Aurora Foundation
Las Vegas, NV · EIN 74-2660772. Reported 33 grants totalling $415,336 to 25 organizations across tax years 2020-2023. 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. Aurora 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 $5,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $2,575 and $15,000; the smallest was $100 and the largest $109,000. 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 Just One Project | Las Vegas, NV | $109,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Center for Food Safety | Washington, DC | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| John Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Haiku Aina Permaculture Initiative | Makawao, HI | $33,630 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Amazon Conservation Team | Falls Church, VA | $29,210 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| US Right to Know | Oakland, CA | $27,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Amazon Watch | Oakland, CA | $22,725 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Maui Food Hub | Kula, HI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and the Traditional Arts | San Pablo, CA | $17,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Mckenna Academy of Natural Philosophy Inc | San Rafael, CA | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Tracking Project | Corrales, NM | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Fungi Foundation | New York, NY | $10,297 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Smith Center for Performing Arts | Las Vegas, NV | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Emergence Benefactors | Huntsville, AL | $9,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Uniao De Vegetal | Santa Fe, NM | $8,075 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Choate Rosemary Hall Foundation | Wallingford, CT | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| New Mexico Foundation | Santa Fe, NM | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Chaple of Sacred Mirrors | Wappinger, NY | $4,175 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Applied Mindfulness | Barnet, VT | $1,399 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Pono Hawaii Initiative | Honolulu, HI | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Restorative Practice Alliances | Nicasio, CA | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Bioneers | San Francisco, CA | $595 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| The Wikimedia Foundation | San Francisco, CA | $520 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hawaii Theater | Honolulu, HI | $110 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Hawaiian Farmers Union | Wailuku, HI | $100 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
6 of 25 (24%) 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. 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.
- The Just One Project
SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY BY INSPIRING PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED, GIVE BACK, AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE. - Center for Food Safety
TO PROTECT HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT BY ADVOCATING FOR SAFE FOOD PRODUCTION PRACTICES AND PROMOTING ALTERNATIVES TO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE - John Hopkins University
TO EDUCATE STUDENTS, TO FOSTER INDEPENDENT AND ORIGINAL RESEARCH, AND TO SHARE THE BENEFITS DISCOVERED. - Haiku Aina Permaculture Initiative
Support for Environmental Preservation - US Right to Know
TO INVESTIGATE AND REPORT ON CORPORATE WRONGDOING AND GOVERNMENT FAILURES THAT THREATEN OUR HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, OR FOOD SYSTEM. - Amazon Conservation Team
SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIES OF TROPICAL SOUTH AMERICA
What kind of organizations it funds
By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 20 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 12 | $98,660 | $5,000 |
| 2021 | 3 | $17,175 | $4,175 |
| 2022 | 6 | $21,974 | $4,500 |
| 2023 | 12 | $277,527 | $15,075 |
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. 29% of this one's giving went to organizations in Nevada. 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 $5,000. 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 Nevada.
- 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.
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Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Aurora Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 848 N Rainbow Blvd 3414, Las Vegas, NV, 89107. 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 74-2660772 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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