How much does The Three Sisters Foundation give?

The Three Sisters Foundation reported 29 grants totaling $307,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 22 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Three Sisters Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (18%), Philanthropy (16%), Human Services (15%).

Who are The Three Sisters Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Planned Parenthood Los Angeles ($265k), International Medical Corps ($258k), The People Concern ($180k).

Does The Three Sisters Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Three Sisters 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 Three Sisters Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include California Community Foundation, The Ahmanson Foundation, Weingart Foundation.

Where is The Three Sisters Foundation based?

The Three Sisters Foundation is based in DE.

The Three Sisters Foundation

The Three Sisters Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Three Sisters Foundation

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.

$307k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$30k

Largest

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 2025.

Health$425kPhilanthropy$368kHuman Services$361kInternational$298kEnvironment$235kHousing & Shelter$140kCivil Rights$131kCommunity Improvement$105kOther$0

02FY2025 · 29 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k10 grants · $44k
$10k–50k19 grants · $263k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$4.8M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
PLANNED PARENTHOOD LOS ANGELES	$30,000
INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS	$30,000
THE PEOPLE CONCERN	$20,000
JEWISH FEDERATION COUNCIL OF GREATER LOS ANGELES	$20,000
EVERYCHILD FOUNDATION	$18,000
NATURAL RESOURCE DEFENSE COUNCIL - LOS ANGELES REG	$15,000
PUBLIC MEDIA GROUP OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA	$10,000
OPEN PATHS COUNSELING CENTER	$10,000
KCRW FOUNDATION INC	$10,000
NEW DIRECTIONS INC	$10,000
VISTA DEL MAR CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES	$10,000
WOMENS REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ASSISTANCE PROJECT WRRA	$10,000
HOLA COMMUNITY PARTNERS	$10,000
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC	$10,000
TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND	$10,000

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 (FY17–25, $391k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, 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.

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.8M · 28 repeat orgs$103k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +24% since the first grant, against +3% for those funded once.

28 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.8M

$53k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%

+3%

Still filing today

89%

83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthArts & CultureEducationCivil RightsHuman ServicesEnvironmentOther

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

PLANNED PARENTHOOD LOS ANGELES
9× · 2017–2025 · $265k · revenue +92%
IM
INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS
8× · 2017–2025 · $258k · revenue +82%
TP
THE PEOPLE CONCERN
9× · 2017–2025 · $180k · revenue +696%

Funded once

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Incgraduated
one grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue +162%
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC
one grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue -10%
CH
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES Living Proof C
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.

Los Angeles World Affairs Council and Town Hall

The organization is a non-partisan, membership based speakers' forum that connects business leaders, community members, and engaged individuals with shared interest in local, national, and global affairs. it provides an open and accessible…

International

League of Women Voters of Los Angeles

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and…

—

Ucla Foundation

The ucla foundation is the giving, receiving, and investing arm of the ucla campus. the foundation enables private donors to help build, sustain and advance one of the world's finest academic and research institutions. private philanthropy…

Education

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…

—

Washington Office On Latin America

To advance human rights and social justice in the americas.

International

Latino Media Collaborative

Latino Media Collaborative's mission is to leverage the power of Latino and community news media to impact policy, change narratives, and promote civic engagement, while also supporting advancement of the sector through capacity building,…

Arts & Culture

Public Counsel

Public counsel is a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to advancing civil rights and racial and economic justice, as well as to amplifying the power of our clients through comprehensive legal advocacy. (see sch o for…

Crime & Legal

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

South Central Family Health Center

To improve the quality of life for the diverse communities we serve providing affordable and comprehensive healthcare and education in a welcoming multi-cultural environment.

Health

Public Health Institute

Public health institute generates and promotes research, leadership and partnerships to build capacity for strong public health policy, programs, systems and practices.

Health

Planned Parenthood California Central Coast

To improve our communities' sexual and reproductive health outcomes through health care, education, and advocacy.

Health

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…

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Partners; the most unlike its peers is Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc. 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

40 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. 40 of the 43 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)

39/40

Grantees still filing

26/40

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Health$430,000Human Services$391,000Philanthropy$368,000International$298,000Other$608,500Education$137,000Environment$110,000

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.

California Community FoundationCA16.6× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: California Community Foundation · The Ahmanson Foundation · Weingart Foundation · The California Wellness Foundation · The Annenberg Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Three Sisters Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Three Sisters Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

8report 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 Three Sisters’ 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