· Private foundation
The Macfarlane 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
73% of The Macfarlane Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to University Of Southern California, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 1 organization directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $9k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $43k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA | $19,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $13,000 |
| VANGUARD CHARITABLE FUND | $10,000 |
| ORCAS ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $8,000 |
| PRINCETON UNIVERSITY | $1,000 |
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 (FY24–24, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 6%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
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 +51% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
9 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- IGIndividual grant recipient6× · 2020–2025 · $88k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SCHOOL2× · 2020–2021 · $6k
- PPPINNACLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH5× · 2020–2024 · $4k
Funded once
- UOUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATIONone grant, 2024 · $6k · revenue +7%
- HAHENRY ART GALLERYone grant, 2023 · $5k
- DMDAVIS MEMORIAL FUND INCone grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue 0%
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 mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
The university of virginia investment management company (uvimco) is organized to invest funds on behalf of the rector and visitors of the university of virginia (the university or uva) and university-associated organizations (uaos).
The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…
Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…
A diverse and sustainable learning community dedicated to discovery and excellence in teaching, scholarship and practice, pacific university inspires students to think, care, create and pursue justice in our world.
The ucla foundation is the giving, receiving, and investing arm of the ucla campus. the foundation enables private donors to help build, sustain and advance one of the world's finest academic and research institutions. private philanthropy…
The organization provides professional investment management services for endowed gifts and financial assets entrusted to the ucsf foundation.
Enhance the patient and family experience at upper valley medical center by raising community support for programs and services which help build healthy communities.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
The mission of the university of california, irvine foundation (uc irvine foundation) is to raise and manage private funds to support uc irvine's broader mission of excellence in teaching, research and public service. to this end, the uc…
How this is measured
13 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. 13 of the 22 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
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 VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds ORCAS ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DAVIS MEMORIAL FUND INC ↗
- Who funds The Trustees of Princeton University ↗
- Who funds GORDON PARKS MUSEUM FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE SAN JUAN PRESERVATION TRUST ↗
- Who funds CURTIS LEGACY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NAVOS ↗
- Who funds MULTICARE FOUNDATIONS ↗
- Who funds GOODWIN HOUSE INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds ZBS FOUNDATION ↗
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: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Macfarlane Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Macfarlane Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Macfarlane’s filings →