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· Private foundation

Bertha Lebus Charitable Trust

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$220k
Granted FY2025still arriving
46
Grants FY2025still arriving
13
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What you fund
0189% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20212025.

Education$476kHuman Services$155kHealth$120kEnvironment$67kArts & Culture$55kReligion$33kYouth Development$23kRecreation & Sports$22kOther$0
02FY2025 · 46 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k39 grants · $135k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $85k
$3,000
Median grant
13
States reached
$3.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FAMILY SERVICE CENTER$15,000
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY$15,000
Individual grant recipient$15,000
LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO$10,000
SAINT ANDREWS SCHOOL$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER$9,800
Individual grant recipient$8,000
PARKINSON'S FOUNDATION$6,299
ST EDWARDS CATHOLIC SCHOOL$6,000
BLUEGRASS CARE NAVIGATORS$5,000
MARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES$5,000
BIG SHOULDERS FUND$5,000
THE LEXINGTON SCHOOL$5,000
02The need
03

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:

Your human-services grants (FY21–25, $81k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%ALEXANDRIA HOUSE: $3k → 14%LEXINGTON HEARING AND SPEECH: $3k → 13%HOSPARUS: $3k → 15%LEXINGTON HEARING AND SPEECH: $3k → 13%HOSPARUS: $3k → 15%LEXINGTON HEARING AND SPEECH: $2k → 13%HOSPARUS: $3k → 15%HOSPARUS: $3k → 15%HOSPARUS: $3k → 15%MARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES: $15k → 14%MARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES: $10k → 14%MARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES: $5k → 14%BLUEGRASS CARE NAVIGATORS: $6k → 15%BLUEGRASS CARE NAVIGATORS: $5k → 15%BLUEGRASS CARE NAVIGATORS: $5k → 15%BLUEGRASS CARE NAVIGATORS: $5k → 15%BLUEGRASS CARE NAVIGATORS: $5k → 15%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 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

ID
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
NV
OH
NJ
CA
CO
KY
WV
VA
AZ
TN
GA
TX
FL

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.

03Your edge
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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.0M · 54 repeat orgs$73k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +14% since the first grant, against +12% for the ones you funded once.

54 repeat relationships — 39 still active in FY2025, 15 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

54
23

Total granted

$1.0M
$62k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
+12%

Still filing today

44%
22%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $11k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesEnvironmentHealthArts & CultureRecreation & SportsOther

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

  • UO
    University of Dayton
    2× · 2021–2022 · $80k · revenue +14%
  • TRUSTEES OF THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL
    5× · 2021–2025 · $71k · revenue +1%
  • LS
    LEXINGTON SCHOOL INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $47k · revenue +5%

Funded once

  • NM
    NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE
    one grant, 2022 · $7k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2021 · $5k
  • SA
    SALVATION ARMY
    one grant, 2021 · $5k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

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
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
2
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
3
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
4
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
5
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

6
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
7
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
8
Manhattan University

Manhattan university is an independent catholic instituion of higher learning that embraces qualified men and women of all faiths, cultures, and traditions. the mission of manhattan university is to provide a contemporary, person-centered…

Education
9
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
10
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
11
Lafayette College

Chartered in 1826, lafayette college is dedicated to excellence in undergraduate education. students are engaged in a transformative educational experience that bridges the liberal arts, engineering, and interdisciplinary study. the…

Education
12
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trustees of the Lawrenceville School and the most unlike its peers is Humane Society of Harrison County 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.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity Health CentersCommunity Arts OrganizationsGovernment Accountability R…Hospice Care ServicesYmca Community CentersAnimal Rescue and AdoptionLand Conservation Organizat…Independent K-8 SchoolsFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…
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
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

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 50 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%9%<5yr14%3%5–10yr19%13%10–20yr16%6%20–35yr13%25%35–55yr16%44%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%5%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%6%10–20yr16%1%20–35yr13%34%35–55yr16%54%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 9% of your grantees by number, and just 5% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/36
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,529

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.

04the grantee network

31 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 31 of the 84 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
31/31
Grantees still filing
23/31
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY — $72,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKYIndividual grant recipient — $60,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientFAMILY SERVICE CENTER — $50,000 · OtherFAMILY SERVICE CENTERIndividual grant recipient — $40,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient — $36,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient — $29,500 · OtherST EDWARDS CATHOLIC SCHOOL — $27,500 · OtherCATHOLIC CHARITIES — $26,812 · Other+49 more — $296,187 · Other+49 moreUniversity of Dayton — $80,000 · EducationUniversity of DaytonTRUSTEES OF THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL — $70,500 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE LAWRENCEVILLE…LEXINGTON SCHOOL INC — $46,500 · EducationLEXINGTON SCHOOL INCCENTRE COLLEGE — $20,000 · EducationCENTRE COLLEGEBig Shoulders Fund — $19,000 · EducationBig Shoulders FundUNIVERSITY OF DENVER — $17,800 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF DENVERUniversity of Chicago — $15,000 · EducationBEREA COLLEGE — $14,000 · Education+1 more — $4,290 · EducationMARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES INC — $30,000 · Human ServicesHospice of the Bluegrass Inc — $26,000 · Human ServicesHOSPARUS INC HOSPARUS HEALTH — $15,000 · Human ServicesThe Lexington Hearing & Speech Center Inc — $7,500 · Human Services+1 more — $2,500 · Human ServicesPARKINSON'S FOUNDATION INC — $12,299 · HealthMAYO CLINIC — $11,000 · HealthSCAD RESEARCH INC — $10,000 · HealthBABY HEALTH SERVICES INC — $3,703 · HealthKEELING CURVE FOUNDATION — $10,000 · EnvironmentCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY — $10,000 · EnvironmentCOALITION TO SAVE HEMPSTEAD HARBOR INC — $6,250 · EnvironmentGARDEN CLUB OF LEXINGTON INC — $4,500 · EnvironmentNorthwestern University — $10,000 · Recreation & SportsCAMP JORN YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION INC — $6,000 · Recreation & SportsLEXINGTON THEATRE COMPANY — $7,000 · Arts & CultureWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $6,000 · Arts & CultureRISING ARTIST FOUNDATION INC — $1,675 · Arts & Culture
Other$637,999Education$287,090Human Services$81,000Health$37,002Environment$30,750Recreation & Sports$16,000Arts & Culture$14,675

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUniversity of Dayton — $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL — $70,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetLEXINGTON SCHOOL INC — $46,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetMARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES INC — $30,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetHospice of the Bluegrass Inc — $26,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCENTRE COLLEGE — $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetBig Shoulders Fund — $19,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DENVER — $17,800 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHOSPARUS INC HOSPARUS HEALTH — $15,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetHUMANE SOCIETY OF HARRISON COUNTY INC — $14,000 over 5y, 1.4% of budgetBEREA COLLEGE — $14,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPARKINSON'S FOUNDATION INC — $12,299 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMAYO CLINIC — $11,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetKEELING CURVE FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY — $10,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSCAD RESEARCH INC — $10,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetThe Lexington Hearing & Speech Center Inc — $7,500 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetLEXINGTON THEATRE COMPANY — $7,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCOALITION TO SAVE HEMPSTEAD HARBOR INC — $6,250 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $6,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCAMP JORN YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION INC — $6,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetGARDEN CLUB OF LEXINGTON INC — $4,500 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetDEPAUL UNIVERSITY — $4,290 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBABY HEALTH SERVICES INC — $3,703 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetONE PARENT FAMILY FACILITY CORPORATION — $3,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetALEXANDRIA HOUSE — $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRISING ARTIST FOUNDATION INC — $1,675 over 1y, 2.9% of budget
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 University of Dayton
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL
  • Who funds LEXINGTON SCHOOL INC
  • Who funds MARILLAC ST VINCENT FAMILY SERVICES INC
  • Who funds Hospice of the Bluegrass Inc
  • Who funds CENTRE COLLEGE
  • Who funds Big Shoulders Fund
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
  • Who funds University of Chicago
  • Who funds HOSPARUS INC HOSPARUS HEALTH
  • Who funds HUMANE SOCIETY OF HARRISON COUNTY INC
  • Who funds BEREA COLLEGE
  • Who funds PARKINSON'S FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds MAYO CLINIC
  • Who funds Northwestern University
  • Who funds KEELING CURVE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
  • Who funds SCAD RESEARCH INC
  • Who funds The Lexington Hearing & Speech Center 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.

Blue Grass Community Foundation IncKY19.3× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Blue Grass Community Foundation Inc · Rosenstein Family Charitable Foundation Inc · The HEP Foundation Business Trust L Edwin Paulson Jr Trustee · Christian Word Ministries Inc · Elhapa Foundation Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · Norman & Elizabeth Brown Family Charitable Corporation · Isaac Van Meter IV Fam Fund Inc Agy · William T Young Foundation Inc · Vanmeterbarnhart Family Fund · Crutcher Family Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc

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 Bertha Lebus Charitable Trust 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Bertha Lebus Charitable Trust?

    Find your warmest path to Bertha Lebus Charitable Trust through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 84 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph