Skip to content
The William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett 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.

$283k
Granted FY2025still arriving
30
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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.

Arts & Culture$1.4MAnimals$290kYouth Development$158kHuman Services$137kEducation$135kHealth$122kRecreation & Sports$50kFood & Nutrition$25kOther$0
02FY2025 · 30 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k17 grants · $67k
  • $10k–50k13 grants · $216k
$5,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$5.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE$35,000
OPERA NEO$30,000
THE SAN DIEGO HUMANE SOCIETY$25,000
TIMKEN MUSEUM OF ART$20,000
DAVID'S HARP FOUNDATION$16,000
CHALLENGE CENTER THERAPY CENTER$15,000
LUCKY DUCK FOUNDATION$15,000
LIBERTY SCHOOL NTC FOUNDATION$10,000
MONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT$10,000
NEW VILLAGE ARTS$10,000
ARMS WIDE OPEN$10,000
OUTSIDE THE LENS$10,000
SERVING SENIORS$10,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO$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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $117k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Episcopal Refugee Network of San Di: $7k → 11%ElderHelp of San Diego: $10k → 11%EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES: $20k → 11%SERVING SENIORS: $20k → 11%SERVING SENIORS: $10k → 11%Serving Seniors: $10k → 11%SERVING SENIORS: $10k → 11%Serving Seniors: $10k → 11%Serving Seniors: $10k → 11%SERVING SENIORS: $10k → 11%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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.1M · 40 repeat orgs$240k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against +48% for those funded once.

40 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2025, 21 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

40
27

Total granted

$2.1M
$191k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+48%

Still filing today

75%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $49k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureAnimalsHuman ServicesEducationYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentOther
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

  • TA
    THEATER & ARTS FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY DBA LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
    6× · 2017–2025 · $539k · revenue +63%
  • SD
    SAN DIEGO HUMANE SOCIETY AND SPCA
    8× · 2017–2025 · $217k · revenue +134%
  • ON
    Opera Neo
    8× · 2018–2025 · $126k · revenue +299%

Funded once

  • EC
    Episcopal Community Services
    one grant, 2023 · $20k · revenue +3%
  • SD
    SAN DIEGO TIJUANA WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL 2024
    one grant, 2023 · $15k
  • HW
    HELEN WOODWARD ANIMAL CENTERgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +75%
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
San Diego Youth Symphony & Conservatory

Since 1945, San Diego Youth Symphony (SDYS) has served as a catalyst for investing in the future of young people through joyful and transformative music-making experiences. We reach over 2,500 students and families annually throughout San…

—
2
San Diego Junior Theatre

San Diego Junior Theatre (Junior Theatre) was incorporated in 1948 as a nonprofit corporation and is the oldest youth theatre in the nation, offering affordable camps, classes, and outreach programs for children ages 3-18; as well as six…

—
3
The New Childrens Museum

The New Childrens Museum (the Museum) in San Diego is an arts-based childrens museum whose mission is to stimulate imagination, creativity, and critical thinking in children and families through inventive, engaging experiences with…

Arts & Culture
4
Arts Education Connection San Diego

Arts Education Connection San Diego engages professional teaching artists to provide high-quality arts education programs in all art forms for students, educators, families and communities, advocating for, leading and advancing education…

Arts & Culture
5
San Diego Ballet

Excite, entertain and enrich diverse audiences.

Unclassified
6
San Diego Theatre Critics Circle

The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to reviewing and honoring the top achievements in San Diego professional theater. The organization is made up of 9 professional theater critics who…

Arts & Culture
7
San Diego Opera Association

Mission: the mission of san diego opera is to deliver exceptional performances and exciting, accessible programs to diverse audiences, focusing on community partnerships, and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice. as…

Arts & Culture
8
San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre

Slo rep strengthens theatre's cultural influence and enriches the central coast by producing professional theatre, nurturing artists and providing theatre education for children and adults.

Arts & Culture
9
San Diego Theatres Inc

San Diego Theatres, Inc. (SDTI) is a not-for-profit public benefit corporation established to manage and operate publicly owned performing arts theatres. SDTI was established in 2003 by the San Diego Convention Center Corporation (SDCCC),…

Arts & Culture
10
San Diego Civic Youth Ballet

To provide the youth of san diego with an opportunity to study, understand, and appreciate, through education and participation, the art of ballet, and to enrich the cultural life of the community.

—
11
San Diego Jewish Academy

San Diego Jewish Academy empowers each student to learn for life, guided by Jewish values and rooted in strength of community.

Education
12
San Diego Coasters
Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The San Diego Symphony Orchestra Association; the most unlike its peers is Opera Neo. 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

55 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. 55 of the 75 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)
20
Early backer (in before they grew)
52/55
Grantees still filing
41/55
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THEATER & ARTS FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY DBA LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE: $539,000 · Arts & CultureTHEATER & ARTS FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY DBA LA JOL…Opera Neo: $126,000 · Arts & CultureOpera NeoINSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO: $105,000 · Arts & CultureINSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGOVILLA MUSICA: $100,500 · Arts & CultureVILLA MUSICAArms Wide Open Corporation: $80,000 · Arts & CultureArms Wide Open CorporationTHE PUTNAM FOUNDATION DBA TIMKEN MUSEUM OF ART: $53,000 · Arts & Culture+17 more: $178,000 · Arts & Culture+17 moreTHERAPY CENTER INC DBA CHALLENGE CENTER: $79,000 · OtherTHERAPY CENTER INC DBA CHALL…CHALLENGE CENTER THERAPY CENTER INC: $55,000 · OtherCHALLENGE CENTER THERAPY CEN…Timkin Museum of Art: $35,000 · OtherTimkin Museum of ArtTHE FOUNDATION FOR GROSSMONT & CUYAMACA COLLEGES: $35,000 · OtherTHE FOUNDATION FOR GROSSMONT…LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE THEATRE & ARTS FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY: $35,000 · OtherLA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE THEATRE &…WRITE OUT LOUD: $30,000 · OtherJacobs Center for Neighborhood Inno: $23,000 · OtherSan Diego Youth Symphony Conservato: $22,500 · OtherLIBERTY SCHOOL NTC FOUNDATION: $20,000 · OtherSan Diego Children's Choir: $20,000 · OtherVISTA HILL FOUNDATION: $20,000 · Other+24 more: $216,500 · Other+24 moreSAN DIEGO HUMANE SOCIETY AND SPCA: $216,500 · AnimalsSAN DIEGO HU…FROSTED FACES FOUNDATION INC: $27,500 · AnimalsFROSTED FACE…HELEN WOODWARD ANIMAL CENTER: $10,000 · Animals+1 more: $3,500 · AnimalsDAVID'S HARP FOUNDATION: $116,000 · Youth DevelopmentOUTSIDE THE LENS: $10,000 · Youth Development+1 more: $2,500 · Youth DevelopmentSERVING SENIORS: $80,000 · Human ServicesEpiscopal Community Services: $20,000 · Human ServicesELDERHELP OF SAN DIEGO: $10,000 · Human ServicesEpiscopal Refugee Network of San Diego: $7,000 · Human ServicesUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $31,000 · EducationMONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT: $26,500 · EducationtranscenDANCE Youth Arts Project: $5,000 · EducationKIDS COLLEGE: $5,000 · EducationSan Diego Bird Alliance: $27,000 · EnvironmentLIVING COAST DISCOVERY CENTER: $12,500 · Environment
Arts & Culture$1,181,500Other$591,000Animals$257,500Youth Development$128,500Human Services$117,000Education$67,500Environment$39,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHEATER & ARTS FOUNDATION OF SAN DIEGO COUNTY DBA LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE: $539,000 over 6y, 1.7% of budgetSAN DIEGO HUMANE SOCIETY AND SPCA: $216,500 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetOpera Neo: $126,000 over 8y, 5.6% of budgetDAVID'S HARP FOUNDATION: $116,000 over 7y, 3.9% of budgetINSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO: $105,000 over 6y, 2.5% of budgetVILLA MUSICA: $100,500 over 6y, 2.0% of budgetArms Wide Open Corporation: $80,000 over 7y, 4.1% of budgetSERVING SENIORS: $80,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHERAPY CENTER INC DBA CHALLENGE CENTER: $79,000 over 5y, 4.3% of budgetTHE PUTNAM FOUNDATION DBA TIMKEN MUSEUM OF ART: $53,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $31,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWRITE OUT LOUD: $30,000 over 2y, 7.4% of budgetMainly Mozart Inc: $30,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetFROSTED FACES FOUNDATION INC: $27,500 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetSan Diego Bird Alliance: $27,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetMONARCH SCHOOL PROJECT: $26,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetVOICES OF OUR CITY CHOIR INC: $25,000 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetNEW VILLAGE ARTS INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetEpiscopal Community Services: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetVISTA HILL FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSan Diego Children's Choir: $20,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetPlaywrights Project: $17,500 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetLUX ART INSTITUTE: $16,500 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetFern Street Community Arts Inc: $15,500 over 4y, 1.6% of budgetSAN DIEGO TIJUANA WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL 2024: $15,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF VISTA INC: $15,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO: $15,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetLIVING COAST DISCOVERY CENTER: $12,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetMUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS: $12,500 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetHELEN WOODWARD ANIMAL CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE FOUNDATION FOR SENIOR WELLBEING: $10,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetTHE SAN DIEGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION CENTER: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetELDERHELP OF SAN DIEGO: $10,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetKITCHENS FOR GOOD: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFEEDING SAN DIEGO: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEpiscopal Refugee Network of San Diego: $7,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetA Step Beyond: $6,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgettranscenDANCE Youth Arts Project: $5,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetMEALS-ON-WHEELS GREATER SAN DIEGO INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetA Reason To Survive: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetKIDS COLLEGE: $5,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetART OF ELAN: $3,500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMingei International Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetYOUNG LIONS JAZZ CONSERVATORY: $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLa Jolla Historical Society: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF CARLSBAD: $2,500 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.

The Conrad Prebys Fou…The San Diego Foundat…The Parker FoundationJewish Community Foun…David C Copley Founda…Samuel I & John Henry…Pratt Memorial FundPrice Philanthropies …Sempra FoundationThe Nordson Corporati…Rancho Santa Fe Found…French Fund Samuel Ka…
The Conrad Prebys FoundationCA80.5× affinity37 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Conrad Prebys Foundation · The San Diego Foundation · The Parker Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · David C Copley Foundation · Samuel I & John Henry Fox Foundation · Pratt Memorial Fund · Price Philanthropies Foundation · Sempra Foundation · The Nordson Corporation Foundation · Rancho Santa Fe Foundation · French Fund Samuel Katherine Tua

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 William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    25report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett 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 75 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on William Hall Tippett and Ruth Rathell Tippett’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