| PENINSULA SOCCER LEAGUE | $2,000 |
| BOYS GIRLS CLUB HARLEM INC | $1,639 |
| THE LEAGUE TO SAVE LAKE TAHOE | $1,545 |
| MATTIE RHODES CENTER | $1,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY24–24, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +12% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
3 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 3% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $75k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- ZSZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO3× · 2022–2024 · $60k · revenue +12%
- MRMATTIE RHODES MEMORIAL SOCIETY D/B/A MATTIE RHODES CENTER2× · 2024–2025 · $14k · revenue 0%
- 4P4 PEAKS LITTLE LEAGUE2× · 2024–2025 · $4k
Funded once
- TCTUCSON CHURCH OF CHRISTone grant, 2024 · $10k
- FFFIREFIGHTERAID FKA SAN DIEGO FIREFIGHTERS BENEVOLENT FUNDone grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue 0%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $900
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
To support the social, recreational, cultural and education programs and facilities, both on campus and in the community, and to advocate for student interests, provide leadership opportunities and participate in shared governance.
The san diego municipal employees association (sdmea) is dedicated to being a strong and effective advocate for san diego city employees. sdmea is united to improve employees' standard of living and promote their fair treatment by…
To support and further the research, education and community service objectives of san diego state university.
The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach.
To prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.
Mission: the mission of san diego opera is to deliver exceptional performances and exciting, accessible programs to diverse audiences, focusing on community partnerships, and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice. as…
The mission of the san diego county bar association is to be the representative of the san diego county legal profession, serving the prblic and the profession by enhancing the legal system and promoting justice, professional excellence,…
The san antonio symphony's mission is to delight, engage, and inspire the entire community through excellent performance, education, and outreach
To sustain a symphony orchestra in san angelo; to promote the highest caliber music programming with an emphasis on symphonic music for the enjoyment and enrichment of our audiences; and to enhance diverse music education in the concho…
To sustain, envision, and enhance Balboa Park for all in partnership with the City of San Diego and in collaboration with other organizations in the Park and the community. Our vision for the Park is to maintain and enhance its stature as…
A private school that cultivates and celebrates the intellectual, imaginative, and humanitarian promise of each student in a community that practices mutual respect, embraces diversity, and inspires passion for learning.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Exploratorium and the most unlike its peers is League to Save Lake Tahoe. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 21 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds RONALD REAGAN HIGH SCHOOL BAND PARENTS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds MATTIE RHODES MEMORIAL SOCIETY D/B/A MATTIE RHODES CENTER ↗
- Who funds FIREFIGHTERAID FKA SAN DIEGO FIREFIGHTERS BENEVOLENT FUND ↗
- Who funds THE EXPLORATORIUM ↗
- Who funds Burned Out Survivors Fund ↗
- Who funds Music For All Inc ↗
- Who funds Charitable Child Fund ↗
- Who funds PENINSULA SOCCER LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds LEAGUE TO SAVE LAKE TAHOE ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Grado Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Grado Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Grado 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.