Skip to content

California · Private foundation

The Mortar Foundation Inc

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.

$230k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
18
Grants FY2025
10
Organizations funded FY2024
30%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$1,437
Largest grant, FY2025
$100,000
Organizations funded a year
9 to 15
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
8
Total assets, FY2025
$3.1M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 30% of the organizations The Mortar Foundation Inc funded were first-time grantees, receiving 19% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $35k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthArts & CulturePhilanthropyHuman ServicesCrime & LegalInternationalOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving17$229k47%
FY202410$184k30%
FY202312$186k42%
FY202215$97k53%
FY202111$41k64%
FY20209$130k67%
FY201912$114k50%
FY201812$209k42%
97% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Health$701kPhilanthropy$271kHousing & Shelter$121kArts & Culture$54kYouth Development$43kReligion$36kHuman Services$21kEnvironment$16kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

NY
MA
NV
CT
RI
CA
VA
MD

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 38 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 33 recipients with no EIN on record ($711k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Mortar Foundation Inc supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAccess Institute for Psychological Services: $120,191 over 5y, 10% of budgetHispanics in Philanthropy: $106,500 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetCenter for Open Recovery DBA Open Recovery: $100,000 over 2y, 10.0% of budgetMobilize Recovery: $75,000 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetAt the Crossroads: $65,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetAbout-Face Media Literacy Inc: $55,000 over 3y, 24% of budgetChildren's Health Council Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSan Francisco Food Bank: $11,437 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Exploratorium: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFlorence Crittenton Services of Greater Washington: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetDry Dock Corporation: $8,076 over 4y, 2.3% of budgetSandy Hook Promise Foundation: $5,230 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetFoglifter Press: $5,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetHomeless Prenatal Program Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHuckleberry Youth Programs Inc: $1,347 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNeighborhood Funders Group: $1,030 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Friends of the Parents Circle - Families Forum: $1,030 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLive Oak a Learning Center for Children: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLet It Ripple Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPlan International USA Inc: $975 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetKcrw Foundation Inc: $928 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe Surfrider Foundation: $574 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCalifornia Film Institute: $535 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMedecins Sans Frontieres USA Inc: $520 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLa Casa de las Madres: $364 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCommunity Initiatives: $206 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDonorschooseorg: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSan Francisco Parks Alliance: $157 over 1y, 0.0% 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 28.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The San Francisco FoundationCA21.5× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The San Francisco Foundation · Horizons Foundation · Viragh Family Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Tides Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Cerity Partners Foundation · McNabb Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · American Endowment 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 Mortar Foundation Inc with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Mortar Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to The Mortar Foundation Inc 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 Mortar Foundation Inc

How much does The Mortar Foundation Inc give?
The Mortar Foundation Inc reported 18 grants totaling $229,757 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 9 and 15 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Mortar Foundation Inc fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (52%), Philanthropy (20%), Housing & Shelter (9%).
Who are The Mortar Foundation Inc's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Access Institute for Psychological Services ($120k), Hispanics in Philanthropy ($107k), Center for Open Recovery DBA Open Recovery ($100k).
Does The Mortar Foundation Inc fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 30% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Mortar Foundation Inc accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Mortar Foundation Inc?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The San Francisco Foundation, Horizons Foundation, Viragh Family Foundation.
Where is The Mortar Foundation Inc based?
The Mortar Foundation Inc 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 74 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 Mortar’s filings →

More from the funding graph