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The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One at a glance

· Private foundation

The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One

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.

$215k
Granted FY2017
8
Grants FY2017
3
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

87% of The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Ucla Foundation, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 1 organization directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $215k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

7
’17
4
’18
3
’19
4
’20
5
’21
5
’22
1
’23
1
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$5.1MSocial Science$4.1MArts & Culture$588kFood & Nutrition$580kHealth$450kHousing & Shelter$144kPhilanthropy$80kEnvironment$20kOther$0
02FY2017 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2017

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $60k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $150k
$10,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$17M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Thunder River Theatre Company$100,000
The Aspen Institute$50,000
Aspen Valley Land Trust$20,000
Rocky Mountain PBS$10,000
Casa of the Ninth$10,000
Indianapolis Opera Charitable Grant$10,000
Colorado Public Television$10,000
Growing Years Preschool$5,000
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 (FY19–19, $50k) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%SAN MIGUEL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $50k → 21%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 29% of The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number Onelessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 5.9% directed abroad (not shown)
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.

77%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$5.2M · 6 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +78% since the first grant, against +42% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2017, 4 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2017 (too recent to call). Read against FY2017, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
18

Total granted

$5.2M
$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+78%
+42%

Still filing today

83%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

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

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationHealthSocial ScienceEnvironmentInternationalOther
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

  • THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC
    4× · 2017–2021 · $4.1M · revenue +243%
  • S
    SUMMIT54
    6× · 2018–2024 · $700k · revenue +78%
  • GF
    GLEANERS FOOD BANK OF INDIANA INC
    2× · 2018–2019 · $200k · revenue +146%

Funded once

  • VV
    VALLEY VIEW HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $400k · revenue -63%
  • PO
    PACIFIC OPERA VICTORIA
    one grant, 2018 · $393k
  • LI
    LIFE INTER FAITH TEAM ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY
    one grant, 2020 · $200k · revenue -17%
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
Colorado Legal Services

To provide meaningful access to high quality, civil legal services in the pursuit of justice for as many low income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout colorado as possible.

Crime & Legal
2
Colorado Jobs With Justice Inc

Advance workers rights & social justice through building sustained relationships and taking direct action to create concrete change in the lives of working families

Employment
3
The California Channel

To distribute public affairs and other educational information in order to create an electronic bridge between californians and their public officials, and, in the process educate a new generation of voting citizens and civic leaders who…

—
4
Santa Fe Community Foundation

The santa fe community foundation inspires philanthropic generosity, strengthens nonprofits, and fosters positive change to build a more vibrant, healthy, and resilient region. the foundation's vision is a thriving northern new mexico,…

Philanthropy
5
Urban Land Conservancy

Urban land conservancy's mission is to acquire, develop, and/or preserve community assets in urban areas for a variety of community needs especially in high poverty, low-income, underserved, at-risk communities.

Community Improvement
6
Roaring Fork Public Radio Inc

To support, nourish, and enrich our community by providing informative, entertaining and educational radio and digital programing in a reliable and professional manner.

—
7
Colorado Gives Foundation

We connect people, ideas, and nonprofits to make good happen. our vision is that all of jeffco is thriving.

Philanthropy
8
Rocky Mountain Wild

Rocky mountain wild works to protect, connect, and restore wildlife and wild lands in the southern rocky mountain region. we work to secure the biodiversity of the mountains, plains, and desert ecosystems of colorado, wyoming, utah, and…

Environment
9
Community Radio for Northern Colorado

Community radio for northern colorado's (crnc) mission is to strengthen our community by cultivating the mind and spirit - informing, inspiring, and entertaining. crnc strives to meet its mission by operating two public media services -…

Arts & Culture
10
Loft Cinema Inc Fka Tucson Cinema Foundation Inc

Building community by celebrating the art and diversity of film.

Arts & Culture
11
Colorado Nonprofit Association

Colorado nonprofit association strengthens colorado's nonprofits through education, connection and advocacy.

Community Improvement
12
Summit Community Care Clinic Inc

Provide exceptional, integrated, patient-centered health care services designed to meet the needs of all patients, particularly those who experience barriers to accessing care, regardless of their ability to pay.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Rocky Mountain Public Media Inc; the most unlike its peers is Life Inter Faith Team On Unemployment and Poverty. 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

19 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. 19 of the 25 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)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
19/19
Grantees still filing
16/19
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UCLA FOUNDATION: $4,372,600 · EducationUCLA FOUNDATIONSUMMIT54: $700,000 · EducationSUMMIT54+1 more: $5,000 · EducationTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $4,075,000 · Social ScienceTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INCPACIFIC OPERA VICTORIA: $392,742 · OtherPACIFIC OPER…GLEANERS FOOD BANK OF INDIANA INC: $200,000 · OtherGLEANERS FOO…LIFE INTER FAITH TEAM ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY: $200,000 · OtherLIFE INTER F…LIFT UP: $180,000 · OtherLIFT UPFRIENDS OF CASITA AC INC: $119,180 · OtherFRIENDS OF C…CARBONDALE ARTS: $50,000 · Other+7 more: $82,000 · Other+7 moreVALLEY VIEW HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $400,000 · HealthASPEN HOPE CENTER: $50,000 · HealthROARING FORK FRIENDS OF THE THEATER INC: $100,000 · Arts & CultureROCKY MOUNTAIN PUBLIC MEDIA INC: $15,000 · Arts & CulturePUBLIC BROADCASTING OF COLORADO INC: $10,000 · Arts & CultureCOLORADO PUBLIC TELEVISION: $10,000 · Arts & CultureSAN MIGUEL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $50,000 · Human ServicesLIFT UP: $30,000 · Philanthropy
Education$5,077,600Social Science$4,075,000Other$1,223,922Health$450,000Arts & Culture$135,000Human Services$50,000Philanthropy$30,000

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 budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $4,372,600 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $4,075,000 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetSUMMIT54: $700,000 over 6y, 20% of budgetVALLEY VIEW HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $400,000 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetGLEANERS FOOD BANK OF INDIANA INC: $200,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLIFE INTER FAITH TEAM ON UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY: $200,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetCARBONDALE ARTS: $50,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetASPEN HOPE CENTER: $50,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetSAN MIGUEL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetLIFT UP: $30,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetASPEN VALLEY LAND TRUST: $20,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN PUBLIC MEDIA INC: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPUBLIC BROADCASTING OF COLORADO INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCASA OF THE NINTH: $10,000 over 1y, 9.2% of budgetCOLORADO PUBLIC TELEVISION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetGROWING YEARS SCHOOL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTHE BUDDY PROGRAM INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Aspen Community Found…Colorado Gives Founda…El Pomar FoundationWestern Colorado Comm…The Joshua Max Simon …Arches FoundationPajwell FoundationMorgan Stanley Global…Paypal Charitable Giv…American Endowment Fo…National Philanthropi…Donor Advised Charita…
Aspen Community FoundationCO23.9× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Aspen Community Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · El Pomar Foundation · Western Colorado Community Foundation Inc · The Joshua Max Simon Charitable Foundation · Arches Foundation · Pajwell Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

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 Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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 Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One?

    Find your warmest path to The Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One 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 25 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 2017, released 2017. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation Number One’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