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California · Private foundation

The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$139k
Granted FY2020
40
Grants FY2020
20
Organizations funded FY2020
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2020
$2,000
Largest grant, FY2020
$25,000
States reached, FY2020
1
Total assets, FY2020
$33M
Applications
Takes unsolicited applications
Per its most recent filing; check its own site
96% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Philanthropy$6.1MHealth$43kArts & Culture$23kFood & Nutrition$11kEnvironment$6kHousing & Shelter$4kEducation$3kCommunity Improvement$2kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2020, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Food for People Inc$9,61710%
Northern California Community Blood Bank$5,00010%
New Life Christian School$3,22211%
Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired$2,50010%
Northcoast Regional Land Trust$2,50010%
Ferndale Repertory Theatre$2,50011%
Friends of the Dunes$1,91910%
Fortuna Chamber of Commerce$1,62411%
Fortuna Cultural Association$1,5001n/a
Eureka Rescue Mission$1,00010%

Plus 10 recipients with no EIN on record ($63k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFood for People Inc: $9,617 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNorthern California Community Blood Bank: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNew Life Christian School: $3,222 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetLighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorthcoast Regional Land Trust: $2,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetFerndale Repertory Theatre: $2,500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetFriends of the Dunes: $1,919 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFortuna Chamber of Commerce: $1,624 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetEureka Rescue Mission: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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 9.

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.

Humboldt Area Foundat…Andree Wagner Peace T…Christine & Jalmer Be…Coast Central Credit …Morgan Stanley Global…Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Humboldt Area FoundationCA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Humboldt Area Foundation · Andree Wagner Peace Trust UTD 121289 · Christine & Jalmer Berg Foundation · Coast Central Credit Union · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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.

Compare The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Mel and Grace McLean 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 Mel and Grace McLean Foundation

How much does The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation give?
The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation reported 40 grants totaling $138,908 in its FY2020 IRS filing.
What does The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2020, its largest causes are Philanthropy (98%), Health (1%), Arts & Culture (0%).
Who are The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2020: Food for People Inc ($10k), Northern California Community Blood Bank ($5k), New Life Christian School ($3k).
Does The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Humboldt Area Foundation, Andree Wagner Peace Trust UTD 121289, Christine & Jalmer Berg Foundation.
Where is The Mel and Grace McLean Foundation based?
The Mel and Grace McLean 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 21 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $1.1M of grant expense with no grantee named in the published copy. A private foundation itemizes every grant it makes, so a return carrying none has filed its list as an attachment that the public copy does not include. The figures above are therefore from FY2020, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Mel and Grace McLean’s filings →

More from the funding graph

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who holds foundation money, and what just moved
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By state
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