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Transparent Fish Fund Inc

Transparent fish fund is a 501(c)(3) us non-profit organization founded in 2011 in palo alto, california, established exclusively for charitable purposes to connect credible chinese and east asian grassroots ngos with individuals from the west.

$247k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$8k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Food & Nutrition$75kReligion$56kCommunity Improvement$35kHealth$35kEducation$28kInternational$19kCivil Rights$10kYouth Development$10k
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 1 grants below total $8,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $247,000 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $239,000 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

$8,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$355k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO$8,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 60% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Design That Matters: $12k → 10%Children's HeartLink: $22k → 11%BAYSHORE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES: $10k → 8%SAN FRANCISCO CITY IMPACT: $20k → 10%Zoe International: $7k → 14%AALDEF: $10k → 17%INNOVATION WORKS: $15k → 19%HOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO (BAYSHORE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES): $10k → 8%SAN FRANCISCO CITY IMPACT: $20k → 10%INNOVATION WORKS: $10k → 19%BAYSHORE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES: $10k → 8%SAN FRANCISCO CITY IMPACT: $15k → 10%INNOVATION WORKS: $10k → 19%HOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO: $10k → 8%One Heart World-Wide: $13k → 10%HOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO (BAYSHORE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES): $10k → 8%SAN FRANCISCO CITY IMPACT: $20k → 10%HOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO: $8k → 8%Bayshore Christian Ministries: $8k → 8%Santa Clara University: $20k → 8%Santa Clara University: $8k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

Grants abroad, by region — $235k on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 2 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

East Asia and the Pacific$202k · 86% · 11 grants

Stated purpose: PROVIDE YOUTH PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL ASSISTANCE TO UNDERPRIVILEGED TEENAGERS TO GROW DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME. · TO PROVIDE COMPUTER, LIFE SKILLS, OR CAREER DEVELOPMENT LESSONS TO 1,500 MIGRANT AND DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN CHINA TO IMPROVE THEIR DIGITAL LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS. · FUNDING FOR THE ENTIRE PHARMACY DEPARTMENT AT LAO FRIENDS HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN.

South Asia$33k · 14% · 2 grants

Stated purpose: SUPPORT THE OPERATION OF FIVE ANTI-TRAFFICKING TRANSIT MONITORING STATIONS IN IN NEPAL EXCLUSIVELY: BIRGUNJ, HETAUDA, BHADRAPUR/JOGBANI, BIRATNAGAR, AND CHANDRAUTA. GOAL IS 500 INTERCEPTS AND 20 ARRESTS OF TRAFFICKERS. · WOMEN'S HEALTH AND CHILD NUTRITION PROJECT IN NEPAL'S MOST MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES.

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 7% of Transparent Fish Fund Inc’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, 70% of the giving stays in CA; read by stated purpose it is 67% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

Transparent Fish Fund Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

76%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$204k · 4 repeat orgs$64k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +39% since the first grant, against +30% for the ones you funded once.

4 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
5

Total granted

$204k
$64k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%
+30%

Still filing today

100%
80%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
ReligionYouth DevelopmentCommunity ImprovementEducationInternationalOther

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

  • HH
    HOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO
    7× · 2019–2025 · $66k · revenue +19%
  • IW
    INNOVATION WORKS INC
    3× · 2020–2022 · $35k · revenue +118%
  • PO
    PRESIDENT-BOARD OF TRUSTEES SANTA CLARA COLLEGE
    2× · 2018–2019 · $28k · revenue +39%

Funded once

  • CH
    CHILDREN'S HEARTLINK
    one grant, 2019 · $22k · revenue +19%
  • OH
    One Heart World-Wide
    one grant, 2017 · $13k
  • DT
    DESIGN THAT MATTERS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $12k · revenue +31%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
International Development Enterprises

See schedule o for a more detailed description of ide's mission statement and achievements.

International
2
Inclusive Development International

Inclusive Development International supports communities around the world to defend their rights and resources in the face of harmful corporate activities and internationally financed development projects, and we advocate for a more just…

International
3
International Aids Vaccine Initiative Inc

A nonprofit scientific research organization that develops vaccines and antibodies for hiv, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases.

International
4
Handicap International

Handicap international dba humanity & inclusion (hi) works with people with disabilities and people living in situations of vulnerability, including poverty, exclusion, conflict, and disaster.

International
5
Devworks International

Devworks international is dedicated to a society where all people enjoy the freedom to pursue their own sustainable development. we contribute to this by strengthening the capacity of local organizations.

Human Services
6
Jobs with Justice San Francisco

A long-term, strategic alliance of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations working together to build greater economic power for workers and community members through employee rights at work and access to good jobs,…

Employment
7
Human Rights Watch Inc

Human rights watch ("hrw") defends the rights of people worldwide. we scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. human rights watch is an independent,…

International
8
IDENTITY2020 Systems Inc

Id2020 brings together diverse voices to set technical requirements, influence policy, and accelerate the implementation of digital id programs that benefit the most vulnerable.

9
Corus International Inc

TO MANAGE AN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, HEALTH, AND RELIEF FOCUSED FAMILY OF ORGANIZATIONS HELPING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES LIFT THEMSELVES OUT OF POVERTY, SUPPORT WELL-BEING OF INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES, AND PROVIDE…

Human Services
10
International Leadership Institute

The international leadership institute (ili) changes history by accelerating the spread of the gospel through training and mobilizing leaders of leaders to reach their nations. ili accomplishes this purpose through cutting edge leadership…

Religion
11
Center for Global Development

Reduce global poverty and improve lives through innovative economic research that drives better policy and practice by the world's top decision makers. we focus on the intersection of developing countries and the governments, institutions…

Human Services
12
One Heart Worldwide

Our mission is to end all preventable deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide. our vision is to improve access to, and utilization of, quality healthcare services to reduce the risk of maternal and neonatal mortality in remote…

Human Services

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Zoe International and the most unlike its peers is Design That Matters Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

9 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
8/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

San Francisco City Impact — $75,000 · Youth DevelopmentSan Francisco City ImpactHOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO — $66,000 · ReligionHOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTOZOE INTERNATIONAL — $7,030 · ReligionZOE INTERNATIONALCHILDREN'S HEARTLINK — $22,000 · OtherCHILDREN'S HEARTLI…One Heart World-Wide — $12,505 · OtherOne Heart World-Wi…ASIAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND — $10,000 · OtherASIAN AMERICAN LEG…INNOVATION WORKS INC — $35,000 · Community ImprovementINNOVATION WOR…PRESIDENT-BOARD OF TRUSTEES SANTA CLARA COLLEGE — $28,000 · EducationPRESIDENT-B…DESIGN THAT MATTERS INC — $12,000 · International
Youth Development$75,000Religion$73,030Other$44,505Community Improvement$35,000Education$28,000International$12,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetSan Francisco City Impact — $75,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetHOPE HORIZON EAST PALO ALTO — $66,000 over 7y, 0.9% of budgetINNOVATION WORKS INC — $35,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetPRESIDENT-BOARD OF TRUSTEES SANTA CLARA COLLEGE — $28,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHILDREN'S HEARTLINK — $22,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetOne Heart World-Wide — $12,505 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetDESIGN THAT MATTERS INC — $12,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetASIAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetZOE INTERNATIONAL — $7,030 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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.

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.

Ping and Amy Chao Family FoundationDE13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Ping and Amy Chao Family Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Transparent Fish Fund Inc 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Transparent Fish Fund Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Transparent Fish Fund Inc 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 9 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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