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Cape Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Cape Foundation Inc

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.

$263k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$787kArts & Culture$230kPhilanthropy$26kEnvironment$13kAnimals$11kHuman Services$10kHousing & Shelter$10kHealth$8kOther$0
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $2k
  • $10k–50k10 grants · $261k
$25,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$269k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$35,000
IRVINE NATURE CENTER$26,000
NATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL$25,000
FLINT RIVER COUNCIL BSA$25,000
ABILITIES NETWORK$25,000
RADCLIFFE CREEK SCHOOL$25,000
FIVE SMOOTH STONES FOUNDATION$25,000
GREEN STREET ACADEMY$25,000
FRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE INC$25,000
BALTIMORE CLASSICAL GUITAR SOCIETY$25,000
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERIA$2,000
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 (FY19–20, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 19%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%DRINK AT THE WELL INC: $5k → 19%DRINK AT THE WELL INC: $5k → 19%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

MA
PA
NJ
VA
MD
SC
DC
GA
TX
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 10% of Cape Foundation Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 53% of the giving stays in MD; by stated purpose, 42%.

Cape Foundation Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 11% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

83%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 25 repeat orgs$230k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +25% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.

25 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
19

Total granted

$1.2M
$155k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+25%
+11%

Still filing today

72%
47%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $75k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureEnvironmentHealthFood & NutritionHuman ServicesOther
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

  • Williams College
    5× · 2017–2024 · $382k · revenue +87%
  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2019–2021 · $178k · revenue +25%
  • BC
    BALTIMORE CLASSICAL GUITAR SOCIETY INC
    8× · 2018–2025 · $125k · revenue +151%

Funded once

  • WC
    WILLIAMS COLLEGE HYDE TEACHING
    one grant, 2023 · $100k
  • KA
    KENT ATTAINABLE HOUSING INC
    one grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue -16%
  • NW
    NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +39%
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
Blue Water Baltimore

To restore the quality of baltimore's rivers, streams and harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy, and thriving communities.

Environment
2
Bullis School

Bullis school provides a student-centered balanced experience in academics, arts, athletics and community service. bullis uniquely prepares all students to become caring citizens and creative, critical thinkers who will thrive in…

Education
3
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.

—
4
Boston Architectural College

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

—
5
The Waldorf School of Baltimore Inc

The waldorf school of baltimore educates and inspires children to think, act, and feel with depth, imagination, and purpose.

—
6
Delaware Museum of Nature and Science Inc

The museum is an educational corporation formed to ignite a life-long passion for exploring, discovering, and valuing nature and science.

—
7
Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International
8
Glen Foerd Conservation Corporation

Glen foerd stewards an eclectic riverfront estate for the enjoyment and educational benefit of the community. drawing from the estate's architecture, art, material culture, and history-as well as its gardens and waterways-glen foerd…

Environment
9
Thomas Jefferson School of Law

The mission of the school is to provide outstanding legal education in a collegial and supportive environment with attention to newly emerging areas of law, particularly those related to technological development, globalization and the…

Education
10
University of Maryland Physicians Pa

Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…

—
11
Cfa Society Baltimore Inc

The cfa society baltimore, inc. was founded in 1948. the cfa society baltimore, inc. was established to provide the financial community with information and knowledge, while advocating ethical conduct with regard to investments and…

—
12
Maryland Institute

Degree granting college-maryland institute college of art is a private college dedicated to the education of professional artists and the further advancement of art in the community.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Baltimore Community Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is National Wildlife Federation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

30 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. 30 of the 48 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
30/30
Grantees still filing
22/30
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Williams College: $381,500 · EducationWilliams CollegeJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $177,500 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYRADCLIFFE CREEK SCHOOL INC: $75,000 · EducationRADCLIFFE CREEK SCHOOL INCGREEN STREET ACADEMY INC: $36,000 · EducationFRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE INC: $31,000 · Education+4 more: $55,500 · Education+4 moreWILLIAMS COLLEGE HYDE TEACHING: $100,000 · OtherWILLIAMS COLLEGE HYDE TEACHINGNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL: $75,000 · OtherNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVALIndividual grant recipient: $50,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientBALTIMORE SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS: $30,000 · OtherBALTIMORE SCHOOL FOR THE ARTSOUTERARTS MARYLAND AKA NATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL: $27,380 · OtherOUTERARTS MARYLAND AKA NATIONA…FLINT RIVER COUNCIL BSA: $25,000 · OtherFLINT RIVER COUNCIL BSA+16 more: $61,250 · Other+16 moreBALTIMORE CLASSICAL GUITAR SOCIETY INC: $125,000 · Arts & CultureBALTIMORE CLA…BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC: $27,000 · Arts & CultureBALTIMORE SYM…+5 more: $8,000 · Arts & CultureABILITIES NETWORK INC: $25,000 · HealthNATIONAL MEDICAL FELLOWSHIPS INC: $7,500 · HealthIRVINE NATURAL SCIENCE CENTER INC: $27,000 · EnvironmentEASTERN SHORE LAND CONSERVANCY INC: $2,400 · EnvironmentGUNPOWDER RIVERKEEPER INC: $2,000 · Environment+2 more: $750 · EnvironmentBALTIMORE CIVIC FUND INC: $20,000 · PhilanthropyBALTIMORE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 · PhilanthropyDRINK AT THE WELL INC: $10,005 · Human Services
Education$756,500Other$368,630Arts & Culture$160,000Health$32,500Environment$32,150Philanthropy$21,000Human Services$10,005

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 budgetWilliams College: $381,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $177,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBALTIMORE CLASSICAL GUITAR SOCIETY INC: $125,000 over 8y, 12% of budgetRADCLIFFE CREEK SCHOOL INC: $75,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetGREEN STREET ACADEMY INC: $36,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetFRIENDS SCHOOL OF BALTIMORE INC: $31,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC: $27,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetIRVINE NATURAL SCIENCE CENTER INC: $27,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetABILITIES NETWORK INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFIVE SMOOTH STONES FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBALTIMORE CIVIC FUND INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWASHINGTON COLLEGE: $17,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHWEST BALTIMORE CHARTER SCHOOL INC: $11,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetDRINK AT THE WELL INC: $10,005 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetKENT ATTAINABLE HOUSING INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetNATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL MEDICAL FELLOWSHIPS INC: $7,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCENTER STAGE ASSOCIATES INC: $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA DARDEN SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGUNPOWDER RIVERKEEPER INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetSULTANA EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBALTIMORE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGETTYSBURG FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Battlefield Trust: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetElijahs Promise Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSHORERIVERS INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHESTERTOWN VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHESAPEAKE WILDLIFE HERITAGE INC: $250 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.

T Rowe Price Program …Baltimore Community F…France-Merrick Founda…The Keith Campbell Fo…Mid Shore Community F…David a Bramble Found…The Seip Family Found…The Llandaff Family T…Lynn W and Timothy W …Dock Street FoundationThe Robert Wood Johns…Middendorf Foundation…
T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving IncMD21.8× affinity10 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving Inc · Baltimore Community Foundation Inc · France-Merrick Foundation Inc · The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc · Mid Shore Community Foundation Inc · David a Bramble Foundation Inc · The Seip Family Foundation Limited Eevercore Trust CO C/O Ashley Ferriello · The Llandaff Family Trust · Lynn W and Timothy W Peters Family Foundation · Dock Street Foundation · The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation · Middendorf Foundation Inc

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 70%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • Eastern Shore Land Conservancy Inc: 100% of income from government
  • Kent Attainable Housing Inc: 100% of income from government
  • Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Inc: 17% of income from government
  • Shorerivers Inc: 13% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Inc: 11% of income from government
  • Sultana Education Foundation Inc: 8% of income from government
  • Center Stage Associates Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Elijahs Promise Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Washington College: 0% of income from government
  • Williams College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely on government for over half their income
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 Cape Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to Cape Foundation Inc 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 48 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 Cape’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