Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Herman 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.

$168k
Granted FY2025still arriving
16
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$30k
Largest
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 FY20172025.

Youth Development$329kHealth$220kHuman Services$144kAnimals$130kCivil Rights$90kArts & Culture$75kPublic Safety & Disaster$75kEducation$64kOther$0
02FY2025 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k10 grants · $50k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $118k
$5,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$1.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
American Red Cross$30,000
Elisabethstift$23,836
Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now$23,790
World Central Kitchen Inc$15,000
Team Prime Time Inc$15,000
CASA of Los Angeles$10,000
RedRover dba of United Animal Natio$5,000
First Star$5,000
School on Wheels Inc$5,000
Coalition for Engaged Education$5,000
A Sense of Home$5,000
Mr Holland's Opus Foundation$5,000
ALS Association Golden West Chapter$5,000
Giraffe Conservation Foundation$5,000
Puppies Behind Bars$5,000
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.

Your US giving — 72% of grant dollars ($848k). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 28% that went abroad ($330k) is mapped below.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $294k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 81% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Natl Education for Assistance Dog S: $5k → 11%ALDEA INC: $10k → 9%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 9%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%Natl Education for Assistance Dog S: $5k → 11%ALDEA INC: $10k → 9%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 9%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%Natl Education for Assistance Dog S: $5k → 11%ALDEA INC: $5k → 9%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 9%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%American Red Cross: $30k → 14%Natl Education for Assistance Dog S: $5k → 11%ALDEA INC: $5k → 9%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%American Red Cross: $15k → 14%NEADS Inc: $5k → 11%ALDEA INC: $5k → 9%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%Natl Education for Assistance Dog S: $5k → 11%ALDEA INC: $5k → 9%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%Natl Education for Assistance Dog S: $5k → 11%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%Puppies Behind Bars: $5k → 17%A Sense of Home: $5k → 14%A Sense of Home: $5k → 14%A Sense of Home: $5k → 14%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 14%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 14%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 14%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 14%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 14%Canine Companions for Independence: $5k → 14%Lange Foundation: $5k → 14%Covenant House California: $5k → 14%Union Station Homeless Services: $5k → 14%Guide Dogs of America: $5k → 14%Guide Dogs of America: $5k → 14%Guide Dogs of America: $5k → 14%Guide Dogs of America: $5k → 14%Guide Dogs of America: $5k → 14%First Star: $5k → 14%First Star: $5k → 14%First Star: $5k → 14%First Star: $5k → 14%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.

Beyond the US — 28% of all-years giving ($330k)

1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.

grant dollars sentlessmore
Germany$330k · 18 grants

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. International giving is mapped by the recipient’s country from the same 990 filings; comparable need data isn’t available at that grain.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 42% of The Herman Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 55% of the giving stays in CA; read by stated purpose it is 31% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Herman Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 21% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.1M · 24 repeat orgs$100k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +41% since the first grant, against +13% for the ones you funded once.

24 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

24
16

Total granted

$1.1M
$95k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+41%
+13%

Still filing today

83%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesEducationHealthAnimalsYouth DevelopmentArts & CultureOther

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

  • TP
    TEAM PRIME TIME INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $135k · revenue +486%
  • CO
    CASA OF LOS ANGELES
    9× · 2017–2025 · $90k · revenue +131%
  • PB
    PUPPIES BEHIND BARS INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $45k · revenue +29%

Funded once

  • MU
    MAUI UNITED WAYgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue +188%
  • MAUI FOOD BANK INCgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue +138%
  • TW
    THE WOODEN FLOOR FOR YOUTH MOVEMENT
    one grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue +7%

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
Pet Orphans of Southern California

In addition to rescue and adoption, pet orphans provides a wide range of services including education, medical/financial, spay/neuter, and training assistance.

Animals
2
Marin Humane Society

Marin humane transforms lives through exceptional animal care, humane education, and advocacy. every day, marin humane inspires compassion and positive relationships between people and animals.

Animals
3
Los Angeles Conservation Corps

The la conservation corps creates equitable opportunities for young people to build resilience in themselves, their communities and the environment through a program of work, education and support.

Employment
4
La's Best

La's best provides free supervised before and after-school activities to over 15,000 children at 200 schools in los angeles unified school district (lausd).

Education
5
Mary's Shelter

Believing in the value of every life, mary's path empowers vulnerable teen mothers in foster care and their babies to create lives of dignity, hope and self-sufficiency.

Human Services
6
Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Spcala is dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals through education, law enforcement, intervention and advocacy.

Animals
7
Communities in Schools of Los Angeles Inc

To surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. we work with public school systems, establishing relationship with superintendents, principals, educators, and community partners to…

Youth Development
8
Los Angeles Youth Network

Youth Emerging Stronger (YES) empowers young people, between ages of 12 and 24 within Los Angeles County, including but not limited to run-away and homeless youth. YES mission is to end homelessness one youth at a time to become…

Human Services
9
Friends Outside in Los Angeles County

Assist prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families with the immediate and long-termeffects of incarceration and provide services for successful re-entry.

10
Santa Barbara Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Santa barbara humane operates two campuses located in santa barbara and santa maria providing care for community-owned and homeless animals. both campuses offer affordable high quality veterinary care, compassionate behavior training…

Animals
11
The California Channel

To distribute public affairs and other educational information in order to create an electronic bridge between californians and their public officials, and, in the process educate a new generation of voting citizens and civic leaders who…

12
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

The organization's mission is to mobilize resources to fight hunger in our community. to fulfill its mission, the food bank:* sources and acquires nutritious food and other products and distribute them to people experiencing nutrition…

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Friends of the Children and the most unlike its peers is Last Chance for Animals. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyEarly Childhood Preschool C…Animal Rescue and AdoptionChristian Churches and Mini…Hawaiian Community SupportLocal Chambers of Commerce
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 33 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number24%0%<5yr16%0%5–10yr20%18%10–20yr18%41%20–35yr11%32%35–55yr12%9%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%0%<5yr16%0%5–10yr20%8%10–20yr18%45%20–35yr11%38%35–55yr12%9%55yr+

The field is 24% 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 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/36
the rest of the field
14%
12,876/89,150

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.

05the grantee network

36 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 36 of the 41 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)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
36/36
Grantees still filing
26/36
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Elisabethstift — $165,072 · OtherElisabethstiftYehudi Menuhin Live Music Now — $165,054 · OtherYehudi Menuhin Live Music Now+13 more — $129,000 · Other+13 morePUPPIES BEHIND BARS INC — $45,000 · Human ServicesPUPPIES BEHIND BARS INCCANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE INC — $45,000 · Human ServicesCANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPE…American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $45,000 · Human ServicesAmerican National Red Cross …ALDEA INC — $40,000 · Human ServicesALDEA INCNEADS INC — $35,000 · Human ServicesNEADS INCInternational Guiding Eyes Inc DBA Guide Dogs of America — $25,000 · Human ServicesInternational Guiding Eyes I…FIRST STAR INC — $24,000 · Human ServicesFIRST STAR INCA SENSE OF HOME — $15,000 · Human Services+4 more — $20,000 · Human Services+4 moreTEAM PRIME TIME INC — $135,000 · Youth DevelopmentTEAM PRIME TI…HEART OF LOS ANGELES YOUTH INC — $5,000 · Youth DevelopmentSCHOOL ON WHEELS INC — $45,000 · EducationSCHOOL ON …THE MR HOLLAND'S OPUS FOUNDATION — $40,000 · EducationTHE MR HOL…Coalition for Engaged Education — $10,000 · EducationCoalition …Harmony Project — $5,000 · EducationSCHOLARMATCH INC — $5,000 · Education9 DOTS COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER — $4,000 · EducationMY STUFF BAGS FOUNDATION — $4,000 · EducationCASA OF LOS ANGELES — $90,000 · Civil RightsALS Network — $45,000 · HealthA Light of Hope Support Center — $5,000 · HealthThe Other Bar Foundation — $2,000 · HealthWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC — $30,000 · International
Other$459,126Human Services$294,000Youth Development$140,000Education$113,000Civil Rights$90,000Health$52,000International$30,000

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 budgetTEAM PRIME TIME INC — $135,000 over 9y, 1.3% of budgetCASA OF LOS ANGELES — $90,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetPUPPIES BEHIND BARS INC — $45,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetALS Network — $45,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetSCHOOL ON WHEELS INC — $45,000 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetCANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE INC — $45,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $45,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALDEA INC — $40,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MR HOLLAND'S OPUS FOUNDATION — $40,000 over 8y, 0.4% of budgetNEADS INC — $35,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC — $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetInternational Guiding Eyes Inc DBA Guide Dogs of America — $25,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetFIRST STAR INC — $24,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetPS ARTS — $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMAUI UNITED WAY — $15,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetMAUI FOOD BANK INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetA SENSE OF HOME — $15,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetCoalition for Engaged Education — $10,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetLOS ANGELES CONSERVANCY — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetUNITED ANIMAL NATIONS DBA REDROVER — $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetDOGS FOR THE DEAF INC DBA DOGS FOR BETTER LIVES — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE GENTLE BARN FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE WOODEN FLOOR FOR YOUTH MOVEMENT — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetLast Chance for Animals — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHarmony Project — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBEYOND BLINDNESS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSCHOLARMATCH INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUNION STATION HOMELESS SERVICES — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLANGE FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetA Light of Hope Support Center — $5,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetUNITED FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCOVENANT HOUSE CALIFORNIA — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHEART OF LOS ANGELES YOUTH INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget9 DOTS COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER — $4,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMY STUFF BAGS FOUNDATION — $4,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Other Bar Foundation — $2,000 over 1y, 3.9% 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.

California Community FoundationCA15.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: California Community Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · Weingart Foundation · The Annenberg Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Rose Hills Foundation · The Ralph M Parsons Foundation · Liberty Hill Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Endowment 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 Herman 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
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 1%
  • Neads Inc1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

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 41 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