Skip to content
Burke Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Burke Family Foundation

Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.9M
Granted FY2020
8
Grants FY2020
3
States reached
$750k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0193% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2020.

Health$1.4MHousing & Shelter$300kEducation$195kYouth Development$110kInternational$50kFood & Nutrition$25kRecreation & Sports$15kMembership Benefit$5kOther$0
02FY2020 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $150k
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.6M
$50,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MAINE MEDICAL CENTER$750,000
DANA FARBER FUND (AML RESEARCH FUND$600,000
PREBLE STREET$300,000
SPIRIT SERIES$50,000
PIVOT$50,000
WALTHAM BOYS & GIRLS CLUB$50,000
GOOD SHEPHERD FOOD BANK$25,000
FRIENDS OF PORTLAND ADULT EDUCATION$25,000
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.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–20, $300k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%PREBLE STREET: $300k → 7%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.
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.

13%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$265k · 7 repeat orgs$1.8M to everyone else

7 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2020, 6 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
2

Total granted

$265k
$35k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+55%
+97%

Still filing today

43%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2020, 3% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.8M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20
HealthRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesInternationalEducationFood & NutritionOther
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

  • SS
    SPIRIT SERIES INC
    4× · 2017–2020 · $105k · revenue +55%
  • TT
    The Telling Room
    3× · 2017–2019 · $45k · revenue +55%
  • PC
    Portland Community Squash
    3× · 2017–2019 · $15k · revenue +107%

Funded once

  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Incgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $30k · revenue +97%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF HOPE CEMETERY & WOODS
    one grant, 2019 · $5k · revenue -91%
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
Penobscot Community Health Center

Penobscot Community Health Center (PCHC) is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1997 that is governed by a Board of community volunteers and is the largest Federally Qualified Health Center in Maine. PCHC is driven by its mission…

Health
2
Portland Seamens Friend Society
—
3
Portsmouth General Hospital Foundation
—
4
Eastern Maine Medical Center Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Cen

Eastern Maine Medical Center d/b/a Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center strives to provide exceptional primary and specialty healthcare with a passionate pursuit of excellence in patient safety, clinical quality, and service. Our…

Health
5
Lakewood Northern Light Continuing Care Lakewood

Lakewood d/b/a Northern Light Continuing Care Lakewood is a 105 bed long-term care facility that provides skilled, dementia and long-term nursing care.

Health
6
Maine Quality Counts

Maine Quality Counts is transforming health and healthcare in Maine by leading, collaborating, and aligning improvement efforts.

—
7
Maine Health Access Foundation Inc
Health
8
Massachusetts E-Health Collaborative
—
9
Maine Council on Aging

A broad multi-disciplinary network that works to ensure we can all live healthy, engaged, and secure lives as we age in our homes and communities. With the voices of people with lived experience, we work on policy issues related to…

Unclassified
10
Portsmouth Reads
Education
11
Penobscot Bay Medical Center

Penobscot Bay Medical Center (PBMC) is an acute care hospital that offers inpatient and outpatient care, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services, patient and community education, and a full range of specialty services through…

—
12
PassivhausMAINE

PassivhausMAINE is a non-profit organization committed to decreasing carbon emissions, dependency on fossil fuels and the costs for winter heating in Maine.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Spirit Series Inc; the most unlike its peers is Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 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

11 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. 11 of the 16 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
9/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MaineHealth: $750,000 · HealthMaineHealthDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $30,000 · HealthDANA FARBER FUND (AML RESEARCH FUND: $600,000 · OtherDANA FARBER FUND (AML RESEARCH FUNDWALTHAM BOYS & GIRLS CLUB INC: $50,000 · OtherWALTHAM BOYS & GIRLS CLUB INCUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT: $35,000 · OtherSAINT ANGELA MERICI SCHOOL: $30,000 · Other+5 more: $80,000 · Other+5 morePREBLE STREET: $300,000 · Human ServicesPREBLE STREETSPIRIT SERIES INC: $105,000 · Arts & CulturePIVOT WORKS INC: $50,000 · InternationalThe Telling Room: $45,000 · Youth DevelopmentFRIENDS OF PORTLAND ADULT EDUCATION: $25,000 · Education
Health$780,000Other$795,000Human Services$300,000Arts & Culture$105,000International$50,000Youth Development$45,000Education$25,000

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 budgetMaineHealth: $750,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPREBLE STREET: $300,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetSPIRIT SERIES INC: $105,000 over 4y, 6.8% of budgetWALTHAM BOYS & GIRLS CLUB INC: $50,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetThe Telling Room: $45,000 over 3y, 2.4% of budgetDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF PORTLAND ADULT EDUCATION: $25,000 over 1y, 8.9% of budgetGood Shepherd Food Bank: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPortland Community Squash: $15,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetFRIENDS OF HOPE CEMETERY & WOODS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% 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.

Maine Community Found…Raymond James Charita…Vanguard Charitable E…The Blackbaud Giving …Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Maine Community Foundation IncME15.3× affinity5 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Burke Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Burke Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 29%
  • Waltham Boys & Girls Club Inc: 29% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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.

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 16 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Burke Family’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