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The Kevin Smokler Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Kevin Smokler Foundation

Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$19k
Granted FY2020
8
Grants FY2020
3
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

99% of The Kevin Smokler Foundation’s FY2021 grant dollars went to Jewish Community Federation Of San Francisco The Peninsula Marin & Sonoma, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2021 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year The Kevin Smokler Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $19k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

3
’17
1
’18
3
’19
5
’20
2
’21

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2021.

Philanthropy$393kYouth Development$23kArts & Culture$10kHuman Services$5kEducation$3kFood & Nutrition$2kPublic Benefit$1k
02FY2020 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,700
Median grant
3
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
YOUTH SPEAKS$5,000
BEND THE ARC$5,000
YOUNG AUTHORS PUBLISHING$3,000
ZYZZYVA$2,700
GRUB STREET$1,000
BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE$1,000
FRIENDS OF SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIB$1,000
SAN FRANCISCO WRITER'S CONFERENCE$650
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%GRUB STREET: $1k → 8%GRUB STREET: $3k → 16%SAN FRANCISCO WRITER'S CONFERENCE: $650 → 9%BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE: $1k → 10%ZYZZYVA: $3k → 10%BEND THE ARC: $5k → 17%ASYLUM ARTS: $1k → 20%ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY: $2k → 14%TALL GRASS FILM ASSOCIATION: $500 → 16%YOUNG AUTHORS PUBLISHING: $2k → 13%LIVERMORE PUBLIC LIBRARY: $2k → 10%YOUTH SPEAKS: $10k → 10%YOUNG AUTHORS PUBLISHING: $3k → 17%YOUTH SPEAKS: $5k → 10%YOUTH SPEAKS: $2k → 10%YOUTH SPEAKS: $2k → 10%FRIENDS OF SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIB: $1k → 10%JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION & ENDOWMENT FUND: $393k → 10%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field

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.

1
Dzanc Books Inc

Dzanc Books was hailed as the future of publishing in Publishers Weekly in December 2007. Beginning with modest goals of publishing 4-6 titles each year, the house now publishes between 10-15 books annually. Notable and award-winning…

Arts & Culture
2
Art of Brooklyn Festival

The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival is an annual event that brings Brooklyns celebrated film and media makers together with their peers across the country and around the world. AoBFF is a filmmaker-focused event, platform and showcase for…

Arts & Culture
3
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Inc
—
4
Poetry Flash

Poetry flash builds community through literature

—
5
Graywolf Press

Graywolf press publishes risk-taking, visionary writers who transform culture through literature. when writers are free to do their most ambitious work, their books serve as portals to new possibilities and enable deeper understanding…

Arts & Culture
6
The American Playwriting Foundation
—
7
Lively Productions

Lively productions presents new work for the stage by emerging artists, and seeks to create innovative theatrical opportunities in a world increasingly defined by real time interactions and new technologies

Arts & Culture
8
Women's Project & Productions Inc

Wp theater is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing, and promoting the work of women+ at every stage of their careers. for over four decades we have served as leaders of a global movement…

Arts & Culture
9
The Black Literacy and Arts Collaborative Project
—
10
Seattle Arts and Lectures

Seattle arts and lectures cultivates transformative experiences through story and language with readers and writers of all generations.

Arts & Culture
11
Gathering of the Tribes

AGOTT serves diverse traditionally under-represented artists and writers.

Arts & Culture
12
The Poetry Foundation
Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma; the most unlike its peers is Berkeley Repertory Theatre. 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

11 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. 11 of the 15 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/11
Grantees still filing
6/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF SAN FRANCISCO THE PENINSULA MARIN & SONOMA: $392,869 · PhilanthropyJEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF SAN FRANCISCO THE PENINSULA MARIN & SONOMAYOUTH SPEAKS INC: $18,100 · Youth DevelopmentBEND THE ARC: $5,000 · OtherYOUNG AUTHORS PUBLISHING: $3,000 · OtherYOUNG AUTHORS PUBLISHING COMAPNY: $2,000 · OtherFOOD GATHERERS: $1,500 · OtherLIVERMORE PUBLIC LIBRARY: $1,500 · OtherASYLUM ARTS INC: $1,000 · OtherFRIENDS OF SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIB: $1,000 · OtherGRUB STREET INC: $4,000 · Arts & CultureZYZZYVA INC: $2,700 · Arts & CultureBERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE: $1,000 · Arts & CultureSAN FRANCISCO WRITERS CONFERENCE: $650 · Arts & CultureTALLGRASS FILM ASSOCIATION: $500 · Arts & CultureANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY: $1,500 · Education
Philanthropy$392,869Youth Development$18,100Other$15,000Arts & Culture$8,850Education$1,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetJEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF SAN FRANCISCO THE PENINSULA MARIN & SONOMA: $392,869 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetYOUTH SPEAKS INC: $18,100 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetGRUB STREET INC: $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetZYZZYVA INC: $2,700 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetYOUNG AUTHORS PUBLISHING COMAPNY: $2,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetFOOD GATHERERS: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetASYLUM ARTS INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO WRITERS CONFERENCE: $650 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTALLGRASS FILM ASSOCIATION: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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.

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.

American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
American Online Giving Foundation IncDE7.2× affinity5 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Kevin Smokler Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Kevin Smokler Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Grub Street Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
04Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Kevin Smokler Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Kevin Smokler 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 15 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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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 endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home