How much does The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation give?

The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation reported 28 grants totaling $1,684,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 21 and 29 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (49%), Community Improvement (20%), Philanthropy (18%).

Who are The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Los Angeles Philharmonic Association ($3.6M), Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles ($1.1M), American Friends of Magen David Adom ($525k).

Does The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 10% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation 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 Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Conrad N Hilton Foundation, Jpmorgan Chase Foundation, The Blackbaud Giving Fund.

Where is The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation based?

The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation is based in CA.

The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation

The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation

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.

$1.7M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$412k

Largest

01What it funds

0196% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$6.2MCommunity Improvement$2.6MPhilanthropy$2.3MHealth$596kInternational$528kEducation$205kYouth Development$97kHuman Services$59kOther$0

02FY2024 · 28 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k14 grants · $64k
$10k–50k6 grants · $85k
$50k–250k6 grants · $723k
$250k+2 grants · $812k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$32M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC	$412,000
CITY OF HOPE	$400,000
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST	$212,750
LOS ANGELES OPERA	$160,000
CENTER THEATRE GROUP	$125,000
USC ASSOCIATES	$115,000
VENICE FAMILY CLINIC	$60,000
SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER	$50,000
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM (AFMDA)	$25,000
LUCKY DOG ANIMAL RESCUE	$20,000
ENTERPRISE FOR YOUTH	$10,000
DISABLED SPORTS EASTERN SIERRA	$10,000
LIFEMOVES	$10,000
Individual grant recipient	$10,000
HOOVER INSTITUTION - STANFORD UNIVERSITY	$5,000

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $67k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

Where the work is directed

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

About 100% of The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 94% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 0%.

The Norman & Sadie Lee 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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$10M · 36 repeat orgs$160k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +28% since the first grant, against +28% for those funded once.

36 repeat relationships: 21 still active in FY2024, 15 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$10M

$146k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%

Still filing today

78%

59%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $14k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthAnimalsArts & CultureHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentRecreation & SportsOther

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

LA
LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ASSOCIATION
7× · 2017–2024 · $3.6M · revenue +28%
VENICE FAMILY CLINIC
7× · 2017–2024 · $420k · revenue +110%
SC
SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER
7× · 2017–2024 · $375k · revenue +26%

Funded once

US
UK STEM CELL FOUNDATION
one grant, 2017 · $67k
BT
BOYS TOWN JERUSALEM FOUNDATION OF AMERICAgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +28%
IC
ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND INCgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +133%

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.

The American Institute of Architects California

The AIA California, in collaboration with local components, is the voice of the architectural profession.

—

California Dental Association

The california dental association is committed to the success of our members in service to their patients and the public.

Community Improvement

Los Angeles Conservancy

The los angeles conservancy is a nonprofit membership organization that works through education and advocacy to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic architectural and cultural resources of los angeles county.

Arts & Culture

Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

Chamber's mission: design and advance opportunities and solutions for a thriving regional economy that are inclusive and globally competitive. 1) advocacy - be a bold advocate for business as a driver of a strong economy that enables…

—

Los Angeles County Bar Association (Lacba)

Meeting the professional needs of los angeles lawyers, and improving the administration of justice.

—

Altamed Health Services Corporation

To eliminate disparities in health care access and outcomes by providing superior quality health and human services through an integrated world-class delivery system for latino, multi-ethnic underserved communities in southern california.

Health

California Dental Association Foundation

The foundation's mission is to improve the oral health of all californians by supporting the dental profession and its efforts to meet community needs.

Science & Tech

California Life Sciences Association

Clsa advances californias world-leading life sciences innovation ecosystem by advocating for effective national, state and local public policies and supporting entrepreneurs and life sciences businesses.

Community Improvement

California Apartment Association

The organization's mission is to represent the ethical members of the rental housing industry in all aspects of government affairs within the state of california, and to provide information, products and services which contribute to the…

—

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

To improve the skills, wages, and working conditions of workers in the tourism industry and to assure that the benefits of tourism contribute equitably to the economic and social development of all communities in the greater los angeles…

Health

California Institute for BioMedical Research

Our mission is to build a unique institute that bridges basic research and drug discovery, and that attracts the best and brightest scientists, physicians and students to work together synergistically to find cures for neglected human…

—

Los Angeles Conservation Corps

The la conservation corps creates equitable opportunities for young people to build resilience in themselves, their communities and the environment through a program of work, education and support.

Employment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ucla Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Trout Unlimited Inc. 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

43 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. 43 of the 60 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

42/43

Grantees still filing

31/43

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Arts & Culture$5,063,600Other$4,128,701Philanthropy$2,282,150International$525,000Health$480,000Education$246,000Youth Development$82,500

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.

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.

Conrad N Hilton FoundationCA16.9× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Conrad N Hilton Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · California Community Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust 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 Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Norman & Sadie Lee Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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.

Play a game based on Norman & Sadie Lee’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