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Boshell Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Boshell Foundation

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.

$500k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$200k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0197% 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$691kEducation$215kScience & Tech$166kSocial Science$70kFood & Nutrition$25kCommunity Improvement$25kHealth$19kHuman Services$10kOther$0
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$100,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$3.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICACO$200,000
DAVIDSON COLLEGE$100,000
WALTERS ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC$100,000
DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART$100,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

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

US giving: 86% of grant dollars ($1.1M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 14% that went abroad ($166k) is mapped below.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 83% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%TURNING POINT USA: $5k → 11%HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: $60k → 8%HEINZ HISTORY CENTER: $10k → 11%COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL: $25k → 5%DALLAS MESEUM OF ART: $10k → 14%ST JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $10k → 17%CARY LAKE MEMORIAL BENCH: $1k → 6%LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO: $50k → 8%JPA CHICAGO: $1k → 14%CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION: $1k → 6%WALTERS ART MUSEUM: $100k → 19%HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: $10k → 8%HEINZ HISTORY CENTER: $5k → 11%DALLAS AFTER SCHOOL: $25k → 14%ST JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $9k → 17%ART INSTITUTE OF CHICACO: $200k → 14%WALTERS ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC: $100k → 19%DALLAS AFTER SCHOOL: $15k → 14%THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHIAGO: $5k → 14%WALTERS MUSEUM: $50k → 19%SALVATION ARMY TEXAS: $10k → 14%WALTERS MUSEUM: $35k → 19%DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART: $100k → 14%WALTERS MUSEUM: $25k → 19%THE STEWPOT: $20k → 14%THE STEWPOT: $5k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

IL
MA
PA
MD
AZ
TN
NC
TX

Beyond the US: 14% of all-years giving ($166k)

1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.

grant dollars sentlessmore
United Kingdom$166k · 5 grants
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. International giving is mapped by the recipient’s country from the same 990 filings; comparable need data isn’t available at that grain.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

55%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$675k · 9 repeat orgs$553k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +46% since the first grant, against +33% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
11

Total granted

$675k
$353k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+46%
+33%

Still filing today

56%
45%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $200k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureHealthEnvironmentCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • TA
    THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
    2× · 2022–2025 · $205k · revenue +12%
  • Davidson College
    2× · 2023–2025 · $125k · revenue +46%
  • ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC
    2× · 2022–2023 · $19k · revenue +59%

Funded once

  • WA
    WALTERS ART MUSEUM
    one grant, 2017 · $100k
  • IO
    INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL ARCHAELOGY
    one grant, 2017 · $100k
  • Southern Methodist Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $50k · revenue +37%
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.

1
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education
2
Texas Christian University

Texas christian university is an institution of higher education which includes nine major academic units: liberal arts, science and engineering, business, education, fine arts, communication, honors, nursing and health sciences, and the…

Education
3
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
4
Dickinson College

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

Education
5
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
6
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
7
University of Dallas

The university of dallas is dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom, of truth, and of virtue as the proper and primary ends of education. the university seeks to educate its students so they may develop the intellectual and moral virtues,…

Education
8
DePauw University

Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…

Education
9
Savannah College of Art and DesignInc

Scad prepares talented students for creative professions through engaged teaching and learning in a positively oriented university environment.

Education
10
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston

The museum of fine arts, houston serves as a welcoming and inclusive place for all people, connecting the communities of houston with diverse histories of art spanning 6,000 years and six continents. through our permanent collections,…

Arts & Culture
11
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
12
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Dallas Museum of Art; the most unlike its peers is Walters Art Museum Foundation Inc. 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

12 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. 12 of the 22 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
7/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

WALTERS MUSEUM: $110,000 · OtherWALTERS MUSEUMWALTERS ART MUSEUM: $100,000 · OtherWALTERS ART MUSEUMINSTITUTE OF NATIONAL ARCHAELOGY: $100,000 · OtherINSTITUTE OF NATIONAL ARCHAELOGYHARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: $70,000 · OtherHARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOLINSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY: $66,000 · OtherINSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGYTHE STEWPOT: $25,000 · Other+5 more: $27,000 · Other+5 moreTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $205,000 · EducationTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGODavidson College: $125,000 · EducationDavidson CollegeSouthern Methodist University: $50,000 · EducationSouthern Methodist UniversityDALLAS AFTERSCHOOL: $40,000 · EducationDALLAS AFTERSCHOOLDallas Museum of Art: $100,000 · Arts & CultureDallas Museum of ArtWALTERS ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC: $100,000 · Arts & CultureWALTERS ART MUSEUM FOUND…Lyric Opera of Chicago: $50,000 · Arts & CultureLyric Opera of ChicagoHISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA: $15,000 · Arts & CultureHISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WE…COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL: $25,000 · Community ImprovementST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $19,000 · HealthCHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 · Environment
Other$498,000Education$420,000Arts & Culture$265,000Community Improvement$25,000Health$19,000Environment$1,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $205,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDavidson College: $125,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDallas Museum of Art: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSouthern Methodist University: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDALLAS AFTERSCHOOL: $40,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetCOMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL: $25,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $19,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA: $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTURNING POINT USA INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

National Philanthropi…Fidelity Investments …
National Philanthropic TrustPA10.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Boshell Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Boshell Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    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 Boshell Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Boshell 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 22 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Boshell’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