Born This Way Foundation
New York, NY · EIN 45-2752227. Reported 69 grants totalling $2,575,007 to 66 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Born This Way Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30).
- How spread out its giving is. 66 distinct organizations, with 12% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 9% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $30,000. Half of what it reported fell between $20,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $10,000 and the largest $250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
10 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $201,270 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centerlink Inc | Ft Lauderdale, FL | $321,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center Inc | San Francisco, CA | $85,154 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Aliento Education Fund | Phoenix, AZ | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Civic Suds Corporation | Washington, DC | $72,107 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Breaktime United Inc | Boston, MA | $70,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mirys List | Calabasas, CA | $70,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Artist Mentorship Program | Portland, OR | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Halfthestory | Western Sprgs, IL | $55,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sam & Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth Inc | Chatham, NJ | $53,765 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Midwest Asian Health Association - Maha | Chicago, IL | $52,527 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Adolescent Counseling Services | Redwood City, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Bagly Inc | Boston, MA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Cafe Momentum | Dallas, TX | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Camp Laurel Foundation | Pasadena, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cor Inc | Atlanta, GA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Girls Embracing Mothers Inc | Dallas, TX | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Guitars Over Guns Operation Inc | Miami, FL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hopebound Mental Health | Atlanta, GA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hopelab Foundation Inc | San Francisco, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lamholdenon Inc | Atlanta, GA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mighty Writers | Philadelphia, PA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Our Minds Matter | Arlington, VA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Projectq | Los Angeles, CA | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Right to Be Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| We Are Family | North Charleston, SC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Young Audiences Inc of Houston | Houston, TX | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Centre Lgbtqa Support Network | State College, PA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Letters to Strangers | Claremont, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| TEENS4TEENS Help | Calabasas, CA | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Montrose Center | Houston, TX | $38,765 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Alliance for Glbtq Youth Inc | Miami, FL | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Joy As Resistance | Denver, CO | $34,700 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Project 150 | Las Vegas, NV | $30,127 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Elyse Fox Club Inc | Brooklyn, NY | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ryan Bartel Foundation Inc | Waterford, VA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sasha Bruce Youthwork Inc | Washington, DC | $25,842 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Berks County Community Foundation Inc | Reading, PA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Black Girls Smile | Atlanta, GA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska | Lincoln, NE | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Didi Hirsch Psychiatric Service | Culver City, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Erikas Lighthouse a Beacon of Hope for Adolescent Depression | Winnetka, IL | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Youth Passageways | Kansas City, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| National Council for Behavioral Health | Washington, DC | $20,328 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Indiana Youth Group Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $20,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Larkin Street Youth Services | San Francisco, CA | $20,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| One Spirit | Rapid City, SD | $20,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| White Pony Express | Concord, CA | $20,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Youthcare | Everett, WA | $20,127 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Libera Inc | Morgantown, WV | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| National Youth Foundation | Chadds Ford, PA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stand With Trans | Farmington, MI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Youth Pride Inc | Providence, RI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Daughters Rising Inc | Lancaster, PA | $18,240 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Human Rights Alliance | Santa Fe, NM | $17,527 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Unbreakable Organization | Boynton Beach, FL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Exploring the Arts Inc | Astoria, NY | $11,031 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ali Forney Center | New York, NY | $10,388 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Birmingham AIDS Outreach Inc | Birmingham, AL | $10,388 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Birmingham Mutual Aid | New York, NY | $10,388 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Los Angeles Lgbt Center | Los Angeles, CA | $10,388 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Cooperative Downtown Ministries Incorporated | Birmingham, AL | $10,388 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wanda Alston Foundation | Washington, DC | $10,388 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Hetrick-Martin Institute Inc | New York, NY | $10,339 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Trinity Community Connection Inc | New York, NY | $10,338 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Choose Love Inc | New York, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada Inc | Las Vegas, NV | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
3 of 66 (5%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Centerlink
COLLABORATING ON THE BE THERE CERTIFICATE
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 60 of 66 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | $114,036 | $10,388 |
| 2022 | 29 | $1,243,307 | $50,000 |
| 2023 | 4 | $302,882 | $18,927 |
| 2024 | 25 | $914,782 | $30,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
20% of its giving went to organizations in California. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one
16 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 26 grants totalling $944,110 to Born This Way Foundation. That is 44% of the 36 funders we can see giving to it. Those 16 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a grantmaking organization.
6 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.
What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.
| Foundation | State | Reported | Grants | Years | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penner Family Foundation Inc | Arkansas | $600,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Cartinhour-Woods Foundation Inc | Tennessee | $133,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The Starbucks Foundation | Washington | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gilead Foundation | California | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Herrendorf Family Foundation Inc | Illinois | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Hagedorn Family Charitable Fund Inc | Georgia | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Citrone Foundation Inc | Connecticut | $10,644 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Amazonsmile Foundation | Washington | $7,041 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tao Jones Charitable Foundation Inc | Florida | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Stuart Foundation Inc | Connecticut | $2,750 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
The 10 largest by reported dollars, of 16.
A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.
Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $30,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in California.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Born This Way Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 25 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 97, New York, NY, 10272.
EIN 45-2752227 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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