Aphorism Foundation
San Francisco, CA · EIN 46-4347021. Reported 83 grants totalling $115.9M to 57 recipients across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation told the IRS it does not accept unsolicited requests: it contributes only to organizations it selects itself.
Does this foundation accept applications?
No -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation to check a box if it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds". Aphorism Foundation checked it on its most recent filing, as 78% of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered did. An unsolicited request is unlikely to go anywhere.
Organizations it funds that make grants of their own
3 of the organizations Aphorism Foundation funded make grants themselves, and it reported 3 grants totalling $1,535,000 to them. That is 2% of the $93.3M of its giving we could match to a registered organization. Each is classified by the IRS as a philanthropy or grantmaking organization, reported grants to at least 25 organizations of its own, and has at least 10 funders behind it.
All of them file Form 990, which never asks whether an organization funds only groups it picks, so there is no answer on record either way.
What that does not mean. It does not mean an application to any of them reaches this foundation's money. A private foundation's grant to a community foundation or a federated campaign is often a donor-advised fund or a gift designated for a purpose the foundation chose, and has nothing to do with any open programme the receiving organization runs. Its return's purpose text sometimes names a family fund or a designated purpose, which is the plainest case of money no applicant can reach; where it names none, neither return says which. The list is who this foundation paid that also makes grants. Whether any of them would fund you is a question for its own page.
| Grantmaker | Kind | State | Received | Grants | Years | Last | Only funds organizations it picks? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ffwd | grantmaking organization | California | $1,250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 | Its form does not ask |
| Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc | grantmaking organization | New York | $165,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | Its form does not ask |
| Daffy Charitable Fund | grantmaking organization | California | $120,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 | Its form does not ask |
A floor, not a full list. A grantmaker appears here only where this foundation's return named it clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows, and only where that grantmaker has a page on this site. There may be more. Dollars here are summed by EIN across every spelling on its returns, so a figure can differ from the matching row in the full list below, which groups names as written. And the IRS classification cannot tell a grantmaker from a funders' association or a donor-advised fund sponsor, so a payment to one of these may be dues or an account rather than support for a grants programme.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $1,000,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $250,000 and $1,498,500; the smallest was $30,000 and the largest $14.5M.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Probabilistic Computing Foundation Inc | Cambridge, MA | $24.5M | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Earth Species Project | West Hollywood, CA | $10.0M | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Leland Stanford Junior University | Stanford, CA | $10.0M | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Science for America Inc | Cambridge, MA | $9,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| New America Foundation | Washington, DC | $6,400,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Center of Complex Interventions | Wellesley, MA | $4,225,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Inc | San Francisco, CA | $4,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Cz Biohub Network | San Francisco, CA | $4,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Second Harvest Food Bank | San Jose, CA | $3,880,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Hypothesis Fund Pbllc | Mercer Island, WA | $2,875,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | $2,840,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Association of Marshall Scholars Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $2,000,001 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| American Friends of Libi | Brighton, MA | $2,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Cortico Corporation | Cambridge, MA | $2,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Connected Learning Alliance | Dana Point, CA | $1,865,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Center on Rural Innovation | Hartland, VT | $1,500,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| President and Fellors of Harvard College | Cambridge, MA | $1,500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mathesar Foundation Inc | Commack, NY | $1,498,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ffwd | San Francisco, CA | $1,250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH | $1,215,335 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Leadership Network | Carolina Beach, NC | $1,200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Securebio Inc | Cambridge, MA | $1,160,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Aurealia Institute Inc | Cambridge, MA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| B Lab Company | Philadelphia, PA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Brigham and Women's Hospital | Boston, MA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Columbia University | New York, NY | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Knowledge Futures Inc | Cambridge, MA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Leaders in Tech Inc | San Francisco, CA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Players Philanthropy Fund | Towson, MD | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ubi Charitable Inc | Oakland, CA | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| US Japan Research Institute | Washington, DC | $1,000,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| University of Toronto | Toronto | $988,167 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc | Falmouth, MA | $857,940 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| University of Wisconsin Foundation | Milwaukee, WI | $750,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Him for Her Inc | Oakland, CA | $700,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Computer History Museum | Mountain View, CA | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Management Leadership for Tomorrow | Bethesda, MD | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Science and Technology Futures Inc | Camrbidge, MA | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Mercatus Center Inc | Arlington, VA | $360,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Aspen Insitutute Uk | London SW1P 1DE | $306,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Choose Love Inc | New York, NY | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| From the Heart Productions Inc | Oxnard, CA | $300,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Brown University | Providence, RI | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Equal Justice Initiative | Montgomery, AL | $246,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Dollar for | Vancouver, WA | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors | New York, NY | $165,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Endeavor Global Inc | New York, NY | $150,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Food for Soul Inc | Liverpool, NY | $140,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Daffy Charitable Fund | Los Altos, CA | $120,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Locus Science Fiction Foundation | Oakland, CA | $113,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Georgetown University | Washington, DC | $110,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| American Academy of Arts and Sciences | Cambridge, MA | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Aspen Institute | London SW1P 1DE | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Limn | Durham, NC | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Madison Square Boys & Girls Club Foundation Inc | New York, NY | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Safecast Global | Wellesley, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Putney School | Putney, VT | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
20 of 57 (35%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.
Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 50%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one, and this foundation told the IRS it does not.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 53 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | $4,484,702 | $1,000,000 |
| 2022 | 18 | $12.8M | $430,000 |
| 2023 | 33 | $55.1M | $1,000,000 |
| 2024 | 27 | $43.4M | $1,000,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.
Where its money goes
45% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more. Unlike this foundation, none of them is on record as funding only organizations it picks, and each page says what its filings show.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Aphorism Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: 220 Jackson Street Floor 2, San Francisco, CA, 94111. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS.
EIN 46-4347021 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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