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· Private foundation

The Jao 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.

$301k
Granted FY2024still arriving
11
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$200k
Largest
01What you fund
0192% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Education$674kArts & Culture$134kReligion$80kHuman Services$12kRecreation & Sports$4kCommunity Improvement$3kYouth Development$3kCivil Rights$2kOther$0
02FY2024 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k8 grants · $16k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $260k
$2,500
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Harvard University Education$200,000
Temple Foundation$60,000
UCI Foundation$25,000
CA State Univ Long Beach$5,000
Westminster Chamber of Commerce$2,500
Special Olympics Southern Californi$2,500
Asian American Senior Citizens$2,000
Vietnamese American Unif Ser Assn V$2,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
Westminster Police Officers Associa$250
Individual grant recipient$250
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 4% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%TRUST UNIVERSITY: $10k → 7%Asian American Senior Citizens: $2k → 10%Special Olympics Southern Californi: $3k → 14%THE VIETNAM FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%Vietnamese American Unif Ser Assn V: $2k → 6%Vietnamese Creatives Collective: $3k → 10%SPECIAL OLYMPICS: $1k → 14%Orange Coast Memorial Medical Ctr: $500 → 10%Special Olympics Southern Californi: $500 → 14%UC IRVINE FOUNDATION: $26k → 10%WESTERN UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCI: $3k → 14%UC IRVINE FOUNDATION: $26k → 10%CA State Univ Long Beach: $5k → 14%UC IRVINE FOUNDATION: $25k → 10%GENESIS FOUNDATION: $10k → 10%UCI Foundation: $25k → 10%Rotary of Westminster: $250 → 10%UCI Foundation: $550 → 10%LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN: $11k → 10%Vietnamese American Philharmonic: $8k → 10%Westminster Chamber of Commerce: $3k → 10%Vietnamese Christian Broadcast: $1k → 10%Westminster Chamber of Commerce: $600 → 10%Vietnamese Christian Broadcast: $250 → 10%VIETNAMESE AMERICAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE: $120k → 10%Temple Foundation: $60k → 10%VARIOUS BUSINESS: $10k → 10%VARIOUS OTHER DONATIONS: $7k → 10%HUNTINGTON PARTNERS: $4k → 10%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.

69%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$628k · 5 repeat orgs$286k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
16

Total granted

$628k
$217k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

0%
0%

Still filing today

40%
25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $70k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationReligionRecreation & SportsYouth DevelopmentHealthOther

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

  • HU
    HARVARD UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
    3× · 2021–2024 · $519k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE FOUNDATION
    5× · 2017–2024 · $102k · revenue +51%
  • WC
    WESTMINSTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
    2× · 2023–2024 · $3k

Funded once

  • VA
    VIETNAMESE AMERICAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE
    one grant, 2017 · $120k
  • CF
    CSU FULLERTON
    one grant, 2017 · $16k
  • LC
    LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGNgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $11k · revenue +322%

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
California Institute of Contemporary Art
2
Los Angeles Medical Center Foundation
Health
3
Genesis Foundation
4
Uc Chinese Alumni Foundation
5
Temple Theatre Foundation
6
San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center
Arts & Culture
7
Tcm Foundation
Philanthropy
8
Foundation for Chinese Cultural Heritage
Philanthropy
9
Los Angeles International Dance Festival
10
The Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation

Buddhist temple used for various religious services

11
Cambodian Islamic Foundation
Education
12
Institute of Human Origins

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of California Irvine Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Temple Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

9 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. 9 of the 27 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/9
Grantees still filing
3/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HARVARD UNIVERSITY EDUCATION — $518,975 · OtherHARVARD UNIVERSITY EDUCATION+18 more — $89,123 · Other+18 moreVIETNAMESE AMERICAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE — $120,000 · Arts & CultureVIETNAMESE AMER…Vietnamese American Philharmonics — $7,500 · Arts & CultureVietnamese Amer…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE FOUNDATION — $102,050 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF …LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN — $11,000 · EducationLAGUNA COLLEGE…TEMPLE FOUNDATION — $60,000 · ReligionSPECIAL OLYMPICS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INC — $3,000 · Recreation & SportsYOUNG LIFE — $2,500 · Youth DevelopmentOrange Coast Memorial Medical Center — $500 · Health
Other$608,098Arts & Culture$127,500Education$113,050Religion$60,000Recreation & Sports$3,000Youth Development$2,500Health$500

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE FOUNDATION — $102,050 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTEMPLE FOUNDATION — $60,000 over 1y, 100% of budgetLAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN — $11,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetVietnamese American Philharmonics — $7,500 over 1y, 8.4% of budgetSPECIAL OLYMPICS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INC — $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetYOUNG LIFE — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds VIETNAMESE AMERICAN CULTURAL ALLIANCE
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds TEMPLE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds LAGUNA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
  • Who funds Vietnamese American Philharmonics
  • Who funds WESTMINSTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
  • Who funds SPECIAL OLYMPICS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INC
  • Who funds YOUNG LIFE
  • Who funds Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Jao 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.

2023
202122232425
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Jao Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Jao 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 27 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph