The Clear Fund
Oakland, CA · EIN 20-8625442. Reported 62 grants totalling $339.8M to 32 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 The Clear Fund, 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. 32 distinct organizations, with 34% 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. 60% 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 $1,093,140. Half of what it reported fell between $150,000 and $5,030,041; the smallest was $7,666 and the largest $63.3M. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Against Malaria Foundation | Kansas City, MO | $114.8M | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| New Incentives | Covina, CA | $97.9M | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Helen Keller International | New York, NY | $34.3M | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Evidence Action Inc | Washington, DC | $25.6M | 6 | 4 | 2024 |
| Alima USA Inc | New York, NY | $16.5M | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Clinton Health Access Initiative Inc | Boston, MA | $10.7M | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Sightsavers Inc | Boston, MA | $9,840,884 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Sightsavers | Boston, MA | $5,519,767 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Givedirectly Inc | New York, NY | $5,196,645 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Stonier Scholarship Inc | Towson, MD | $3,688,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | $2,697,386 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Yale University | New Haven, CT | $2,649,164 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Rice Institute Inc | Amston, CT | $2,423,199 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| One Acre Fund | Highland Park, IL | $1,518,587 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dimgagi Inc | Cambridge, MA | $1,049,908 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Results for Development Institute Inc | Washington, DC | $1,006,445 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Precision Development Inc | Newton Hlds, MA | $994,729 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Miraclefeet | Chapel Hill, NC | $909,936 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Regents of the University of California | Oakland, CA | $787,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Malengo Inc | Dover, DE | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| End Fund Inc | New York, NY | $220,995 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Blacksmith Institute Inc | New York, NY | $200,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Center for Global Development | Washington, DC | $197,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Id Insight Inc | Princeton, NJ | $165,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| International Rescue Committee Inc | New York, NY | $150,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Spark Microgrants | New York, NY | $73,740 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| National Foundation for the Ctrs for Disease Contr & Prevention Inc | Atlanta, GA | $53,109 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Urban Institute | Washington, DC | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition | Switzerland, DC | $19,374 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Project Healthy Children Inc | Westborough, MA | $13,601 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Living Goods | Oakland, CA | $9,248 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Georgetown University | Washington, DC | $7,666 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
16 of 32 (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.
- Helen Keller International
VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENTATION - Evidence Action
DEWORMING PROGRAM, DISPENSERS FOR SAFE WATER, MATERNAL SYPHILIS PROGRAM - Givedirectly
COVID-19, BASIC INCOME PROJECT, OPERATING SUPPORT - Rice Institute Inc
R.I.C.E. KANGAROO MOTHER CARE - National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Inc
FOOD FORTIFICATION INITIATIVE - Urban Institute
PHILANTHROPY CASE STUDIES
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 29 of 32 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 15 | $120.7M | $200,000 |
| 2022 | 12 | $97.1M | $2,018,557 |
| 2023 | 15 | $72.5M | $1,801,387 |
| 2024 | 20 | $49.4M | $841,749 |
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
34% of its giving went to organizations in Missouri. 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.
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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 $1,093,140 -- 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 Missouri.
- 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 The Clear Fund'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 20 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: 1714 Franklin St 100335, Oakland, CA, 94612.
EIN 20-8625442 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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