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California · Private foundation

The Lester Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$105k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
2
Grants FY2025
1
Organizations funded FY2024
0%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$100,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$100,000
Organizations funded a year
1 to 21
FY2019 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
2
Total assets, FY2025
$659k
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 0% of the organizations The Lester Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHealthArts & CulturePublic BenefitEnvironmentOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving2$105k100%
FY20241$25k0%
FY20239$236k67%
FY20223$1.2M100%
FY20218$2.1M25%
FY20208$2.1M75%
FY201921$492kn/a
96% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Health$2.8MPublic Benefit$1.5MEducation$797kRecreation & Sports$345kArts & Culture$290kReligion$249kYouth Development$77kEnvironment$68kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
MI
OR
CA
VA
MD
KS
TN
TX

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Stand Together Foundation$1,500,00021%
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy$335,34811%
Youth Entrepreneurs Inc$250,00016%
The Seminar Network Inc$250,00010%
Sacred Heart Church$204,0002n/a
Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation$100,00013%
Sacred Heart School$100,0001n/a
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame Inc$100,00021%
Schools of the Sacred Heart-San Francisco$100,0001n/a
American Heart Association Inc$100,00040%
Show all 27 grantees
All grantees of The Lester Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Stand Together Foundation$1,500,00021%
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy$335,34811%
Youth Entrepreneurs Inc$250,00016%
The Seminar Network Inc$250,00010%
Sacred Heart Church$204,0002n/a
Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation$100,00013%
Sacred Heart School$100,0001n/a
National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame Inc$100,00021%
Schools of the Sacred Heart-San Francisco$100,0001n/a
American Heart Association Inc$100,00040%
Living Desert The$67,50020%
Larkin Street Youth Services$55,00020%
Eisenhower Medical Center$50,64010%
Mission Dolores Academy$50,0002n/a
California College of the Arts$25,00010%
McCallum Theatre Foundation Inc$25,000114%
Village Community Presbyterian Church$25,0001n/a
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art$25,00010%
Boys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley$22,00030%
Pets Lifeline Inc$20,00011%
One Purpose School Inc$20,00011%
National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias$5,00010%
Harmon Recovery Foundation$5,00012%
Palm Springs Art Museum$5,00010%
Lenity Project Inc$5,00012%
The Breakthrough Collaborative$1,50010%
Operation Safe House Inc$1,00010%

Plus 13 recipients with no EIN on record ($2.8M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Lester Family Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetStand Together Foundation: $1,500,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetGolden Gate National Parks Conservancy: $335,348 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetYouth Entrepreneurs Inc: $250,000 over 1y, 6.3% of budgetThe Seminar Network Inc: $250,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSonoma Valley Hospital Foundation: $100,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetNational Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame Inc: $100,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $100,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLiving Desert The: $67,500 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLarkin Street Youth Services: $55,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEisenhower Medical Center: $50,640 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCalifornia College of the Arts: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMcCallum Theatre Foundation Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBoys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley: $22,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetPets Lifeline Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetOne Purpose School Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetNational Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetHarmon Recovery Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetPalm Springs Art Museum: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLenity Project Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetThe Breakthrough Collaborative: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOperation Safe House Inc: $1,000 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 22.

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.

Marin Community FoundationCA16.3× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Communities Foundation of Texas Inc · McNabb Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Orange County Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Lester Family Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Lester Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Lester 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.

About The Lester Family Foundation

How much does The Lester Family Foundation give?
The Lester Family Foundation reported 2 grants totaling $105,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 21 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.
What does The Lester Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (45%), Public Benefit (24%), Education (13%).
Who are The Lester Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Stand Together Foundation ($1.5M), Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy ($335k), Youth Entrepreneurs Inc ($250k).
Does The Lester Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Lester Family 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 Lester Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Marin Community Foundation, Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc, Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Where is The Lester Family Foundation based?
The Lester Family 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 40 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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