· Private foundation
The Turk Family Foundation
Its FY2018 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
74% of The Turk Family Foundation’s FY2018 grant dollars went to Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2018 names 36 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year The Turk Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 24 organizations, $305k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2018.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k30 grants · $180k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $125k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIB | $35,000 |
| SERVING SENIORS | $30,000 |
| SALK INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICAL | $25,000 |
| CONGREGATION BETH EL | $20,000 |
| LAWRENCE FAMILY JEWISH COMM | $15,000 |
| ELDERHELP OF SAN DIEGO | $7,500 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS SD | $7,500 |
| US HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM | $7,500 |
| JACOBS & CUSHMAN SD FOOD BANK | $7,500 |
| ANGELS FOSTER FAMILY AGENCY | $7,500 |
| CASA DE AMPARO | $7,500 |
| INTERFAITH COMMUNITY SERVICES | $7,500 |
| DAMON RUNYON CANCER RESEARCH | $7,500 |
| MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION SD | $7,500 |
| FEEDING SAN DIEGO | $7,500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–18, $138k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +48% since the first grant, against +47% for the ones you funded once.
31 repeat relationships — 31 still active in FY2017, 0 since wound down; 32 grantees were first funded in FY2017 (too recent to call). Read against FY2017, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2018, 62% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $160k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc2× · 2017–2018 · $70k · revenue +24%- SSSERVING SENIORS2× · 2017–2018 · $60k · revenue +182%
- FSFEEDING SAN DIEGO2× · 2017–2018 · $15k · revenue +61%
Funded once
- TSThe Salk Institute for Biological Studiesgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +38%
- CBCONGREGATION BETH ELone grant, 2017 · $20k
- UDUC DAVISone grant, 2018 · $18k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The san diego foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
San Diego Jewish Academy empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.
Jewish family service is a client-centered, impact-driven organization working to build a stronger, healthier, more resilient san diego.
Jewish federation of san diego county is dedicated to building a vibrant, caring, connected, and enduring jewish community.
California western school of law is an independent, aba/aals and wasc senior college and university commission (wscuc) accredited s.d. law school that prepares graduates for the practice of law through a carefully sequenced program of…
The california dental association is committed to the success of our members in service to their patients and the public.
The jacobs & cushman san diego food bank is the largest hunger-relief organization in san diego county. its mission is to provide nutritious food to people in need, advocate for the hungry, and educate the public about hunger-related…
To create an informed, celebratory and satisfying jewish community for students at the university of southern california, to deepen jewish identity through social, intellectual and spiritual participation, to offer diversified…
The mission of san diego volunteer lawyer program, inc. is to provide equal access to the justice system by serving as a bridge between indigent and other disadvantaged people in san diego county and the volunteer lawyers who are willing…
The san diego municipal employees association (sdmea) is dedicated to being a strong and effective advocate for san diego city employees. sdmea is united to improve employees' standard of living and promote their fair treatment by…
Our institutional mission is to educate and prepare students to be ethical leaders and socially responsible global citizens who incorporate the dominican values of study, reflection, community and service into their lives.
The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Feeding San Diego and the most unlike its peers is The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 47 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
38 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 38 of the 65 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ↗
- Who funds The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc ↗
- Who funds SERVING SENIORS ↗
- Who funds The Salk Institute for Biological Studies ↗
- Who funds FEEDING SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds ANGELS FOSTER FAMILY AGENCY ↗
- Who funds Casa De Amparo ↗
- Who funds Interfaith Community Services Inc ↗
- Who funds MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT ↗
- Who funds MOISHE HOUSE ↗
- Who funds ELDERHELP OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO RESCUE MISSION INC ↗
- Who funds The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗
- Who funds HILLEL OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds KIDS INCLUDED TOGETHER ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds NORTH COUNTY LIFELINE INC DBA LIFELINE COMMUNITY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds STARPAL ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES ↗
- Who funds JEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC ↗
- Who funds SEMPER FI & AMERICA'S FUND ↗
- Who funds THE CHEMOTHERAPY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds INDIVIDUAL & FAMILY SUPPORT NETWORK ↗
- Who funds SOCIAL ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH SAN DIEGO INC ↗
- Who funds MEALS-ON-WHEELS GREATER SAN DIEGO INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The San Diego Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · Sempra Foundation · David C Copley Foundation · The Cushman Foundation · Leichtag Foundation · Boys and Girls Aid Society of San Diego Ltd · Walter J & Betty C Zable Foundation · Price Philanthropies Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Turk Family Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.