The Belle Jar Foundation
Creston, CA · EIN 90-0432743. Reported 75 grants totalling $2,884,194 to 47 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.
Does this foundation accept applications?
Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. The Belle Jar Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $10,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $5,000 and $29,500; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $400,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Education Alliance - Business and Community Fo | Charleston, WV | $477,880 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Nc East Alliance | Edenton, NC | $400,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Watervliet City School District | Watervliet, NY | $312,728 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities Santa Clara County | San Jose, CA | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Local Enterprise Assistance Fund | Boston, MA | $250,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Stanford University | Redwood City, CA | $194,086 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Ron Brown Scholar Fund | Charlottesville, VA | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Ten Strands | San Rafael, CA | $150,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula | Menlo Park, CA | $125,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| North Carolina State University | Raleigh, NC | $102,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Teach for America Inc | Baltimore, MD | $87,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| North Carolina East Alliance | Charleston, WV | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Krause Center for Innovation | Los Altos, CA | $35,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Volunteers in Asia | Stanford, CA | $35,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh | Raleigh, NC | $30,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| College Track | Oakland, CA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ncssm Foundation | Durham, NC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| North Carolina's Economic Development Foundation I | Edenton, NC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula | Menlo Park, CA | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Alamance Community Foundation | Burlington, NC | $14,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| California Charter Schools Association | San Jose, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Southern Poverty Law Center | Montgomery, AL | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc | New York, NY | $7,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Burton Band Boosters Inc | San Francisco, CA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| California Native Plant Society | Sacamento, CA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Safe Passage Project Corporation | New York, NY | $6,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Aim High for High School | San Francisco, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Breakthrough Silicon Valley | San Jose, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cristo Rey San Jose High School | San Jose, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Inplay Learning Network | San Mateo, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jails to Jobs | Leander, TX | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| NAACP Legal Defense Fund | New York, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Onegoal | Chicago, IL | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Silicon Valley Education Foundation | San Jose, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Education Trust | Oakland, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Joshua Tree Foundation | Twentynine Palms, CA | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Black Girls Code | San Francisco, CA | $3,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Engaging Schools | Cambirdge, MA | $3,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Burton High School Ptsa | San Francisco, CA | $3,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Kennedy's Disease Foundation | Coarsegold, CA | $2,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Global Inheritance | Los Angeles, CA | $2,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Colts Drum and Bugle | Dubuque, IA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Parent Institute for Quality Education Inc | National City, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Summer Search | Oakland, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Song for Charlie | Pasadena, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| South Skyline Firefighters | Los Gatos, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Wildlife Center Silicon Valley | San Jose, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
14 of 47 (30%) 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 54%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.
- Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula
TO SUPPORT THE SANTA CLARA ADVOCACY COUNCIL - North Carolina East Alliance
TO SUPPORT THE STEM EAST NETWORK - Ten Strands
TO SUPPORT THE PROGRAM OF CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY INITIATIVE - Watervliet City School District
TO SUPPORT THE PIVOT PROGRAM - North Carolina State University
TO SUPPORT THE KENAN FELLOWS PROGRAM - Teach for America Inc
TO SUPPORT THE CSET AP RESEARCH PROJECT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 40 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | $356,554 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 13 | $278,749 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 21 | $975,304 | $7,500 |
| 2024 | 24 | $1,273,587 | $7,500 |
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
Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 31% of this one's giving went to organizations in California. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.
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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 the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this foundation
- Check you are its size. The median grant is $10,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in California.
- Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
- Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Belle Jar Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 5890 Rocky Canyon Road, Creston, CA, 93432. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.
EIN 90-0432743 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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