Massachusetts · Private foundation
The Lef Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $585k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 56
- Grants FY2025
- 50
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 76%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $4,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $75,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 36 to 54
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 15
- Total assets, FY2025
- $7.2M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 76% of the organizations The Lef Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 75% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 25% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $374k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 55 | $582k | 44% |
| FY2024 | 50 | $500k | 76% |
| FY2023 | 52 | $547k | 37% |
| FY2022 | 44 | $388k | 30% |
| FY2021 | 54 | $583k | 39% |
| FY2020 | 36 | $437k | 50% |
| FY2019 | 49 | $501k | 29% |
| FY2018 | 49 | $398k | 33% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Center for Independent Documentary Inc | $543,800 | 8 | 3% |
| Documentary Educational Resources Inc | $320,000 | 8 | 5% |
| California College of the Arts | $282,500 | 6 | 0% |
| Uniondocs Inc | $190,000 | 8 | 3% |
| Points North Institute | $166,500 | 8 | 2% |
| Progress Unity Fund | $124,000 | 9 | 19% |
| The Filmmakers Collaborative Inc | $90,000 | 4 | 2% |
| The Bay School | $75,000 | 3 | 1% |
| International Documentary Foundation Inc | $73,000 | 5 | 0% |
| International Film Seminars Inc | $60,000 | 7 | 3% |
Show all 126 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 90 recipients with no EIN on record ($991k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
The Lef Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 112 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: Santa Fe Community Foundation · Albuquerque Community Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Marshall L and Perrine D McCune Charitable Foundation Inc · The San Francisco Foundation · Thornburg Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc · Impactassetsinc · Pnm Tnmp Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Lef Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Lef 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.
About The Lef Foundation
- How much does The Lef Foundation give?
- The Lef Foundation reported 56 grants totaling $584,600 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 36 and 54 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does The Lef Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (66%), Education (10%), International (5%).
- Who are The Lef Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: The Center for Independent Documentary Inc ($544k), Documentary Educational Resources Inc ($320k), California College of the Arts ($283k).
- Does The Lef Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 76% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does The Lef Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as The Lef Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Santa Fe Community Foundation, Albuquerque Community Foundation, Boston Foundation Inc.
- Where is The Lef Foundation based?
- The Lef Foundation is based in MA.
Play a game based on Lef’s filings →