Trail Blazers Foundation
Portland, OR · EIN 27-3734229. Reported 81 grants totalling $2,689,351 to 48 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, 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 Trail Blazers 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. 48 distinct organizations, with 67% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 38% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $5,500 and $18,000; the smallest was $170 and the largest $500,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon Community Foundation | Portland, OR | $1,800,000 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Youth Organized & United to Help | Portland, OR | $87,378 | 6 | 4 | 2023 |
| Word Is Bond | Portland, OR | $78,511 | 5 | 4 | 2023 |
| Learn Fresh Education Co | Denver, CO | $70,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Albina Vision Inc | Portland, OR | $60,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| N a a C P Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc | New York, NY | $56,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Chinese Progressive Association | Oakland, CA | $47,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| National Black Justice Coalition Inc | Tallahassee, FL | $47,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Boys & Girls Clubs Portland Metro | Portland, OR | $30,283 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Beyond Black | Portland, OR | $27,117 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Vestal Elementary School | Portland, OR | $27,000 | 3 | 2 | 2023 |
| Alliance for Global Justice | Tucson, AZ | $26,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Common Counsel Foundation | Oakland, CA | $21,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| County of Jackson Phoenix School District 4 | Phoenix, OR | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Clatskanie School District No 6J | Clatskanie, OR | $18,400 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Mitchell Booster Club | Mitchell, OR | $15,200 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Beaverton School District 48J | Beaverton, OR | $14,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Grants Pass School District #7 | Grants Pass, OR | $14,400 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Ronald Mcdonald House Oregon | Portland, OR | $12,096 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Imbler School | Imbler, OR | $10,400 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Multnomah Co School Dist U2-20JT | Gresham, OR | $10,100 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Powell Butte Elementary | Portland, OR | $10,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Grants Watts Elementary School | Scappoose, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Jefferson County School District #509J | Madras, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Nixyaawii Community School Inc | Pendleton, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| North Powder School District 8J | North Powder, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Polk County School District 13J | Independence, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wilson Elmentary | Medford, OR | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors | Arlington, VA | $9,610 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Klamath County School District | Klamath Falls, OR | $8,300 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Womens Foundation of Oregon | Portland, OR | $8,231 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Four Rivers Community School Inc | Ontario, OR | $7,850 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Vibes Public Charter School | Medford, OR | $7,800 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Milwaukie El Puente PTO | Milwaukie, OR | $7,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rose Haven Cic | Portland, OR | $6,989 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Gervais School District No 1 | Gervais, OR | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Culver Elementary | Culver, OR | $6,400 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hood River County School District | Hood River, OR | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Causa of Oregon | Salem, OR | $5,358 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Oakland School District #1 | Oakland, OR | $5,300 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Warrenton Hammond Sd #30 | Warrenton, OR | $5,300 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Yoncalla School District 32 | Yoncalla, OR | $5,300 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kairospdx | Portland, OR | $5,278 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Maurice Lucas Foundation | Tigard, OR | $5,184 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ke Kukui Foundation | Vancouver, WA | $5,119 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Riverside Elementary | Milwaukie, OR | $5,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Centro Cultural De Condado De Washington | Cornelius, OR | $5,097 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Holla School | Portland, OR | $5,050 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
17 of 48 (35%) 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.
- Oregon Community Foundation
LIVE GREENER, LEARN, AND PLAY GRANTS - NAACP Legal Defense Fund
RACIAL INJUSTICE FUND CONTRIBUTION - Albina Vision Trust
RACIAL EQUITY PROJECT FUND CONTRIBUTION - Causa of Oregon
COVID RELIEF FUND SUPPORT OF OREGON WORKER RELIEF FUND
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 22 of 48 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 10 | $610,709 | $21,058 |
| 2021 | 23 | $714,975 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 31 | $688,960 | $6,989 |
| 2023 | 17 | $674,707 | $10,000 |
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
90% of its giving went to organizations in Oregon. 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
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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 the strongest signal available 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 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 $10,000 -- 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 Oregon.
- 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.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Trail Blazers Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 18 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: 1 North Center Court 200, Portland, OR, 97227.
EIN 27-3734229 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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