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California · Private foundation

The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc

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.

$3.1M
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
33
Grants FY2025
23
Organizations funded FY2024
17%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$50,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$800,000
Organizations funded a year
8 to 23
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
5
Total assets, FY2025
$30M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 17% of the organizations The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc funded were first-time grantees, receiving 48% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.1M went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Youth DevelopmentCrime & LegalEducationHuman ServicesFood & NutritionOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving33$3.1M33%
FY202423$2.3M17%
FY202322$1.5M18%
FY202222$1.5M14%
FY202120$1.8M20%
FY202014$1.6M36%
FY20198$1.4M25%
FY201812$1.2M8%
99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Youth Development$5.5MHuman Services$3.4MEducation$1.3MFood & Nutrition$1.2MArts & Culture$1.2MPublic Benefit$1.1MHealth$703kHousing & Shelter$295kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
MT
IA
PA
CA
CO
DC
HI
GA

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Laura's House$2,450,000910%
The University of Puget Sound$1,160,00060%
Pacific Symphony$1,050,00091%
Orangewood Foundation$290,00070%
Hoag Hospital Foundation$250,00070%
Brackens Kitchen Inc$225,00060%
Homeboy Industries$220,00050%
The Priority Center Ending the Generational Cycle$215,00051%
Share Our Selves Corporation$150,00060%
Choc Foundation$130,00060%
Show all 32 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 29 recipients with no EIN on record ($8.1M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 26 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLaura's House: $2,450,000 over 9y, 10% of budgetThe University of Puget Sound: $1,160,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetPacific Symphony: $1,050,000 over 9y, 0.8% of budgetOrangewood Foundation: $290,000 over 7y, 0.4% of budgetHoag Hospital Foundation: $250,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetBrackens Kitchen Inc: $225,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetHomeboy Industries: $220,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetThe Priority Center Ending the Generational Cycle: $215,000 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetShare Our Selves Corporation: $150,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetChoc Foundation: $130,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetAmigos de Los Ninos: $110,000 over 9y, 11% of budgetWorking Wardrobes For A New Start: $90,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetOrange Unified Public Schools Foundation: $75,000 over 4y, 23% of budgetCottonwood Day School: $65,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetBoys & Girls Clubs of Central Orange Coast: $50,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetOrange County Rescue Mission Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetChapman University: $35,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetProject Kinship: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFamilies Forward: $25,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetCasa Teresa Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetLaguna Food Pantry: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetAgingnext Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetCompassion International Incorporated: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetInternational Justice Mission: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWomansage Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 30% of budgetOrange Home Grown Foundation Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 26.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Orange County Community FoundationCA28.7× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Orange County Community Foundation · The Devto Support Foundation · O L Halsell Foundation · Sisters of St Joseph Healthcare Foundation · Farmers & Merchants Bank Foundation · California Foundation for Stronger Communities · St Joseph Health System Foundation · Warne Family Charitable Foundation Co First Foundation Bank · Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian · Orange County's United Way · Argyros Family Foundation · Edwards Lifesciences Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc 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.

About The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc

How much does The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc give?
The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc reported 33 grants totaling $3,090,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 8 and 23 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Youth Development (36%), Human Services (22%), Education (9%).
Who are The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Laura's House ($2.5M), The University of Puget Sound ($1.2M), Pacific Symphony ($1.1M).
Does The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 17% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Orange County Community Foundation, The Devto Support Foundation, O L Halsell Foundation.
Where is The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc based?
The Joe MacPherson Foundation Inc is based in CA.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 63 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

Source object · view filing

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