· Private foundation
The Heising-Simons Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
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 $10k11 grants · $61k
- $10k–50k64 grants · $1.3M
- $50k–250k406 grants · $51M
- $250k+190 grants · $98M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INC | $3,600,000 |
| NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL | $3,300,000 |
| AMALGAMATED CHARITABLE FOUNDATION | $2,061,856 |
| GLOBAL IMPACT | $2,000,000 |
| NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR FAMILY SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT | $1,900,000 |
| CALIFORNIA EDUCATION PARTNERS | $1,500,000 |
| NEW VENTURE FUND | $1,500,000 |
| ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY | $1,313,000 |
| CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY EQUITY FUND | $1,200,000 |
| REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY | $1,155,000 |
| TIDES FOUNDATION | $1,124,831 |
| NEO PHILANTHROPY INC | $1,000,000 |
| ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INC | $1,000,000 |
| POWERMYLEARNING INC | $1,000,000 |
| THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC | $1,000,000 |
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, $46.9M) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 59% 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 8% of The Heising-Simons Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
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 +45% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
562 repeat relationships: 340 still active in FY2024, 222 since wound down; 53 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, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6.9M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED8× · 2017–2024 · $33M · revenue +202%
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC8× · 2017–2024 · $29M · revenue +41%- CICALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY8× · 2017–2024 · $19M · revenue +14%
Funded once
- NFNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION INCone grant, 2020 · $2.4M · revenue -35%
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $2.0M · revenue 0%- SFSAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITYone grant, 2023 · $1.6M
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.
Ca fwd drives action to identify solutions that can be taken to scale to meet the challenges the state is facing. the organization is driven by the belief that regional solutions across the state will help ensure economic, environmental,…
Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.
The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.
A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…
The american civil liberties union of northern california (aclu nc union) defends and advances the principles of freedom, equality and justice contained in the united states constitution. aclu nc union, a california mutual benefit…
Common future is a network of pioneering leaders across the u.s. and canada who work deeply within their communities to create alternative approaches to business, philanthropy, and investing. we envision an economy that has transitioned…
Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…
Council for court excellence's (cce's) mission is to bring people together to conduct research, educate, and advocate to make d.c.'s unique legal systems more just, equitable, and accountable to the community.
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…
See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…
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.
To investigate, research, write, publish, present conferences and teach with respect to global, regional, transboundary, and comparative environmental issues and to make the findings from such activities available to the general public; to…
How this is measured
751 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. 751 of the 899 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 ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ↗
- Who funds TIDES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TIDES CENTER ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR EARLY SUCCESS FKA BIRTH TO FIVE POLICY ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
- Who funds NEO Philanthropy Inc ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
- Who funds The Partnership Project Inc ↗
- Who funds University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ↗
- Who funds THE CALIFORNIA EDUCATION PARTNERS ↗
- Who funds UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
- Who funds National Association for Family School & Community ↗
- Who funds SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENTREPRENEURS (SEE) INC ↗
- Who funds ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION FOR A NEW AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds LAS CUMBRES OBSERVATORY GTN INC ↗
- Who funds Advanced Energy Institute ↗
- Who funds Silicon Valley Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY ↗
- Who funds CLIMATEWORKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PowerMyLearning Inc ↗
- Who funds START EARLY ↗
- Who funds Society for Research in Child Development Inc ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ↗
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: Philanthropic Ventures Foundation · The David and Lucile Packard Foundation · The Sobrato Family Foundation · The California Endowment · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · The James Irvine Foundation · Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc · The California Wellness Foundation · NEO Philanthropy Inc · Sunlight Giving · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · The Libra Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Heising-Simons Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Heising-Simons Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships: 100% of income from government
- Education Development Center Inc: 65% of income from government
- Terc Inc: 44% of income from government
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
- Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
- Reach Out and Read Inc: 9% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
- Forth Mobility Fund: 7% of income from government
- Teachers Development Group: 5% of income from government
- Third Sector New England Inc: 3% of income from government
- American Physical Society: 1% of income from government
- Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
- National Consumer Law Center Inc: 1% of income from government
- Ceres Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Heising-Simons Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Heising-Simons 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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