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California · Private foundation

The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family 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.

$200k
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
5
Grants FY2024
5
Organizations funded FY2023
60%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$40,000
Largest grant, FY2024
$60,000
Organizations funded a year
5 to 9
FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
3
Total assets, FY2024
$3.1M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 60% of the organizations The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 69% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 31% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $125k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
EducationFood & NutritionInternationalEnvironmentCivil RightsArts & 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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2024still arriving5$200k20%
FY20235$180k60%
FY20227$220k71%
FY20215$223k80%
FY20208$200k75%
FY20198$200k88%
FY20189$180k33%
FY20177$160kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$565kEnvironment$468kFood & Nutrition$215kCivil Rights$128kArts & Culture$107kRecreation & Sports$25kPublic Safety & Disaster$25kInternational$20kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 26 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 10 recipients with no EIN on record ($423k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEarthjustice: $150,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetEarthjustice Action: $140,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetThe Asian American Education Project: $120,000 over 3y, 3.3% of budgetNational Tropical Botanical Garden: $112,500 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetThe International School of San Francisco: $60,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPositive Coaching Alliance: $55,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetAsian Americans Advancing Justice - Aajc Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSpark Sf Public Schools: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSan Francisco Food Bank: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEnvironmental Working Group: $40,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMeals on Wheels of San Francisco Inc: $40,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetChinese Historical Society of America: $30,000 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetChildren Now: $30,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSan Francisco Conservatory of Music: $27,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAngel Island Immigration Station Foundation: $25,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetCalifornia Fire Foundation: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMeals on Wheels America: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFeeding America: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetProject Drawdown: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetRoom to Read: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRedwood Empire Food Bank: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetInternational Rescue Committee INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSilicon Valley International School: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe French-American Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetGirls Leading Girls: $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetRainforest Trust: $10,000 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 26.

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.

Silicon Valley Community FoundationCA15.2× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Silicon Valley Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · The James Irvine Foundation · McKesson Foundation Inc · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation with peer funders

About The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation

How much does The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation give?
The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation reported 5 grants totaling $200,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 9 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (36%), Environment (30%), Food & Nutrition (14%).
Who are The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Earthjustice ($150k), Earthjustice Action ($140k), The Asian American Education Project ($120k).
Does The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 60% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family 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 Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Silicon Valley Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation.
Where is The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family Foundation based?
The Robert I & Lien Q Chen Family 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 36 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

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