Loading…
Boston, MA · Private foundation
The Barr Foundation
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$123M
Granted FY2024
903
Grants
31
Communities
$3.3M
Largest
01What you fund
0191% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2020–2024.
Environment$54MPhilanthropy$53MEducation$47MCommunity Improvement$41MArts & Culture$38MHuman Services$11MCrime & Legal$9.1MPublic Benefit$6.2MOther$0
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
Each cell is that theme’s share of the year’s giving · ⚡ ringed cells mark a flagged jump.
…and in their own words, year by year
2020
response covidpart educationeducation program'seffectiveness participationcovid impactscreativity responsestaff retreat
2021
response climateequity fellowshipfellowship rficlimate program'sprogram's climateeffectiveness supplementalsupplemental participation
2022
creativity investcapital leadershiparts regrantingregranting researcheffectiveness equitableequitable policymakingpolicymaking interviews
2023
part creativecreative vitalitycreativity partpowering cultureculture futuressite visitssummer fall
2024
part catalyzingcatalyzing vitalitycapital artisticartistic leadershipinterviews conductedparticipate barr'sbarr's cultural
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 903 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
Grant-size mix · FY2020–FY2024
FY20
41%
56%
$87.7M
FY21
34%
64%
$100.3M
FY22
33%
66%
$108.5M
FY23
36%
62%
$106.9M
FY24
38%
59%
$123.2M
Under $10k$10k–50k$50k–250k$250k+
In FY2020, 56% of your dollars went out in $250k+ checks; by FY2024 that was 59%. Each year’s bar is its own 100%, so the bands show the mix, not the total.
$80,000
Median grant
31
States reached
$2.8B
Total assets
Largest grants
- (855) UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION$3,275,000
- (219) COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS$2,900,000
- (552) NATIONAL CENTER FOR CIVIC INNOVATION INC$1,550,000
- (126) BOSTON UJIMA PROJECT INC$1,200,000
- (551) NATIONAL CENTER FOR CIVIC INNOVATION INC$1,180,000
- (239) CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC$1,100,000
- (735) SRI INTERNATIONAL$1,100,000
- (896) WORLD MUSIC INC$1,000,000
- (490) MASSACHUSETTS DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AGENCY$1,000,000
- (263) DOUBLE EDGE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS INC$1,000,000
- (238) CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC$1,000,000
- (489) MASSACHUSETTS DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AGENCY$805,000
- (853) UNITED STATES ARTISTS INC$750,000
- (245) CREATIVE HUB WORCESTER$750,000
- (576) NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS INC$750,000
02The need
04
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.
show:
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 16% — the area typically sits at 6%. 88% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
The hardship those neighborhoods carry, beyond income:
- Adults without health insurance:reaches 32% in some neighborhoods (typically 4.2%)(CDC, modeled)
- Food access:92 of 1366 neighborhoods are USDA-designated food deserts(USDA, 2019)
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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your edge
The orgs you fund vs the ones you don’t
You skew toward the sturdier end of a fragile field.
The organisations you back are larger and somewhat healthier than comparable nonprofits nearby that you don't fund — but the edge is real, not dramatic: 65% of those you fund still carry a fragility flag, against 76% of the unfunded. In a sector where most run thin, you lean toward resilience rather than backing a financially secure elite.
The kind of organization you back
71% of the organizations you back live mainly on donations, against 51% of the comparable nonprofits nearby you don’t fund. 33% of the ones you pick are financially resilient, against 22% of that field, and fewer show the warning signs below.
What they work on
- Arts & Culture18% vs 10%
- Community Improvement7% vs 3%
- Philanthropy7% vs 3%
- Education18% vs 15%
The nearby nonprofits you don’t fund are concentrated in Health.
How they hold up
- Run recurring deficits29% vs 36%
- Burning through reserves8% vs 14%
- Less than a month of cash4% vs 12%
- Lean on a single income source48% vs 60%
you fund (312) you don’t (5707)· share of each group
You fund (312)You don’t (5707)
Median size (revenue)$2.7M$1.1M
Operating margin9%5%
Financially fragile65%76%
Comparison vs unfunded, size/cause-matched nonprofits in your county. Association, not proof — the funder enables, it does not solely cause.
repeat funding
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.
7%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$35M · 76 repeat orgs$467M to everyone else
76 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 70 since wound down; 488 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
Of your 86 multi-year relationships, 37 repeat the same amount every year (33% of multi-year dollars), the pattern of a standing commitment. The rest vary year to year. Grant terms aren’t stated in the filing; this is inferred from the payment pattern.
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
76
1436
Total granted
$35M
$351M
Still filing today
0%
0%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 1% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $116M went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
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
- (M(42) MASSACHUSETTS DEVELOPMENT FINANCE AGENCY2× · 2021–2022 · $2.4M
- (C(136) CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC2× · 2020–2021 · $1.6M
- (T(76) TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION2× · 2020–2022 · $1.3M
Funded once
- (C(18) COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTSone grant, 2021 · $5.5M
- (U(298) UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATIONone grant, 2023 · $3.4M
- (U(222) UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $3.3M
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Activities, outputs, outcomes
Most can say what their work is for. Few can show it changed. Click an area to step through it.
Of 51 organizations, 5 show a change. The rest report what they did, or only what they hope it’s for.
Click an area to read it, and step through its organizations.
Read from 51 of the 297 organizations you fund across these 5 areas— those you fund most heavily — in their own program-service reporting. Achievements are the organizations’ own.
04Your field
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.
1
Masscreative Inc
Masscreative advances the advocacy learning, cross-sector alliances and organizing efforts necessary for a more equitable and inclusive arts, cultural and creative sector for all in massachusetts. we engage massachusetts residents,…
Arts & Culture
2
Fort Point Arts Community Inc
The fort points art community builds cultural vibrancy in boston by cultivating an empowered community of artists org and supporters
Arts & Culture
3
Boston Center for the Arts Inc
Boston center for the arts (bca) is a not-for-profit performing and visual arts campus that supports working artists to create, perform and exhibit new works; develops new audiences; and connects the arts to community.
Arts & Culture
4
City Ballet of Boston Inc
City ballet of boston uses the power of dance to breakdown barriers among people and create a better community.
Arts & Culture
5
Associates of Boston Public Library Inc
The associates of the boston public library is an independent nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting the historic, literary, and artistic treasures of the boston public library through targeted grantmaking and cultural events. by…
Education
6
Boston Book Festival Inc
The boston book festival celebrates the power of words to stimulate, agitate, unite, delight, and inspire by holding year-round events culminating in an annual, free festival that promotes a culture of reading and ideas and enhances the…
Education
7
Boston By Foot Inc
Boston by foot is a non-profit educational organization committed to inspiring locals and visitors to discover and appreciate the diverse stories of boston by exploring the cityscape together.
Arts & Culture
8
Showup Inc
Showup is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit exhibition space in boston's south end that supports underrepresented artists. the organization connects artists with local and regional communities, amplifies their voices, and provides tools for…
Arts & Culture
9
Spoke Art Inc (Fka Medicine Wheel Productions Inc)
To bring public art projects to specific communities and the greater boston area at large.
Arts & Culture
10
Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Education Fund Inc
At neighbor to neighbor, we make democracy work for us. that means all of us, whether you're black, white, or brown, immigrant or a lifelong local, and no matter how much money you have. together, we build power for our collective…
Civil Rights
11
Alternatives for Community and Environment Inc
Ace builds the power of communities of color and low-income communities in massachusetts to eradicate environmental racism and classism, create healthy, sustainable communities, and achieve environment justice.
Community Improvement
12
Boston Bar Foundation
The mission of boston bar foundation is to promote justice by funding and promoting innovation in legal services, enhancing access to justice for the underserved, and supporting the public interest activities of the bar.
Crime & Legal
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Lenny Zakim Fund C/O Dla Piper Llp and the most unlike its peers is Speakeasy Stage Company Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.
Closures · last 5 years
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.2% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
orgs you fund
0.2%1/584
the rest of the field
13%
3,832/28,777
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.
05the grantee network
0 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2020–2024.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
0/0
Grantees still filing
0/0
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$501,845,088
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.
19 internal · 8 shared anchors
Your portfolio is already a network
The Solomon Foundation assembled a coalition with the Mystic River Watershed Association to develop and complete the Malden River Greenway Plan. It’s one of 19 direct ties among 69 of your grantees, who also cluster around 8 shared regional anchors.
Ties are read from news and organization websites, so they’re directional, not exhaustive; each links to its source.
69
Grantees connected
19
Grantee↔grantee ties
8
Shared anchors (2+ grantees)
173
External links
Tap any organization to trace its collaborations — shared anchors pull toward the center
34 shown · 8 ties
grantee you fund external partner named by both stated inferred
Tap any organization in the graph to trace its collaborations — or start with the strongest ties below.
Strongest grantee↔grantee ties
- ↔explicit Joint program
- ↔explicit Joint program
- ↔explicit Coalition
- ↔explicit Joint program
Anchors several grantees share
- 4 grantees
- 2 grantees
- 2 grantees
- 2 grantees
- 2 grantees
- 2 grantees
Joint program 107Coalition 40Affiliation 26Funding 10Referral network 6Shared facility 3Fiscal sponsorship 1
Partnerships are LLM-extracted from news and organisation websites, not from tax filings — directional, not exhaustive. Each edge links to its source; corroborated edges were named independently by both organisations.
Cause groups: Arts & Culture, Civil Rights, Community Improvement, Crime & Legal, Education, Environment, Human Services, Philanthropy, Public Benefit, Public Safety & Disaster, Unclassified05Through Plinth
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to The Barr Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Barr Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines