· Public charity
Acumen Fund Inc
Acumen's mission is to change the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas.acumen is a global force of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and social innovators working together to build a world based on dignity.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 9 grants below total $860,441 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $4,469,354 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $3,608,913 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k7 grants · $115k
- $250k+2 grants · $745k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ACUMEN CAPITAL PARTNERS LLC | $412,278 |
| REFUGEE INVESTMENT NETWORK INC | $333,163 |
| STATEN ISLAND PERFORMING PROVIDER SYSTEM LLC | $25,000 |
| CITY OF SAMARITANS PBC | $25,000 |
| KAIZEN HEALTH INC | $25,000 |
| ZERAKI INC | $10,000 |
| RASA PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION | $10,000 |
| FREE FROM MARKET | $10,000 |
| FARMBOX DIRECT INC | $10,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY23–24, $535k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
Grants abroad, by region — $3.6M on the FY2024 return
Schedule F, as filed: 5 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.
Stated purpose: TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR PORTFOLIO COMPANIES · TO MANUFACTURE AND SELL AFFORDABLE, HIGH-QUALITY SOLAR LIGHTING SOLUTIONS (LANTERNS AND HOME SYSTEMS), COOKSTOVES, AND OTHER ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS TO OFF-GRID HOUSEHOLDS AND SMALL BUSINESSES IN UNDERSERVED LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES. · TO SERVE LOW-INCOME PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES IN MALAWI WITH HIGHQUALITY AND AFFORDABLE SOLAR ENERGY ACCESS.
Stated purpose: TO PROVIDE ENERGY SERVICES TO LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES IN WEAKGRID AND OFF-GRID RURAL AREAS ACROSS AFRICA AND ASIA. · TO PREVENT CHILD MALNUTRITION BY BUILDING THE CAPACITY OF INDIA'S ANGANWADI CHILD CARE CENTERS THROUGH TRAINING AND DIGITAL TOOLS · TO ENGAGE IN THE BUSINESS OF EMPOWERING EDUCATORS TO BUILD PROFICIENCY IN FOUNDATIONAL STEAM LITERACY AS A LIFE SKILL IN SCHOOL-GOING CHILDREN TO CULTIVATE THE MINDSET OF SCIENTIFIC TEMPERAMENT.
Stated purpose: TO REDUCE THE DISPARITY IN THE LABOR MARKET WHERE 77% OF COMPANIES FACE A TALENT SHORTAGE WHILE YOUNG AND DIVERSE CANDIDATES STRUGGLE TO CONNECT WITH JOB OPPORTUNITIES. · TO ENHANCE PEACE BUILDING IN COLOMBIA USING FASHION AS A TOOL FOR CHANGE. · TO PROMOTE DIGNIFIED EMPLOYMENT AND REGENERATIVE FARMING IN RURAL REGIONS WITH A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE AND MARGINALIZATION THROUGH THE DISTRIBUTION OF HEALTHY FOOD PRODUCTS GROWN THROUGH AGROFORESTRY MANAGEMENT.
Stated purpose: TO MAKE AFFORDABLE, NUTRITIOUS, AND DELICIOUS FOOD ACCESSIBLE TO ALL INCLUDING UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES WHILE BREAKING THE CYCLE OF FOOD WASTE · TO REDUCE GENDER INEQUALITIES BY DELIVERING A LEGALLY SANCTIONED, AGE-APPROPRIATE, COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION (CSE) PROGRAM TO EMPOWER 16 MILLION CHILDREN IN VIETNAM.
Stated purpose: ONLINE EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS · TO UPLIFT FAMILIES THROUGH EDUCATIONAL EQUITY BY DRIVING INCLUSIVE PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS WITH SCHOOLS
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +97% since the first grant, against +15% for the ones you funded once.
25 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 19 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $45k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- IIID INSIGHT INC3× · 2018–2020 · $1.5M · revenue +106%
- RIREFUGEE INVESTMENT NETWORK INC2× · 2023–2024 · $485k · revenue +108% · 29% of their budget
- TTANAGER2× · 2018–2019 · $361k · revenue +97%
Funded once
- SISOCIAL INVESTMENT MANAGERS AND ADVISORS LLCone grant, 2020 · $1.0M
- ROREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIAone grant, 2019 · $700k
- CPCLIMATE POLICY INITIATIVE INCone grant, 2023 · $374k · revenue +8%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
A nonprofit scientific research organization that develops vaccines and antibodies for hiv, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases.
Middle east investment initiative, inc. (meii) stimulates sustainable economic activity and long-lasting job creation in the middle east and north africa (mena) by designing and deploying finance and technical assistance programs to…
Our mission is to create a fair and inclusive economy where underserved people have quality financial choices and opportunities to improve their economic well-being. we find and help build innovative companies with the potential to reach…
Ibp works with civil society, governments, international institutions and the private sector to bring about a world in which empowered citizens participate in open, inclusive public budgeting processes to shape policies and practices that…
Development gateway (dg) creates tools and design processes that help collect, visualize, and use data for a more equitable world. for 20 years, we have built systems, dashboards, and tools to create more effective, open, and engaging…
See schedule o for a more detailed description of ide's mission statement and achievements.
Partnersglobal (partners) works through a global network to support local leaders and create partnerships that transform conflict, strengthen democratic institutions, and achieve sustainable development.
Devworks international is dedicated to a society where all people enjoy the freedom to pursue their own sustainable development. we contribute to this by strengthening the capacity of local organizations.
Nuru is a global collective that enables inclusive and sustainable prosperity by identifying communities at the stability tipping point, strengthening rural livelihoods and market systems, and fostering stabilizing connections that repair…
Building a movement of diverse, upwardly mobile college grads overcoming underemployment through digital skills and peer connections.
Upturn advances equity and justice in the design, governance, and use of technology.
Inclusive Development International supports communities around the world to defend their rights and resources in the face of harmful corporate activities and internationally financed development projects, and we advocate for a more just…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Refugee Investment Network Inc and the most unlike its peers is Parity Lab Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 17 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 11% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
21 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 21 of the 62 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds ID INSIGHT INC ↗
- Who funds REFUGEE INVESTMENT NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds CLIMATE POLICY INITIATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds TANAGER ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
- Who funds MAZIWA ↗
- Who funds STATEN ISLAND PERFORMING PROVIDER SYSTEM LLC ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA ORGANIZING INC ↗
- Who funds SANERGY INC ↗
- Who funds HELLO FUTURE INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Gates Foundation · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Tides Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Acumen Fund Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology — 35% of income from government
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.