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The McCown Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The McCown Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$36k
Granted FY2025still arriving
10
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$13k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$66kHealth$20kInternational$18kYouth Development$10kEnvironment$2kHuman Services$1kReligion$1kHousing & Shelter$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k8 grants · $12k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $24k
$1,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$275k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SYNAPSE SCHOOL$12,981
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY$11,000
SIX SECONDS$5,000
SUTTER BAY MEDICAL FOUNDATION$1,000
STROKE ONWARD INC$1,000
SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION$1,000
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY$1,000
SEQUOIA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION$1,000
AMERICAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION$1,000
KQED INC$1,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY23–23, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%SWEETWATER SPECTRUM: $1k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 14% of The McCown Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 83% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 74%.

The McCown Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

82%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$86k · 8 repeat orgs$19k to everyone else

8 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
13

Total granted

$86k
$17k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+58%
+97%

Still filing today

100%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’23’24’25
HealthEducationInternationalEnvironmentRecreation & SportsPhilanthropyOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • SS
    SYNAPSE SCHOOL
    3× · 2020–2025 · $38k · revenue +77%
  • CA
    CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE
    2× · 2019–2020 · $12k · revenue +64%
  • SS
    SIX SECONDS
    2× · 2023–2025 · $10k · revenue +58%

Funded once

  • TS
    Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children Foundationgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue +258%
  • BM
    BLUE MOUNTAIN CENTERgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $1k · revenue +438%
  • SH
    STANFORD HOSPITAL PARTNERS
    one grant, 2019 · $1k
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Sutter Bay Hospitals

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
2
Sonoma Mountain Institute
Environment
3
Southern California University of Health Sciences

The mission of southern california university of health sciences (scu) is to educate students as competent, caring and successful practitioners of integrative healthcare. the university is committed to providing excellence in academics,…

Education
4
Sutter Health

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
5
California Pacific Medical Center Foundation

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
6
San Francisco Challenge dba AmericaOne
Recreation & Sports
7
Sutter Valley Medical Foundation

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: Caring for our patients first and our people always. VISION: To be the most comprehensive, integrated and connected health system for getting and staying well. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
8
Sutter Roseville Medical Center Foundation

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
9
Sutter Medical Center Foundation

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
10
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
11
Sutter Valley Hospitals

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
12
Sempervirens Fund

To ensure coast redwood forests in the santa cruz mountains thrive for generations to come. since 1900, sempervirens has protected more than 36,000 acres. learn more about our mission, vision, and strategic plan through 2030 at:…

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sierra Club Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Blue Mountain Center. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

17 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 24 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
12/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SYNAPSE SCHOOL: $37,981 · EducationSYNAPSE SCHOOLTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $18,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSIT…SIX SECONDS: $10,000 · EducationSIX SECONDSCENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE: $11,968 · InternationalCENTRAL ASIA INS…The American Himalayan Foundation: $6,000 · InternationalThe American Him…STROKE ONWARD INC: $6,000 · HealthSTROKE ONWARD …Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children Foundation: $5,000 · HealthTexas Scottish…SUTTER BAY MEDICAL FOUNDATION: $2,000 · HealthSUTTER BAY MED…SEQUOIA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $2,000 · HealthSEQUOIA HOSPIT…MATEO LODGE INC: $1,000 · HealthMATEO LODGE IN…OUTWARD BOUND CALIFORNIA: $10,000 · Recreation & SportsOUTWARD B…BLUE MOUNTAIN CENTER: $1,000 · OtherSTANFORD HOSPITAL PARTNERS: $1,000 · OtherSTANFORD PRESIDENT'S FUND: $1,000 · OtherEHAMA INSTITUTE: $1,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $1,000 · OtherUCSF HELEN DILLER CANCER CENTER: $1,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $1,000 · OtherLIGHTHOUSE CHARTER SCHOOL: $500 · OtherSWEETWATER SPECTRUM INC: $1,000 · OtherTHE MARION INSTITUTE INC: $1,000 · OtherSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $1,000 · EnvironmentPENINSULA OPEN SPACE TRUST: $1,000 · EnvironmentKQED INC: $1,000 · Arts & Culture
Education$65,981International$17,968Health$16,000Recreation & Sports$10,000Other$9,500Environment$2,000Arts & Culture$1,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSYNAPSE SCHOOL: $37,981 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $18,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE: $11,968 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetSIX SECONDS: $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetOUTWARD BOUND CALIFORNIA: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSTROKE ONWARD INC: $6,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetThe American Himalayan Foundation: $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTexas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 6.9% of budgetSUTTER BAY MEDICAL FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSEQUOIA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBLUE MOUNTAIN CENTER: $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetKQED INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMATEO LODGE INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSWEETWATER SPECTRUM INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MARION INSTITUTE INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPENINSULA OPEN SPACE TRUST: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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 Found…Silicon Valley Commun…Morgan Stanley Global…National Philanthropi…Donor Advised Charita…The Bank of America C…Paypal Charitable Giv…Vanguard Charitable E…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Marin Community FoundationCA12.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 10 of 10Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The McCown Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The McCown Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • The Marion Institute Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The McCown Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The McCown 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.

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 24 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

Play a game based on McCown Family’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