· 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.
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
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k2 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $173k
- $50k–250k11 grants · $1.1M
- $250k+7 grants · $3.9M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION | $1,610,000 |
| JACKIE ROBINSON YMCA | $900,000 |
| RISE URBAN LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE | $307,500 |
| SAN DIEGO CONVENTION AND TOURIST BUREAU | $290,000 |
| PLAZA DE PANAMA COMMITTEE | $277,000 |
| OUTDOOR OUTREACH | $260,000 |
| CONNECT FOUNDATION | $250,000 |
| BALBOA PARK ONLINE COLLABORATIVE INC | $200,000 |
| ELEMENTARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE | $150,000 |
| NATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION CENTER | $150,000 |
| URBAN YOUTH COLLABORATIVE (POLLARD) | $134,000 |
| ACCESS YOUTH ACADEMY | $100,000 |
| SAN DIEGO ART INSTITUTE | $100,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $80,000 |
| BALBOA PARK CULTURAL PARTNERSHIP | $75,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +106% since the first grant, against +42% for the ones you funded once.
11 repeat relationships — 11 still active in FY2019, 0 since wound down; 19 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2020, 65% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $699k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- USUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION2× · 2019–2020 · $1.7M · revenue +106%
- SDSAN DIEGO CONVENTION AND TOURIST BUREAU2× · 2019–2020 · $690k · revenue +14%
- NCNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION CENTER2× · 2019–2020 · $450k · revenue +151%
Funded once
- JRJACKIE ROBINSON YMCAone grant, 2019 · $900k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGOgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $675k · revenue +42%
- PDPLAZA DE PANAMA COMMITTEE ATT RCone grant, 2019 · $277k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Programmed and coordinated visits to san diego by international visitors and escorts, working in association with appropriate united states government agencies and the global ties u.s. network.
The mission of the building industry association of san diego is to proactively promote a positive business environment for the land development, home building and commercial development industry throughout san diego county.
The policy & innovation center's (pic) mission is to unlock the region's potential by cultivating and building partnerships. our niche is to address intractable issues that can only be solved with cross-sector, multi-jurisdictional…
To support the social, recreational, cultural and education programs and facilities, both on campus and in the community, and to advocate for student interests, provide leadership opportunities and participate in shared governance.
The Labor Council offers an avenue for local unions to come together as one group.
The san diego municipal employees association (sdmea) is dedicated to being a strong and effective advocate for san diego city employees. sdmea is united to improve employees' standard of living and promote their fair treatment by…
Pasadena bio collaborative incubator is a nonprofit organization focused on economic development and job creation in southern california. we encourage the growth of an innovative biotechnology industry by providing educational/training…
The mission of the san diego county bar association is to be the representative of the san diego county legal profession, serving the prblic and the profession by enhancing the legal system and promoting justice, professional excellence,…
San Diego Christian College exists to educate and inspire students through the truth of scripture and the development of competencies that prepare graduates whose purpose is to impact the world.
San Diego Theatres, Inc. (SDTI) is a not-for-profit public benefit corporation established to manage and operate publicly owned performing arts theatres. SDTI was established in 2003 by the San Diego Convention Center Corporation (SDCCC),…
To spark breakthrough community action that elevates every child and family toward a brighter future.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The San Diego Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Plaza De Panama Committee Att Rc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 30 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 4% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
26 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 26 of the 31 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds THE SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO CONVENTION AND TOURIST BUREAU ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION CENTER ↗
- Who funds OUTDOOR OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds PLAZA DE PANAMA COMMITTEE ATT RC ↗
- Who funds BALBOA PARK ONLINE COLLABORATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds CONNECT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds URBAN YOUTH COLLABORATIVE ↗
- Who funds ELEMENTARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds ACCESS YOUTH ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds VOICE OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds BALBOA PARK CULTURAL PARTNERSHIP ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO COMIC CONVENTION ↗
- Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
- Who funds IZCALLI ESCUELA DE LA RAZA ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds BALBOA PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds BURNHAM CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ADVANCEMENT ↗
- Who funds Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties ↗
- Who funds SISU ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds Council on Foundations Inc ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GRANTMAKERS FOR EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
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
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Legler Benbough 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.
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.