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Foundation Dossiers

California · Private foundation

The Legler Benbough Foundation

Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$5.2M
Granted FY2019
26
Grants FY2019
26
Organizations funded FY2019
Read the full brief

Read this first · the figures below need context

56% of The Legler Benbough Foundation’s FY2020 grant dollars went to The San Diego Foundation, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 12 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year The Legler Benbough Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 21 organizations, $5M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

21
’19
12
’20

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

Median grant, FY2019
$100,000
Largest grant, FY2019
$1,610,000
States reached, FY2019
3
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site
95% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2020.

Education$2.6MPhilanthropy$2.6MCommunity Improvement$1.2MHuman Services$900kCivil Rights$735kYouth Development$684kCrime & Legal$450kArts & Culture$280kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2020, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Uc San Diego Foundation$1,710,00021%
San Diego Convention and Tourist Bureau$690,00021%
University of San Diego$675,00010%
National Conflict Resolution Center$450,00027%
Outdoor Outreach$410,000213%
Plaza de Panama Committee Att Rc$277,0001n/a
Balboa Park Online Collaborative Inc$250,000217%
Connect Foundation$250,000115%
Urban Youth Collaborative$174,000218%
Elementary Institute of Science$150,000114%
Show all 25 grantees
All grantees of The Legler Benbough Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Uc San Diego Foundation$1,710,00021%
San Diego Convention and Tourist Bureau$690,00021%
University of San Diego$675,00010%
National Conflict Resolution Center$450,00027%
Outdoor Outreach$410,000213%
Plaza de Panama Committee Att Rc$277,0001n/a
Balboa Park Online Collaborative Inc$250,000217%
Connect Foundation$250,000115%
Urban Youth Collaborative$174,000218%
Elementary Institute of Science$150,000114%
Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego$100,000125%
Access Youth Academy$100,000115%
Voice of San Diego$75,00021%
Balboa Park Cultural Partnership$75,00012%
San Diego Comic Convention$55,00010%
Teach for America Inc$50,00010%
Izcalli Escuela de la Raza$50,000143%
National University$30,00010%
Balboa Park Conservancy$29,07011%
Burnham Center for Community Advancement$20,000112%
Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties$15,00020%
Sisu Academy$10,00017%
Council on Foundations Inc$2,50010%
San Diego Regional Economic Development Foundation$2,00010%
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations$1,39010%

Plus 5 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.6M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

The Legler Benbough Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 2 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 24 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUc San Diego Foundation: $1,710,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetSan Diego Convention and Tourist Bureau: $690,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetUniversity of San Diego: $675,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNational Conflict Resolution Center: $450,000 over 2y, 6.9% of budgetOutdoor Outreach: $410,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetBalboa Park Online Collaborative Inc: $250,000 over 2y, 17% of budgetConnect Foundation: $250,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetUrban Youth Collaborative: $174,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetElementary Institute of Science: $150,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetInstitute of Contemporary Art San Diego: $100,000 over 1y, 25% of budgetAccess Youth Academy: $100,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetVoice of San Diego: $75,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetBalboa Park Cultural Partnership: $75,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetSan Diego Comic Convention: $55,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTeach for America Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIzcalli Escuela de la Raza: $50,000 over 1y, 43% of budgetNational University: $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBalboa Park Conservancy: $29,070 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetBurnham Center for Community Advancement: $20,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetCatalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties: $15,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSisu Academy: $10,000 over 1y, 7.3% of budgetCouncil on Foundations Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSan Diego Regional Economic Development Foundation: $2,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGrantmakers for Effective Organizations: $1,390 over 1y, 0.0% 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 24.

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.

The Conrad Prebys Fou…The San Diego Foundat…Jewish Community Foun…Price Philanthropies …Rancho Santa Fe Found…David C Copley Founda…Girard FoundationThe Parker FoundationThe Nordson Corporati…Sempra FoundationThe Cushman FoundationThe California Endowm…
The Conrad Prebys FoundationCA34.3× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Conrad Prebys Foundation · The San Diego Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Price Philanthropies Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · David C Copley Foundation · Girard Foundation · The Parker Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Sempra Foundation · The Cushman Foundation · The California Endowment

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 Legler Benbough Foundation with peer funders

About The Legler Benbough Foundation

How much does The Legler Benbough Foundation give?
The Legler Benbough Foundation reported 26 grants totaling $5,221,070 in its FY2019 IRS filing.
What does The Legler Benbough Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2020, its largest causes are Education (27%), Philanthropy (26%), Community Improvement (12%).
Who are The Legler Benbough Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2019 to FY2020: Uc San Diego Foundation ($1.7M), San Diego Convention and Tourist Bureau ($690k), University of San Diego ($675k).
Does The Legler Benbough Foundation 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 Legler Benbough Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Conrad Prebys Foundation, The San Diego Foundation, Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego.
Where is The Legler Benbough Foundation based?
The Legler Benbough Foundation 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 31 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 2019, released 2019. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Legler Benbough’s filings →

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