· Private foundation
The Guide Foundation
Its FY2025 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 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k63 grants · $65k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $32k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| YALE CENTER - ENVIRONMENTAL LAW POL | $11,000 |
| CHINA FOLK HOUSE | $10,649 |
| LCV EDUCATION FUND | $10,000 |
| NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL | $5,000 |
| YALE UNIVERSITY | $4,000 |
| NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART | $3,000 |
| WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER | $2,073 |
| EARTH JUSTICE | $2,065 |
| TECHNOSERVE | $2,000 |
| WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,000 |
| BROWN UNIVERSITY | $2,000 |
| DC GREENS | $1,500 |
| GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY | $1,500 |
| STAND EARTH | $1,500 |
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 (FY21–25, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% 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 +19% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
90 repeat relationships: 42 still active in FY2025, 48 since wound down; 21 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, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $19k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- VOVIRGINIA ORGANIZING INC2× · 2018–2020 · $15k · revenue +51%
PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE2× · 2019–2020 · $15k · revenue +31%
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC7× · 2017–2025 · $13k · revenue +41%
Funded once
- WAWATERKEEPER ALLIANCE INCone grant, 2020 · $45k · revenue -51%
- IFINSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCEone grant, 2019 · $16k
- WAWATERFRONT ALLIANCE INCone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue -17%
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 union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.
The purpose of the water research foundation (wrf) is a definitive research organization to advance the science of all things water to better meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. to engage exclusively in…
Wri is committed to creating change that improves people's lives and ensures the natural world can thrive. (see schedule o)wri's bold vision requires a formula for success we call "count it. change it. scale it.":- count it: our work is…
To drive transformational adaptation to protect communities across the country from higher seas, stronger storms, and more frequent flooding.
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.
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.
The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…
American gas association's (the association) mission is to develop and advocate for informed, innovative, and durable policy that fulfills our nation's energy needs, environmental aspirations and economic potential. we are committed to…
The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…
At the internet society foundation, we focus on funding initiatives that strengthen the internet in function and reach so that it can effectively serve all people. our work advances the vision of the internet society (isoc): the internet…
Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…
How this is measured
104 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. 104 of the 197 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
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 WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA ORGANIZING INC ↗
- Who funds PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds ISLAND PRESS ↗
- Who funds FUND FOR GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS INC ↗
- Who funds WATERFRONT ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds THE POTOMAC CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc ↗
- Who funds National Gallery of Art ↗
- Who funds THE TAFT SCHOOL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds Yale University ↗
- Who funds THE NEW CANAAN COUNTRY SCHOOL INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds MOTHERS OUT FRONT INC ↗
- Who funds CAPE ELEUTHERA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN 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: Greater Washington Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Clark-Winchcole Foundation · The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · John Edward Fowler Memorial Foundation · Impactassetsinc · The Schmidt Family Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Nora Roberts Foundation · The Rockefeller Foundation · The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · Tj Guarriello Jr Family Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Guide Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Guide Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
- Yale University: 12% of income from government
- Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc: 11% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Guide Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Guide 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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