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Zebras Unite at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Zebras Unite

Mission Statement-Zebras Unite is committed to fostering a more inclusive, equitable and ethical environment for technology startups and other early-stage businesses.

$323k
Granted FY2022
7
Grants FY2022
6
States reached
$66k
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, FY2021 to 2022.

Community Improvement$370kArts & Culture$129kEducation$50kFood & Nutrition$50kHuman Services$35k
02FY2022 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2022

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $316k
$50,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$147k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
200 Million Artisans$65,720
Akiptan$50,000
University Impact$50,000
Vestedin$50,000
Main Street Phoenix Project$50,000
New Majority Capital$50,000
Black & Brown Founders$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.

US giving: 90% of grant dollars ($568k). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 10% that went abroad ($66k) is mapped below.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 69% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%New Majority Capital: $50k → 8%Vestedin: $50k → 22%Black and Brown Founders: $50k → 10%Urban Manufacturing Alliance: $25k → 20%New Mexico Community Capital: $40k → 14%Eagle Market Streets Development: $35k → 12%University Impact: $50k → 8%Triangle Advising: $35k → 13%Main Street Phoenix Project: $50k → 12%Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership: $25k → 12%Akiptan: $50k → 25%Black & Brown Founders: $5k → 10%Character Based Small Business Lend: $40k → 12%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.

Which US states its grants reach

NY
MA
SD
PA
CA
UT
CO
NM
NC
GA

Beyond the US: 10% of all-years giving ($66k)

1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.

grant dollars sentlessmore
India$66k · 1 grant
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. International giving is mapped by the recipient’s country from the same 990 filings; comparable need data isn’t available at that grain.
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
Metro Equity Collabotrative

To provide education and resources to minority operated businesses

Education
2
Metropolitan Economic Development Association

Helping minority entrepreneurs succeed.

—
3
Black Economic Mobility Coalition

Identify and develop talent to increase the number of sustainable Black-owned business in the Upstate

Community Improvement
4
San Diego Regional Economic Development Foundation

To support and cultivate sustainable employment opportunities for San Diego County residents contributing to a prosperous local economy.

Community Improvement
5
The New Impact Fund

To connect bipoc entrepreneurs in twin cities neighborhoods with the financial and social capital they need to grow and sustain their businesses by activating untapped individual wealth, ultimately working to eliminate the racial wealth…

Philanthropy
6
Endeavor Global Inc (F/K/a the Endeavor Initiative Inc)

Endeavor is leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement around the world.

International
7
Black Business Investment Fund Inc

The mission is to develop and promote Black business enterprises through education, training, loans, investments, and other activities and aggressively promote an atmosphere conducive to their development.

—
8
Boston Impact Initiative Fund

Form 990 - organization's mission or most significant activitiesboston impact initiative (bii) is a nonprofit impact investment fund and certified community development financial institution (cdfi). bii provides small businesses,…

Community Improvement
9
Main Street Launch

Our mission is to create economic opportunity by empowering entrepreneurs.Through innovative partnerships we provide business owners with capital, education, and relationships that allow them to flourish. Our collaborative approach helps…

Community Improvement
10
Mi Casa Resource Center

Advancing economic prosperity of the latino community.

Human Services
11
Advancing Black Entrepreneurship in

Build supportive ecosystem for black-owned business to help them be successful by providing information and coaching

Civil Rights
12
National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development

The national center for american indian enterprise development (ncaied) assists american indian tribes and their enterprises with business and economic development. ncaied works to develop and expand the american indian private sector…

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New Majority Capital Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Triangle Strategic and Financial Advising for Not-for-Profits 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

11 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. 11 of the 13 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/11
Grantees still filing
7/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

200 Million Artisans: $128,700 · Other200 Million ArtisansMain Street Phoenix Project: $50,000 · OtherMain Street Phoenix ProjectTRIANGLE STRATEGIC AND FINANCIAL ADVISING FOR NOT-FOR-PROFITS INC: $35,000 · OtherTRIANGLE STRATEGIC AND FINANCIAL ADVIS…BSIDE FUND: $40,000 · Community ImprovementBSIDE FUNDNEW MEXICO COMMUNITY CAPITAL: $40,000 · Community ImprovementNEW MEXICO COMMUNITY CA…Urban Manufacturing Alliance Inc: $25,000 · Community ImprovementUrban Manufacturing All…ROCKY MOUNTAIN EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP CENTER: $25,000 · Community ImprovementROCKY MOUNTAIN EMPLOYEE…BLACK AND BROWN FOUNDERS INC: $55,000 · EducationBLACK AND BROWN FO…University Impact: $50,000 · EducationUniversity ImpactVESTEDIN: $50,000 · Housing & ShelterNEW MAJORITY CAPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 · EmploymentAKIPTAN INC: $50,000 · Public BenefitEAGLE MARKET STREETS DEVELOPMENT CO: $35,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$213,700Community Improvement$130,000Education$105,000Housing & Shelter$50,000Employment$50,000Public Benefit$50,000Arts & Culture$35,000

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 budgetBLACK AND BROWN FOUNDERS INC: $55,000 over 2y, 8.2% of budgetVESTEDIN: $50,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetNEW MAJORITY CAPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetAKIPTAN INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetUniversity Impact: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBSIDE FUND: $40,000 over 1y, 84% of budgetNEW MEXICO COMMUNITY CAPITAL: $40,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetEAGLE MARKET STREETS DEVELOPMENT CO: $35,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTRIANGLE STRATEGIC AND FINANCIAL ADVISING FOR NOT-FOR-PROFITS INC: $35,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetUrban Manufacturing Alliance Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP CENTER: $25,000 over 1y, 5.3% 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.

Wells Fargo FoundationImpactassetsincFidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Wells Fargo FoundationMN13.1× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Wells Fargo Foundation · Impactassetsinc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%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
    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 Zebras Unite?

    Find your warmest path to Zebras Unite 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 13 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 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record but names no grant recipient (grants abroad are filed by region only, and grants under $5,000 are not itemized), so the figures above are from FY2022, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Zebras Unite’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