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The Relief Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Relief 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.

$15k
Granted FY2024still arriving
2
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$10k
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, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$120kHealth$57kArts & Culture$34kPublic Safety & Disaster$5kPhilanthropy$3kHousing & Shelter$1kHuman Services$1kPublic Benefit$500Other$0
02FY2024 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$10,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$146k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL$10,000
HERIDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION$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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 48% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 11%JIMMY STEWART MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%DIRECT IMPACT FUND: $2k → 7%OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL: $75k → 10%CHILDREN'S RECEIVING HOME: $1k → 12%THE COUNTRY SCHOOL: $4k → 14%RONA BARRETT FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%PLANNED PARENTHOOD: $5k → 17%TEXOMA GIVING PARTNERS: $1k → 11%NATIONAL BREAST CANCER COALATION: $5k → 14%JECKYL FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%BRIGHT FOCUS FOUNDATION: $1k → 8%JIMMY STEWART MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $3k → 14%OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL: $20k → 10%CALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $5k → 12%THE UCLA FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%THE LOS ALAMOS FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%HEREDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $15k → 17%NATIONAL BREAST CANCER COALATION: $1k → 14%JIMMY STEWART MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $2k → 14%OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%HIGH RESOLVES AMERICA: $500 → 14%HEREDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL: $10k → 10%HEREDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%HEREDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%HEREDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%HERIDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%HEREDITARY DISEASE FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%THE REHEARSAL CLUB INC: $20k → 17%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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

78%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$180k · 5 repeat orgs$51k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +0% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
12

Total granted

$180k
$51k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+0%
0%

Still filing today

60%
67%

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
HealthPhilanthropyEducationArts & CultureOther
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

  • OV
    OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL
    4× · 2018–2024 · $115k · revenue +0%
  • HD
    HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE FOUNDATION
    7× · 2017–2024 · $45k · revenue +280%
  • JS
    JIMMY STEWART MUSEUM FOUNDATION
    3× · 2019–2021 · $10k

Funded once

  • TR
    THE REHEARSAL CLUB
    one grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue -13%
  • TJ
    THE JECKYL FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $10k
  • PP
    PLANNED PARENTHOOD
    one grant, 2017 · $5k
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
The Corrona Research Foundation
Health
2
The Charles R Bronfman Prize Foundation
Philanthropy
3
The Huntington Foundation
Philanthropy
4
The Jcr Foundation
Philanthropy
5
The Hearst Foundation
—
6
The Goldman Sachs Foundation
Philanthropy
7
Los Altos Journalism Foundation
—
8
The Kohn-Joseloff Foundation
Philanthropy
9
The Rona and Jeffrey Abramson Foundation
Philanthropy
10
The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation
Philanthropy
11
Sara Rechnitzer Foundation
Philanthropy
12
The Abramson Foundation
Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ucla Foundation; the most unlike its peers is The Jeckyl Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

13 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. 13 of the 18 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/13
Grantees still filing
6/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

OJAI VALLEY SCHOOL: $115,000 · EducationOJAI VALLEY SCHOOL+1 more: $1,000 · EducationTHE JECKYL FOUNDATION: $10,000 · OtherTHE JECKYL FOUNDATIONJIMMY STEWART MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $9,500 · OtherJIMMY STEWART MUSEUM FO…NATIONAL BREAST CANCER COALITION: $6,000 · OtherNATIONAL BREAST CANCER …PLANNED PARENTHOOD: $5,000 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOODCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $5,000 · OtherCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDAT…PROFESSIONAL DANCERS SOCIETY: $4,500 · OtherPROFESSIONAL DANCERS SO…THE COUNTRY SCHOOL: $3,500 · OtherTHE COUNTRY SCHOOLDIRECT IMPACT FUND: $2,000 · Other+3 more: $2,500 · OtherHUNTINGTON'S DISEASE FOUNDATION: $45,000 · HealthHUNTINGTON'S DISEASE F…+1 more: $1,000 · HealthTHE REHEARSAL CLUB: $20,000 · Arts & CultureTHE REHEA…The Rona Barrett Foundation: $1,000 · PhilanthropyLOS ALAMOS FOUNDATION: $1,000 · Philanthropy
Education$116,000Other$48,000Health$46,000Arts & Culture$20,000Philanthropy$2,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetOJAI VALLEY SCHOOL: $115,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetHUNTINGTON'S DISEASE FOUNDATION: $45,000 over 7y, 0.5% of budgetTHE REHEARSAL CLUB: $20,000 over 1y, 9.2% of budgetTHE JECKYL FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 6.3% of budgetNATIONAL BREAST CANCER COALITION: $6,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetCALIFORNIA FIRE FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChildrens Receiving Home of Sacramento: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBRIGHTFOCUS FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Rona Barrett Foundation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLOS ALAMOS FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetHIGH RESOLVES AMERICA: $500 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.

American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
American Online Giving Foundation IncDE5.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 Relief Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Relief Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 Relief Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Relief 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 18 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Relief’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