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The Lebron James Family Foundation

What began as a mission to raise graduation rates in lebron's hometown of akron, ohio, THE LEBRON JAMES FAMILY FOUNDATION's work has evolved into a movement that is redefining what family and community looks like.

$1.9M
Granted FY2022
1
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$300k
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 FY20172022.

Education$4.3MScience & Tech$1.2MHousing & Shelter$200kRecreation & Sports$105kYouth Development$50kArts & Culture$40kPublic Safety & Disaster$10kEnvironment$5k
02FY2022 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 1 grants below total $300,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,931,551 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,631,551 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

$300,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$26M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION$300,000
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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–17, $35k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%USHER'S NEW LOOK: $25k → 13%AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS: $10k → 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.

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$5.6M · 5 repeat orgs$285k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2022, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
6

Total granted

$5.6M
$285k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
+46%

Still filing today

80%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsEducationEnvironmentPhilanthropyOther

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

  • AP
    AKRON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
    8× · 2017–2024 · $3.9M
  • SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
    4× · 2018–2022 · $1.2M · revenue +33%
  • SV
    ST VINCENT - ST MARY HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION
    4× · 2018–2021 · $400k · revenue +79%

Funded once

  • TM
    THE MAYOR'S FUND FOR LOS ANGELES
    one grant, 2020 · $200k · revenue -89%
  • TM
    The MAD Girls Inc
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · 43% of their budget
  • UN
    USHER'S NEW LOOK INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +62%

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
National Science and Technology Medals Foundation Inc

The nstmf's mission is to build inclusive stem communities across the united states. fundamental to these communities are the significant, inspirational connections we foster between the individuals who have received national recognition…

2
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
3
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
4
Museum of the City of New York

The museum of the city of new york fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world's most influential metropolis. it engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city's past, present, and…

Arts & Culture
5
Society for Science & the Public

Society for science is a champion for science, dedicated to expanding scientific literacy, effective stem education and scientific research.

Science & Tech
6
Lowell Observatory

The mission of lowell observatory is to pursue the study of astronomy, especially the study of our solar system and its evolution; to conduct pure research in astronomical phenomena; and to maintain quality public education and outreach…

Science & Tech
7
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
8
The Poptech Institute

Poptech's mission is to accelerate the positive impact of world-changing people, projects and ideas. founded in 1996 by bob metcalfe (inventor, ethernet) and john sculley (apple, pepsi), poptech originally provided a forum to critically…

Education
9
The Trustees of the Smith College

Smith college educates women of promise for lives of distinction and purpose. a college of and for the world, smith college links the power of the liberal arts to excellence in research and scholarship, developing leaders for society's…

Education
10
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
11
The Harry S Truman Library Institute National and International Affairs

To preserve and promote the enduring legacy of harry s. truman, america's 33rd president.

Education
12
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles and the most unlike its peers is Smithsonian Institution. 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 11 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
5/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

AKRON PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $3,910,119 · OtherAKRON PUBLIC SCHOOLS+2 more — $45,236 · OtherSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $1,200,000 · Arts & CultureSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION+1 more — $40,000 · Arts & CultureST VINCENT - ST MARY HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION — $400,000 · EducationTHE MAYOR'S FUND FOR LOS ANGELES — $200,000 · PhilanthropyNORTHEAST OHIO BASKETBALL ASSOC — $85,000 · Recreation & SportsUSHER'S NEW LOOK INC — $25,000 · Human ServicesAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $10,000 · Human ServicesTREEPEOPLE INC — $5,000 · Environment
Other$3,955,355Arts & Culture$1,240,000Education$400,000Philanthropy$200,000Recreation & Sports$85,000Human Services$35,000Environment$5,000

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 budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $1,200,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetST VINCENT - ST MARY HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION — $400,000 over 4y, 14% of budgetTHE MAYOR'S FUND FOR LOS ANGELES — $200,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNORTHEAST OHIO BASKETBALL ASSOC — $85,000 over 3y, 14% of budgetSUMMIT COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AKRON OHIO — $40,000 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetThe MAD Girls Inc — $25,000 over 1y, 43% of budgetUSHER'S NEW LOOK INC — $25,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTREEPEOPLE INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Lebron James Family 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 · 00%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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 Lebron James Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Lebron James Family 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 11 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $2.3M of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2022, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

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