Sample funder match
How THE JAMES JOSEPH FORD FOUNDATION stacks up for Riverside Youth Coding Academy.
This is the same funder analysis Kindora delivers to a real nonprofit user — fit verdict, alignment notes, giving footprint, and recommended next steps. The funder is real; the sample analysis was generated for a fictional Bay Area youth STEM nonprofit.
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THE JAMES JOSEPH FORD FOUNDATION
EIN 20-0511029
Fit score
82
Fit analysis
Why this funder ranked where it did against the sample org's mission and programs.
The James Joseph Ford Foundation appears to be a strong prospect for Riverside Youth Coding Academy based on documented eligibility, clear youth-serving mission alignment, and especially geographic fit in California. IRS-backed grant history shows 26.1% of total giving in California, including grants in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Watsonville, which is meaningful state-level evidence for a small foundation. The foundation accepts unsolicited proposals, requires only 501(c)(3) status and youth-centered alignment, and has a 100% new-grantee rate in the available 2023-2025 dataset, making it unusually accessible to first-time applicants. The main constraint is scale: this is a very small funder with median grants of $2,500 and total assets of $271,338, so it is best treated as a modest project-support opportunity rather than a major growth funder.
Strategic framing
The strongest positioning is to present Riverside Youth Coding Academy as a direct-service youth opportunity pipeline, not primarily as a STEM innovation organization. The application should stress that the program gives underserved middle- and high-school students free, structured access to skill-building, caring adult mentors, summer learning, and paid apprenticeship pathways that improve school engagement and future opportunity. The request should describe one concrete funding use with visible student benefit—such as underwriting a summer cohort, apprentice stipends, instructional materials, mentor coordination, or student technology access. Language around educational equity, youth empowerment, and practical pathways to adulthood will likely resonate more than language centered on software, systems, or policy reform.
What's working
- Clear youth-development and education alignment
- Direct-service model rather than abstract policy work
- Free access model lowers barriers for underserved students
- Mentor-supported and apprenticeship-linked programming demonstrates real-world outcomes
- California is an actual funded geography for the foundation
- Open application process and strong evidence of first-time grantee openness
What's marginal
- Exact grantee geography is not specified, so Bay Area city-level fit cannot be proven against grant history.
- No grantee budget, age, or staffing data were provided, limiting organizational-fit analysis.
- The foundation's strongest pattern is direct service; Riverside Youth Coding Academy's systems-change and district advocacy goals are a weaker fit.
- The foundation has no explicit STEM/computer science priority, so the proposal must translate coding into youth development and educational equity outcomes.
- Typical grant size is far below the funding likely needed for the grantee's expansion plans.
Programs that match
- Annual Grants for Youth Programs
- Every Generation Gives (EGG Project)
What we'd want to confirm
- Can the grantee document that most participants are underserved youth, low-income students, or students from under-resourced schools?
- Can the proposal separate direct-service costs from broader systems-change or advocacy expenses?
- Can the organization present a project that is appropriately sized for a $2,500-$3,500 grant?
- Can the grantee provide clear outcomes data such as completion, retention, internship/apprenticeship placement, or school-year persistence?
- Can the application demonstrate financial need and operational credibility despite limited profile information currently available?
Suggested next steps
- Apply through the Annual Grants for Youth Programs window between July 15 and September 15.
- Request $2,500, or at most $3,500 if framed as a tightly bounded student-serving project.
- Position the proposal around underserved youth access to education, mentoring, apprenticeship exposure, and safe out-of-school learning opportunities—not around technology for its own sake.
- Emphasize any service to low-income, BIPOC, first-generation, or school-underresourced youth, since those populations mirror the foundation's sample grantees and tags.
- Describe tangible outputs: number of students served, free seats provided, laptops/software access, mentor hours, apprenticeship placements, summer cohort capacity.
- If applicable, cite partnerships with Oakland USD or SFUSD as evidence of community trust, but keep the request focused on direct service rather than policy advocacy.
- Research whether any board, volunteer, mentor, or donor relationships connect to Las Vegas, California philanthropy circles, or Bay Area tech professionals with ties to the Ford family or Nazanin Ford.
- Treat this as a supplemental prospect in a broader small-foundation strategy rather than a lead growth funder.
Generated by Kindora's AI from the funder's public 990 filings, public website, and aggregated public grant history.
Funder snapshot
Capacity and giving footprint at a glance — drawn from the latest public 990 filings.
Total assets
$271k
Annual giving
$98k
Geographic scope
Regional
40% in NV
Application mode
Not specified
| Grant size | 25th percentile | Median | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Range across recent grants | $2k | $3k | $4k |
The James Joseph Ford Foundation focuses on local Las Vegas nonprofit initiatives that support children, families with special needs, and animal welfare. Most grants are modest and targeted to frontline service providers—literacy programs, services for visually impaired and developmentally disabled children, youth development for underserved/BIPOC and unhoused families, and humane animal rescue/rehoming. The foundation shows a preference for direct-service organizations in its community rather than large policy or research efforts.
Source: Latest public IRS Form 990 / 990-PF filings and aggregated public grant histories.
Focus areas
Themes Kindora extracted from the funder's public profile, program pages, and grant history.
Programmatic focus
Funding philosophy
Beneficiary types
Source: Public funder websites, public program pages, and AI synthesis of public 990 filings.
Recent giving signals
A look at where this funder has placed grants recently — useful for benchmarking and warm-intro paths.
Notable grantees
Stated focus areas (from public profile)
- Local animal welfare and humane rescue organizations in the Las Vegas valley
- Early literacy support for elementary‑age students (reading-at-grade-level programs)
- Services and educational supports for children with visual impairments
- Therapies and family support for children with developmental delays and disabilities
- Outdoor education, scholarships and transitional support for underserved/BIPOC youth and unhoused families
Source: Public 990 grant lists and the funder's own published program descriptions.
Take the next step
Go deeper on this funder.
In the live product, briefs are generated for your top matches first. The sample org has briefs for 7 funders.
Sample analysis — generated for fictional org against real public funders
Sample data: Riverside Youth Coding Academy is a fictional 501(c)(3). The fit score, verdict, and rationales above were generated by Kindora's real matching and AI fit-analysis pipelines using public IRS Form 990 filings, public funder websites, and aggregated public grant histories. The funder is real.
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