· Private foundation
The Lef Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k39 grants · $126k
- $10k–50k15 grants · $334k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $125k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIONDOCS | $75,000 |
| FILMMAKERS COLLABORATIVE INC | $50,000 |
| CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INC | $45,000 |
| POINTS NORTH INSTITUTE | $40,000 |
| WOMEN MAKE MOVIES INC - AMANDA KOWA | $32,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| EXPERIMENTAL SOUND STUDIO - JODIE M | $25,000 |
| DOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INC | $25,000 |
| COLOR CONGRESS | $25,000 |
| TUFTS UNIVERSITY - RICCARDO GIACCON | $20,000 |
| MIRABEL PICTURES - BANKER WHITE | $15,000 |
| FILM FORUM - LUKE MEYER | $15,000 |
| MUSEUM OF CERAMIC ARTSNY | $11,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $185k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 12% of The Lef Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +35% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.
83 repeat relationships: 31 still active in FY2025, 52 since wound down; 24 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $238k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
THE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INC8× · 2017–2025 · $544k · revenue +331%- DEDOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INC8× · 2017–2025 · $320k · revenue +34%
- CCCALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS6× · 2017–2024 · $283k · revenue +33%
Funded once
- CCCREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATIONone grant, 2023 · $40k · revenue -29%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $25k
- SGSHINE GLOBAL INCone grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue -20%
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The california film institute celebrates film and videos as art and education. its goal is to present and support emerging and established independent filmakers whose works address issues relevant to contemporary society. this is…
Guided by artists, rooted in new mexico, site santa fe celebrates contemporary creative expression.
SFFILM is a nonprofit organization whose mission ensures independent voices in film are welcomed, heard, and given the resources to thrive. SFFILM connects and inspires audiences, students and teachers, and filmmakers through our film…
Northwest Film Forum incites public dialogue and creative action through collective cinematic experiences. A nonprofit film and arts center located in Seattle, Northwest Film Forum presents hundreds of films, festivals, community events,…
Siff is a seattle-based 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education.
To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.
The center for arts, design and social research is a private, nonprofit institution of higher education that provides instruction in and conducts research on the relationship of art and design to global societies. the center offers…
To encourage, sponsor, and promote innovative work in the arts created and presented by individuals, groups, and organizations.
Sundance institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences.
Marin open studios is a non-profit visual arts organization dedicated to engaging and supporting marin county artists and their audiences through events, programs and services. marin open studios champions a diverse and inclusive community…
To invest in america's finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society.
How this is measured
129 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 129 of the 221 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds THE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INC ↗
- Who funds DOCUMENTARY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INC ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds UNIONDOCS INC ↗
- Who funds Points North Institute ↗
- Who funds Progress Unity Fund ↗
- Who funds THE FILMMAKERS COLLABORATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds THE BAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL FILM SEMINARS INC ↗
- Who funds WOMEN MAKE MOVIES INC ↗
- Who funds Color Congress ↗
- Who funds INDEPENDENT FEATURE PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds FILMMAKERS COLLABORATIVE ↗
- Who funds WESTCHESTER INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds Calistoga Art Center Inc ↗
- Who funds CREATIVE CAPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds METEOR FILMS INC ↗
- Who funds PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Tikkun Olam Productions Inc ↗
- Who funds ROADRUNNER FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds WATERSHED CENTER FOR THE CERAMIC ARTS ↗
- Who funds ALBUQUERQUE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DREAMSPRING ↗
- Who funds Save The Children Federation Inc ↗
- Who funds CRAFT EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND INC ↗
- Who funds SHINE GLOBAL INC ↗
- Who funds BRAIN ARTS ORGANIZATION INC ↗
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
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Lef Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lef Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Vermont Folklife Center: 90% of income from government
- Mercy Corps: 47% of income from government
- Upstander Project Inc: 33% of income from government
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
- Anikaya Akhra Inc: 18% of income from government
- Chittenden Community Television: 14% of income from government
- The Center for Independent Documentary Inc: 6% of income from government
- Neskowin Coast Foundation: 2% of income from government
- Brattle Film Foundation Inc: 1% of income from government
- Endicott College: 1% of income from government
- The Filmmakers Collaborative Inc: 1% of income from government
- Documentary Educational Resources Inc: 1% of income from government
- Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation Inc: 0% of income from government
- Emerson College: 0% of income from government
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.
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