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Usona Institute Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Usona Institute Inc

Usona institute has been organized to operate exclusively for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes, including, but not limited to, conducting and supporting medical, scientific, and social science research and education on medicines and practices to relieve mental and physical suffering and to improve the quality of life and…

$167k
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through 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 2024.

Health$200kEducation$185kCivil Rights$75kScience & Tech$50k
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 1 grants below total $20,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $167,150 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $147,150 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.
$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$148M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MCKENNA ACADEMY OF NATURAL PHILOSPHY INC$20,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%PALO ALTO UNIVERSITY: $35k → 8%MCKENNA ACADEMY OF NATURAL PHILOSPHY INC: $20k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY: $50k → 10%EROWID CENTER: $50k → 11%NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: $50k → 17%EDGEWOOD COLLEGE INC: $80k → 10%NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC: $75k → 12%ADDICTION IS A DIS-EASE INC: $25k → 8%EROWID CENTER: $25k → 11%WILLIAM A LINTON CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $30k → 10%WILLAM A LINTON CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $20k → 10%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.

Grants abroad, by region: $77k on the FY2024 return

Schedule F, as filed: 3 regions, all to individuals. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

North America (Canada and Mexico)$42k · 54% · 8 people

Stated purpose: SCHOLARSHIPS

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$30k · 39% · 6 people

Stated purpose: SCHOLARSHIPS

South America$5k · 7% · 1 person

Stated purpose: SCHOLARSHIPS

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. 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.
03Its 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
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
2
University of Southern California

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…

Education
3
Southern California University of Health Sciences

The mission of southern california university of health sciences (scu) is to educate students as competent, caring and successful practitioners of integrative healthcare. the university is committed to providing excellence in academics,…

Education
4
Nalanda 20

Improve excellence and access in higher education. Current focus is on India. Thus, Nalanda 2.0's current focus is to make India's higher education system world-class by building a world-class multidisciplinary research university,…

Education
5
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
6
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
7
The Central European University

Ceu is committed to promoting the values of open society and self-reflective critical thinking. it aims at excellence in the mastery of established knowledge, courage to pursue the creation of new knowledge in the humanities, the social…

International
8
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
9
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…

Health
10
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
11
Washington University

The washington university is a co-educational, nondenominational university with a long and distinguished history of teaching, research and (cont'd on schedule o)

Education
12
National Science and Technology Medals Foundation Inc

The nstmf's mission is to build inclusive stem communities across the united states. fundamental to these communities are the significant, inspirational connections we foster between the individuals who have received national recognition…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of California San Francisco Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Native American Rights Fund Inc. 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

9 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. 9 of the 10 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
3/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

EDGEWOOD UNIVERSITY INC: $80,000 · EducationEDGEWOOD UNIVERSITY INCUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $50,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATIONNew York University: $50,000 · EducationNew York UniversityPALO ALTO UNIVERSITY INC: $35,000 · EducationPALO ALTO UNIVERSITY INCMCKENNA ACADEMY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY INC: $20,000 · EducationMCKENNA ACADEMY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY INCEROWID CENTER: $75,000 · HealthEROWID CENTERWILLIAM A LINTON CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $50,000 · HealthWILLIAM A LINTON CHARITABLE FOUND…Addiction Is A Dis-ease: $25,000 · HealthAddiction Is A Dis-easeNATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC: $75,000 · Civil RightsNATIVE AMERICAN …REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY: $50,000 · OtherREGENTS OF …
Education$235,000Health$150,000Civil Rights$75,000Other$50,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEDGEWOOD UNIVERSITY INC: $80,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND INC: $75,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetEROWID CENTER: $75,000 over 2y, 7.1% of budgetWILLIAM A LINTON CHARITABLE FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 2y, 100% of budgetNew York University: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPALO ALTO UNIVERSITY INC: $35,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMCKENNA ACADEMY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY INC: $20,000 over 1y, 10% 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.

Vanguard Charitable E…Fidelity Investments …
Vanguard Charitable Endowment ProgramPA8.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Usona Institute Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Usona Institute Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get 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 · 0–10%
    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.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Usona Institute Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Usona Institute 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 10 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Usona Institute’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
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    The regranting layer
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    $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