· Private foundation
The Lucky One Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k7 grants · $35k
- $10k–50k22 grants · $415k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $215k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GANNA WLASKA LOTUSLAND | $105,000 |
| BELLOSGUARDO FOUNDATION INC | $60,000 |
| CREATIVE VISIONS FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST | $40,000 |
| PUPPIES BEHIND BARS | $25,000 |
| THE RIVIERA RIDGE SCHOOL | $25,000 |
| IMPACTASSETS INC | $25,000 |
| REBOOT INC | $25,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF SANTA BARBARA | $25,000 |
| THE EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD PROJECT | $25,000 |
| THE GREEN RIVER FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| KISS THE GROUND | $20,000 |
| MOXI THE WOLF MUSEUM | $20,000 |
| STOTYTELLER CHILDREN'S CENTER | $20,000 |
| LIMITLESS HORIZONS IXIL | $20,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY19–24, $145k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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 +58% since the first grant, against +26% for the ones you funded once.
43 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2024, 29 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $205k 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
- GWGANNA WALSKA LOTUSLAND4× · 2021–2024 · $230k · revenue +100%
- PBPUPPIES BEHIND BARS INC6× · 2019–2024 · $135k · revenue +69%
CREATIVE VISIONS FOUNDATION2× · 2023–2024 · $100k · revenue +86%
Funded once
- CHCONSIDER HAITIone grant, 2021 · $30k · revenue -46%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $15k
- PAPACOLET AREA CONSERVANCY INCone grant, 2019 · $15k
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.
To end hunger and transform the health of our community by providing nourishment to those in need by acquiring and distributing safe nutritious food via local agencies and by providing education to solve hunger and nutritional problems in…
Food forward fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people experiencing food insecurity, and inspiring others to do the same.
Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…
To conserve natural resources, agricultural land and open spaces for present and future generations.
The organization's mission is to mobilize resources to fight hunger in our community. to fulfill its mission, the food bank:* sources and acquires nutritious food and other products and distribute them to people experiencing nutrition…
The uc santa barbara foundation actively works to further the goals of the university of california, santa barbara. the foundation seeks to maintain and nurture the university's quality and distinction. on behalf of the campus, the…
Food Rescue - The Organization rescues excess fresh food from Bay Area businesses, schools and non-profits and immediately delivers the food to safety net partners - such as senior housing centers, after-school programs, and homeless…
Santa barbara humane operates two campuses located in santa barbara and santa maria providing care for community-owned and homeless animals. both campuses offer affordable high quality veterinary care, compassionate behavior training…
The santa barbara zoo is dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and enhancement of the natural world and its living treasures through education, research, recreation and conservation.
Rancho santa ana botanic gardens promotes botany, conservation, and horticulture to inspire, inform and educate the public and scientific community about california's native flora. the garden is devoted to the collection, cultivation,…
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
The organization was established to protect and restore the santa barbara channel and its watersheds through science-based advocacy, education, field work, community engagement, and citizen enforcement of environmental laws.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Action Against Hunger - Usa and the most unlike its peers is The Edible Schoolyard Project dba the Alice Waters Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% 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.
55 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. 55 of the 76 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 GANNA WALSKA LOTUSLAND ↗
- Who funds MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST ↗
- Who funds PUPPIES BEHIND BARS INC ↗
- Who funds CREATIVE VISIONS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE PERLMAN MUSIC PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds LIMITLESS HORIZONS IXIL INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds THERMAL BELT OUTREACH MINISTRY INC ↗
- Who funds BELLOSGUARDO FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds GWENDOLYN STRONG FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Riviera Ridge School ↗
- Who funds DIGNITYMOVES ↗
- Who funds STEPS TO HOPE INC ↗
- Who funds CALM INC ↗
- Who funds KISS THE GROUND ↗
- Who funds BARD COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds TEDDY BEAR CANCER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OCEAN CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds POLO TRAINING CENTER SANTA BARBARA ↗
- Who funds CONSIDER HAITI ↗
- Who funds Classical Academies CFA Inc ↗
- Who funds IMPACTASSETSINC ↗
- Who funds GREEN RIVER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds REBOOT INC ↗
- Who funds TRYON LITTLE THEATER INC ↗
- Who funds The Edible Schoolyard Project dba The Alice Waters Institute ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK FOR NEW YORK CITY ↗
- Who funds MONTECITO FIREFIGHTERS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PACOLET AREA CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
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 Little One Foundation · Santa Barbara Foundation · Hutton Foundation Dba Hutton Parker Foundation · Yellow-Crowned Foundation · Williams-Corbett Foundation · Patricia Bragg Foundation · Ann Jackson Family Foundation · Manitou Fund · June G Outhwaite Charitable Trust JS Poucher KL Englert & CM Cooney Co-Tr · James S Bower Foundation · Mosher Foundation · The B & B Foundation
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 Lucky One 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Lucky One Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Lucky One 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.