How much does Bierly Boasberg Foundation give?

Bierly Boasberg Foundation reported 58 grants totaling $1,526,403 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 48 and 65 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Bierly Boasberg Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (32%), Education (22%), International (10%).

Who are Bierly Boasberg Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Nantucket Performing Arts Center Inc ($1.1M), Buckingham Browne & Nichols School ($292k), Save The Children Federation Inc ($179k).

Does Bierly Boasberg Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 17% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Bierly Boasberg Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Bierly Boasberg Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc, Boston Foundation Inc, Community Foundation for Nantucket Inc.

Where is Bierly Boasberg Foundation based?

Bierly Boasberg Foundation is based in MA.

Bierly Boasberg Foundation

Bierly Boasberg Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Bierly Boasberg Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.5M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$1.1M

Largest

01What it funds

0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.4MEducation$946kInternational$455kHealth$373kAnimals$240kPhilanthropy$235kHuman Services$165kRecreation & Sports$108kOther$0

02FY2025 · 58 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k48 grants · $86k
$10k–50k8 grants · $121k
$50k–250k1 grant · $213k
$250k+1 grant · $1.1M

$1,200

Median grant

States reached

$8.8M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
NANTUCKET PERFORMING ARTS CENTER	$1,105,924
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA	$213,083
DIAN FOSSEY GORILLA FUND	$29,814
DUKE UNIVERSITY	$25,559
Individual grant recipient	$13,000
SCONSET TRUST	$12,724
CAMP HOLIDAY TRAILS	$10,000
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF BOSTON	$10,000
NANTUCKET SAFE HARBOR FOR ANIMALS	$10,000
ASPCA	$10,000
NANTUCKET COTTAGE HOSPITAL	$6,000
THE NEW TEACHER PROJECT (TNTP)	$5,000
BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL	$5,000
CRADLES TO CRAYONS	$5,000
ENDEAVOR GLOBAL	$5,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $67k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 87% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

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.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

67%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.9M · 92 repeat orgs$1.4M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against +28% for those funded once.

92 repeat relationships: 48 still active in FY2025, 44 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.9M

$279k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%

+28%

Still filing today

65%

55%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 26% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.1M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHealthHuman ServicesArts & CultureAnimalsInternationalOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

BUCKINGHAM BROWNE & NICHOLS SCHOOL
6× · 2017–2022 · $292k · revenue +47%
Save The Children Federation Inc
9× · 2017–2025 · $179k · revenue +21%
PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION
8× · 2017–2024 · $161k · revenue +120%

Funded once

United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc
one grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue -3%
VR
VOTER REGISTRATION PROJECTgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue +35%
NT
NANTUCKET THEATER INSTITUTE
one grant, 2017 · $25k

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.

04Its field

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.

Boston Architectural College

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

—

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

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

United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—

Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education

Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

—

Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education

Northeastern University

Education

Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

—

The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education

Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education

Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New England Aquarium Corporation; the most unlike its peers is The Cameron and Hayden Lord Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

111 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 111 of the 169 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

109/111

Grantees still filing

80/111

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Arts & Culture$1,343,201Other$1,617,371Education$454,362International$351,648Philanthropy$286,138Health$246,471Recreation & Sports$96,202

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.

Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston IncMA28.5× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · Boston Foundation Inc · Community Foundation for Nantucket Inc · GivenGain Foundation USA · Eastern Bank Foundation · Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation Inc · Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation Inc · Nantucket Golf Club Foundation Inc · Mass General Brigham Incorporated & Affiliates Group Return · The George & Marie Chabot Charitable Foundation · The Hamilton Company Charitable Foundation · Richard K Lubin Family Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Bierly Boasberg Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Bierly Boasberg Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

22get no government money at all

15report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

1rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Bierly Boasberg Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Bierly Boasberg 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 Bierly Boasberg’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home