· Private foundation
The Turner Dream 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LA'S PLAYHOUSE LLC | $7,500 |
| University of San Diego | $5,000 |
| National Bar Institute | $2,500 |
| Links Inc Foundation | $250 |
| Meharry Medical College | $100 |
| Salvation Army | $100 |
| Feeding San Diego | $100 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 99% of your 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 +17% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
14 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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 FY2025, 51% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k 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
- UOUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO2× · 2024–2025 · $6k · revenue +19%
- EIELEMENTARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE2× · 2018–2019 · $4k · revenue +10%
- SDSAN DIEGO EDUCATION FUND4× · 2020–2023 · $4k · revenue +7%
Funded once
- SDSan Diego Urban Leagueone grant, 2019 · $2k
- OFOgden Family Foundationone grant, 2019 · $1k
- SDSan Diego Chapter Linksone grant, 2024 · $1k
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.
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…
To support and further the research, education and community service objectives of san diego state university.
To advance workforce and talent development within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ("STEM") sectors by fostering excellence in education, expanding access to opportunities, and delivering transformative resources to…
To support the social, recreational, cultural and education programs and facilities, both on campus and in the community, and to advocate for student interests, provide leadership opportunities and participate in shared governance.
Mana de san diego transforms communities by empowering latinas to achieve upward mobility and a better quality of life.
San diego french-american school offers an exceptional bilingual education within a vibrant international community, preparing students to become confident, responsible and engaged global citizens.
Programmed and coordinated visits to san diego by international visitors and escorts, working in association with appropriate united states government agencies and the global ties u.s. network.
To support and cultivate sustainable employment opportunities for San Diego County residents contributing to a prosperous local economy.
San Diego Jewish Academy empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank and the most unlike its peers is Zeta Sigma Lambda Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
11 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. 11 of the 25 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 UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds ELEMENTARY INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds THE LINKS FOUNDATION INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds SAN DIEGO DELTA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds JACOBS & CUSHMAN SAN DIEGO FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds San Diego Alpha Foundation ↗
- Who funds ZETA SIGMA LAMBDA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MARCH OF DIMES INC ↗
- Who funds FEEDING SAN DIEGO ↗
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Turner Dream 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Turner Dream Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Turner Dream 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.