· Private foundation
Told 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.
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.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k2 grants · $6k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $175k
- $50k–250k7 grants · $855k
- $250k+4 grants · $2.5M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY | $1,246,010 |
| UNIVERSITY OF DENVER | $575,000 |
| CSUCI FOUNDATION | $464,935 |
| KIDSTREAM CHILDREN'S MUSEUM | $250,000 |
| TO ARTS | $200,000 |
| VENTURA CO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $150,000 |
| MUSEUM OF VENTURA COUNTY | $150,000 |
| CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NORTHRIDGE FOUNDATION | $150,000 |
| EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA | $80,000 |
| THE MOORPARK COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $75,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF CAMARILLO | $50,000 |
| AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION | $35,000 |
| STUDIO CHANNEL ISLANDS ART CENTER | $25,000 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF VENTURA COUNTY | $25,000 |
| CASA PACIFICA CENTERS FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES | $25,000 |
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 (FY24–24, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 47% of Told Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 88% of the giving stays in CA; read by stated purpose it is 51% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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.
17 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $750k 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
- CLCALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY8× · 2017–2024 · $3.2M · revenue +18%
- CSCALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANNEL ISLANDS FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2024 · $835k · revenue +226%
- KkidSTREAM6× · 2019–2024 · $543k · revenue ×13
Funded once
- SVSOUTHEAST VENTURA COUNTY YMCAone grant, 2021 · $3k
- COCALIFORNIA OIL MUSEUMone grant, 2018 · $3k
- FFFOOD FOR THOUGHTgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $500 · revenue +44%
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.
To advance the educational, cultural, scholarly, and creative activities and the role of community service of csula by increasing private funding, responsibly managing donated resources and supporting the university and its diverse and…
The mission of the ventura land trust is to permanently protect the land, water, wildlife and scenic beauty of the ventura region for current and future generations.
We are dedicated to promoting environmental, agricultural, and nutrition education. we support school garden programs and connecting local farms to ventura county schools.
The university of la verne offers a distinctive and relevant educational experience to a diverse population of traditional-age, adult, and graduate learners, preparing them for successful careers and a commitment to lifelong learning…
California college of the arts educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. benefitting from its san francisco bay area location, the college prepares…
To further the scientific, literary, educational and charitable purposes of california state university, monterey bay, including fundraising, development, endowment management, financial assistance, public relations and other support.
Vistamar school empowers students, preparing them to contribute and excel in higher education and in life, and commits to: a broad and balanced program that challenges and engages students, building their individual skills and inspiring a…
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…
To foster relationships among alumni, students and community by providing services and activities that build loyalty, support and a lifelong connection to the university.
The California Surf Museum serves as an international repository and resource center on the lifestyle sport of surfing through capturing,preserving and chronicling its art, culture and heritage for the education and enjoyment of current…
To strengthen and sustain vibrant communities by empowering individuals and families to build wealth through education and homeownership with a primary focus on serving low-to-moderate income clients.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ventura College Foundation and the most unlike its peers is American Heart Association Inc. 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 35 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% 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.
23 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. 23 of the 30 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 CALIFORNIA LUTHERAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANNEL ISLANDS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THOUSAND OAKS ALLIANCE FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DENVER ↗
- Who funds kidSTREAM ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF VENTURA COUNTY ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY NORTHRIDGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VENTURA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MOORPARK COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STUDIO CHANNEL ISLANDS ART CENTER ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF CAMARILLO ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF VENTURA COUNTY INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds Casa Pacifica Centers for Children & Families ↗
- Who funds LIVINGSTON MEMORIAL VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds CHANNEL ISLANDS MARITIME MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds JOEL & FRANCES MCCREA RANCH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds VENTURA COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VENTURA COUNTY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds FOOD SHARE INC ↗
- Who funds VENTURA COUNTY MEDICAL RESOURCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Camarillo Ranch Foundation ↗
- Who funds FOOD FOR THOUGHT ↗
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: Ventura County Community Foundation · Conrad N Hilton Foundation · Sherwood Country Club Charitable Foundation · Mufg Union Bank Foundation Ag · Santa Barbara Foundation · Martin V and Martha K Smith Foundation · Meadowlark Service League · Scott Family Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · American Endowment Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc
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 Told 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 Told Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Told 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.