· Public charity
Best Friends Foundation
Best friends is a youth development program which promotes healthy social-emotional behavior and works to prevent student engagement in activities that would put them at risk, especially with specific interest to bullying and violence.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2023.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TRINITY WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY | $5,805 |
| NORTH CAROLINA AT&T UNIVERSITY | $4,000 |
| KENT STATE UNIVERSITY | $2,000 |
| OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY | $2,000 |
| NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL UNIVERSITY | $2,000 |
| MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY | $2,000 |
| HARRISBURG UNIVERSITY | $2,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND | $1,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA | $1,000 |
| ALABAMA A&M UNIVERISTY | $1,000 |
| ST MARYS COLLEGE OF MARYLAND | $1,000 |
| PRINCE GEORGES COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $1,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER | $1,000 |
| MERCY COLLEGE | $1,000 |
| MARSHALL UNIVERSITY | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 89% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 33% of Best Friends Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 21% of the giving stays in DC; by stated purpose, 14%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
16 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2023, 3 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (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 FY2023, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k went to new ones.
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TCTRINITY COLLEGE3× · 2021–2023 · $13k · revenue +36%
THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY2× · 2021–2022 · $2k · revenue +11%- NYNew York University2× · 2021–2022 · $2k · revenue +30%
Funded once
- CSCARSON SCHOLARS FUND INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $18k · revenue +61%
- TUTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Educationone grant, 2021 · $2k · revenue +17%
- WSWINSTON SALEM STATE UNIVERSITYone grant, 2021 · $2k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.
To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.
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…
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…
The trustees of the university of pennsylvania (the "university") sees itself as having a public service mission. in such regard, the university aims to provide a rich and diverse educational environment for its students; to pioneer…
As the national university of the catholic church in the united states, founded and sponsored by the bishops of the country with the approval of the holy see, the catholic university of america is committed to being a comprehensive…
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.
Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship
Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Meredith college, grounded in the liberal arts and committed to professional preparation, educates and inspires students to live with integrity and provide leadership for the needs, opportunities and challenges of society.
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…
How this is measured
8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 31 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Verizon Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Enterprise Holdings Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Best Friends Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Best Friends Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Best Friends Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Best Friends Foundation 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.
Play a game based on Best Friends’ filings →