Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Herbert Jones 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.

$8.2M
Granted FY2025still arriving
20
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$1.5M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Education$11MCommunity Improvement$1.4M
02FY2025 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $50k–250k6 grants · $1.2M
  • $250k+14 grants · $7.0M
$276,600
Median grant
1
States reached
$9.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NW SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN$1,500,000
SEATTLE UNIVERSITY$1,494,330
PIERCE COLLEGE FOUNDATION$553,200
SPOKANE COLLEGES FOUNDATION$529,100
SEATTLE COLLEGES FOUNDATION$493,000
PACIFIC LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY$307,000
GREEN RIVER COLLEGE FOUNDATION$288,600
HIGHLINE COLLEGE FOUNDATION$276,600
SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION$276,600
WALLA WALLA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION$276,600
EDMONDS COLLEGE FOUNDATION$252,500
PENINSULA COLLEGE FOUNDATION$252,500
GRAYS HARBOR COLLEGE FOUNDATION$252,500
SKAGIT VALLEY COLLEGE FOUNDATION$252,500
BELLEVUE COLLEGE FOUNDATION$240,500
02The need
03

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.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%SEATTLE UNIVERSITY: $1.5M → 9%EDMONDS COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $253k → 9%SOUTH PUGET SOUND COMM COLLEGE FNDN: $217k → 9%PIERCE COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $553k → 9%COLUMBIA BASIN COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $241k → 11%CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $132k → 11%SKAGIT VALLEY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $253k → 11%PENINSULA COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $253k → 12%SPOKANE COLLEGES FOUNDATION: $529k → 12%WALLA WALLA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $277k → 13%YAKIMA VALLEY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $204k → 17%GRAYS HARBOR COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $253k → 18%SEATTLE UNIVERSITY: $45k → 9%TACOMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $204k → 9%CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $100k → 11%SEATTLE UNIVERSITY: $45k → 9%PACIFIC LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY: $307k → 9%SEATTLE UNIVERSITY: $35k → 9%SEATTLE UNIVERSITY: $35k → 9%EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $222k → 12%SEATTLE UNIVERSITY: $35k → 9%EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $173k → 12%NW SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN: $1.5M → 9%EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $104k → 12%SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $277k → 9%WHITWORTH UNIVERSITY: $52k → 12%NW SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN: $139k → 9%EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $99k → 12%NW SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN: $31k → 9%WHITWORTH UNIVERSITY: $33k → 12%EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $95k → 12%GREEN RIVER COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $289k → 9%SEATTLE COLLEGES FOUNDATION: $493k → 9%SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: $53k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $328k → 9%SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: $35k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $229k → 9%SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: $35k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $203k → 9%SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: $35k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $190k → 9%SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: $33k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $45k → 9%SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: $33k → 9%HIGHLINE COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $277k → 9%WASHINGTON BUSINESS WEEK: $50k → 9%WASHINGTON BUSINESS WEEK: $50k → 9%BELLEVUE COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $241k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

59%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$7.1M · 13 repeat orgs$4.9M to everyone else

13 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
2

Total granted

$7.1M
$41k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+37%
+142%

Still filing today

62%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 41% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4.8M went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyOther

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

  • SU
    SEATTLE UNIVERSITY
    6× · 2020–2025 · $1.7M · revenue +40%
  • CW
    CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
    2× · 2020–2024 · $232k · revenue +37%
  • FF
    FOUNDATION FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE
    4× · 2020–2023 · $160k · revenue +59%

Funded once

  • NS
    NW SCHOOL FOR HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN
    one grant, 2020 · $31k
  • ET
    EDC TEAM JEFFERSONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +142%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Foundation for the Seattle Colleges

The Foundation for the Seattle Colleges exists to advance fundraising efforts for the Seattle Community College District. We seek to attract financial resources which support students so they may be successful; maintain the quality and…

—
2
South Seattle College Foundation

Our mission is to change lives by providing students with scholarships so they can pursue quality academic and vocational education. we do this through relationship building, fundraising and stewarding resources.

Education
3
Whatcom Community College Foundation

The wcc foundation strengthens educational opportunities by providing student scholarships, supporting faculty and staff development, and assisting with key college initiatives.

Education
4
Columbia State Community College Foundation

The columbia state community college foundation encourages friends, alumni, economic partners and others to invest their time and resources toward improvement of education at columbia state community college and making higher education…

—
5
Seattle Central College Foundation

To support seattle central students, faculty and programs by raising and providing financial resources to help students achieve their fullest potential through quality education.

—
6
Southwestern Oregon Community College Foundation

The purpose of the southwestern oregon community college foundation is to support the college in improving people's lives - socially, culturally, economically and educationally - through friend-raising and fundraising.

—
7
The Foundation for Florida Gateway College Inc

The foundation provides academic scholarships and financial support to the college.

Education
8
City University of Seattle

See schedule ofounded in 1973, city university of seattle's mission is to change lives for good by offering high quality and relevant lifelong education to anyone with the desire to learn. city university's vision is to provide underserved…

Education
9
College Success Foundation

We provide a unique integrated system of supports and scholarships to inspire underserved, low-income students to finish high school, graduate from college and succeed in life.

Education
10
North Seattle College Education Fund

The Education Fund enriches lives by supporting students, faculty, staff, and programs at North Seattle College.

—
11
Everett Community College Foundation

Working together with everett community college, we assist in making available accessible learning opportunities for everyone. through our partnership, we awaken people to possibility and, through education, enable them to achieve their…

Education
12
San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation

The mission of san mateo county community colleges foundation is to promote student success and program innovation by providing financial support to help san mateo county community college district students achieve their goals. the…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Tacoma Community College Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Enterprise for Equity. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 43 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%4%5–10yr19%8%10–20yr18%20%20–35yr13%52%35–55yr14%16%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%6%5–10yr19%4%10–20yr18%37%20–35yr13%44%35–55yr14%10%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 4% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
4%1/26
the rest of the field
13%
2,755/21,668

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

24 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. 24 of the 31 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
24/24
Grantees still filing
7/24
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

NW SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDREN — $1,731,895 · OtherNW SCHOOL FOR DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHILDRENSEATTLE UNIVERSITY — $1,689,330 · OtherSEATTLE UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON — $994,568 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONEASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY — $692,397 · OtherEASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITYWASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY — $610,000 · OtherWASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITYPIERCE COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $553,200 · OtherPIERCE COLLEGE FOUNDATIONSHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $276,600 · Other+7 more — $1,061,900 · Other+7 moreSPOKANE COLLEGES FOUNDATION — $529,100 · EducationSPOKANE COLLEGES FOUNDATIONSEATTLE COLLEGES FOUNDATION — $493,000 · EducationSEATTLE COLLEGES FOUNDATIONPacific Lutheran University — $357,700 · EducationPacific Lutheran UniversityGreen River College Foundation — $288,600 · EducationGreen River College FoundationHIGHLINE COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $276,600 · EducationHIGHLINE COLLEGE FOUNDATIONWALLA WALLA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $276,600 · EducationWALLA WALLA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATI…EDMONDS COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $252,500 · EducationEDMONDS COLLEGE FOUNDATIONSkagit Valley College Foundation — $252,500 · EducationSkagit Valley College FoundationCOLUMBIA BASIN COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $240,500 · EducationCOLUMBIA BASIN COLLEGE FOUNDATIONBELLEVUE COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $240,500 · EducationBELLEVUE COLLEGE FOUNDATIONSEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY — $223,311 · EducationSEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITYSOUTH PUGET SOUND COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $216,500 · EducationTACOMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $204,400 · Education+2 more — $215,000 · EducationPENINSULA COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $252,500 · PhilanthropyEDC TEAM JEFFERSON — $10,000 · Community Improvement
Other$7,609,890Education$4,066,811Philanthropy$252,500Community Improvement$10,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetSEATTLE UNIVERSITY — $1,689,330 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetSPOKANE COLLEGES FOUNDATION — $529,100 over 1y, 5.4% of budgetSEATTLE COLLEGES FOUNDATION — $493,000 over 1y, 9.0% of budgetPacific Lutheran University — $357,700 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetGreen River College Foundation — $288,600 over 1y, 5.2% of budgetHIGHLINE COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $276,600 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetSHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $276,600 over 1y, 20% of budgetGRAYS HARBOR COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $252,500 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetEDMONDS COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $252,500 over 1y, 22% of budgetSkagit Valley College Foundation — $252,500 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetPENINSULA COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $252,500 over 1y, 18% of budgetCOLUMBIA BASIN COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $240,500 over 1y, 8.6% of budgetBELLEVUE COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $240,500 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetCENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION — $232,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetSEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY — $223,311 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTACOMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $204,400 over 1y, 9.8% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR PRIVATE ENTERPRISE — $160,000 over 4y, 19% of budgetWHITWORTH UNIVERSITY — $110,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetVENTURES — $105,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetENTERPRISE FOR EQUITY — $92,000 over 4y, 8.0% of budget
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.

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.

Puget Sound Energy Fo…South Seattle College…Credit Unions in the …Seattle Prof Engineer…Seattle FoundationBuilding ChangesThe Norcliffe Foundat…United Way of King Co…The Albertsons Compan…Hickman Leona Educati…College Spark Washing…Washington State Micr…
Puget Sound Energy FoundationDE39.5× affinity17 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Puget Sound Energy Foundation · South Seattle College Foundation · Credit Unions in the State of Washington · Seattle Prof Engineering Employees Assn Dba Soc of Prof Eng Empl in Aerospace · Seattle Foundation · Building Changes · The Norcliffe Foundation · United Way of King County · The Albertsons Companies Foundation · Hickman Leona Educational Trust · College Spark Washington · Washington State Microenterprise Association

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 Herbert Jones 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Herbert Jones Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Herbert Jones 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 31 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines