GrantmakersDistrict of Columbia

Melanoma Research Alliance Foundation

Washington, DC · EIN 26-1636099. Reported 102 grants totalling $34.1M to 54 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

54organizations funded
$248,081median reported grant
$34.1Mgranted, 2021-2024
50%of grantees funded again the next year
10%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Melanoma Research Alliance Foundation, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in diseases & disorders -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE G11).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 54 distinct organizations, with 10% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 50% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $248,081. Half of what it reported fell between $100,000 and $375,000; the smallest was $12,000 and the largest $1,755,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$10,000 - $25,000
1 grant
$25,000 - $50,000
11 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
9 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
30 grants
$250,000 Or More
51 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$3,292,500442024
University of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA$2,600,000442024
Yale UniversityNew Haven, CT$2,555,000442024
Regents Univ of CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA$2,267,500442024
Johns Hopkins UniversityBaltimore, MD$1,832,498442024
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer CenterNew York, NY$1,753,210332024
H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute IncTampa, FL$1,751,320332024
Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteBoston, MA$1,675,000222024
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$1,415,000442024
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew York, NY$1,404,159332024
Trustees of Columbia UniversityNew York, NY$1,380,000222024
New York UniversityNew York, NY$1,090,000332023
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior UniversityStanford, CA$1,039,647332024
Rector & Visitors of the University of VirginiaCharlottesvle, VA$750,000222023
President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeCambridge, MA$600,000112022
Fred Hutchinson Cancer CenterSeattle, WA$510,000222024
Northwestern UniversityEvanston, IL$500,000222024
Weill Medical College of Cornell UniversityNew York, NY$410,000222023
Regents of the University of California at San DiegoLa Jolla, CA$375,000112021
The University of IowaIowa City, IA$375,000112023
University of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, CA$375,000112023
Oregon Health & Science UniversityPortland, OR$374,842332024
Emory UniversityAtlanta, GA$367,500222024
Institute for Cancer ResearchPhiladelphia, PA$355,000222024
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer CenterHouston, TX$349,460332024
Rockefeller UniversityNew York, NY$305,000222023
Regents of the University of MichiganAnn Arbor, MI$300,000222023
Regents of the University of ColoradoDenver, CO$290,000112022
Drexel UniversityPhiladelphia, PA$255,000112024
Regents of the University of California at IrvineIrvine, CA$255,000112022
The Childrens Hospital of PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, PA$255,000112023
University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel Hill, NC$255,000112024
The Cleveland Clinic FoundationIndependence, OH$254,862112023
Penn State UniversityHershey, PA$225,000112021
Phi Chi Medical Fraternity IncCharleston, SC$225,000112021
University of PittsburghPittsburgh, PA$225,000112021
Trustees of Boston UniversityBoston, MA$170,000332023
University of UtahSalt Lake City, UT$170,000332023
Childrens Hospital Los AngelesLos Angeles, CA$150,000112024
Duke UniversityDurham, NC$150,000222024
Mass General Brigham IncorporatedSomerville, MA$149,999112024
Broad Institute IncCambridge, MA$112,500112021
Cornell UniversityIthaca, NY$100,000112021
Henry Ford Health SystemDetroit, MI$100,000112024
Regents of the University of MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN$100,000112022
Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer IncMilwaukee, WI$100,000112024
The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and BiologyPhiladelphia, PA$100,000112024
Thomas Jefferson UniversityPhiladelphia, PA$100,000112024
University of MiamiCoral Gables, FL$100,000112021
Mayo ClinicRochester, MN$70,000222022
Coriell Institute for Medical Research IncCamden, NJ$50,000112023
Temple University-of the Commonwealth System of Higher EducPhiladelphia, PA$50,000112023
Conquer Cancer Fdn of the American Society of Clinical OncologyAlexandria, VA$25,000112024
Washington UniversitySt Louis, MO$12,000112024

27 of 54 (50%) 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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 40 of 54 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.

Education
20 orgs
Health Care
12 orgs
Medical Research
5 orgs
Diseases & Disorders
1 org
Recreation & Sports
1 org
Science & Technology
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202127$6,629,937$225,000
202220$9,324,708$255,000
202326$6,175,342$254,931
202429$11.9M$255,000

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

22% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. 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.

Massachusetts
$7.4M
California
$7.1M
New York
$6.4M
Connecticut
$2.6M
Florida
$1.9M
Maryland
$1.8M
Pennsylvania
$1.6M
Virginia
$775K

Down to the city

New York, NY
$6.3M
Somerville, MA
$4.9M
Los Angeles, CA
$2.8M
San Francisco, CA
$2.6M
New Haven, CT
$2.6M
Boston, MA
$1.8M

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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.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center12 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc12 shared recipientsEmory University11 shared recipientsCornell University11 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund11 shared recipientsAmerican Heart Association Inc10 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $248,081 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. 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

Foundations funding education in MassachusettsEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding health care in CaliforniaEvery funder in this group, rankedFoundations funding education in New YorkEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Melanoma Research Alliance Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 23 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: 730 15TH St Nw 4TH Floor, Washington, DC, 20005.

EIN 26-1636099 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.