· Private foundation
Catherine & Paul Buttenwieser 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of Catherine & Paul Buttenwieser Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 81% of CATHERINE & PAUL BUTTENWIESER FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FIDELITY CHARITABLE | $8,514 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
5 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2023, 1 since wound down; 1 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, 72% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $33k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
THE TRUSTEES OF MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE2× · 2022–2023 · $50k · revenue +12%- BSBOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC2× · 2022–2023 · $31k · revenue +1%
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC2× · 2022–2023 · $1k · revenue +31%
Funded once
- EIEDVESTORS INCone grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue -50%
- BTBRAZELTON TOUCHPOINTS PROJECT INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue +129%
- PSPUTNEY SCHOOL INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +26%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…
Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…
Organization's mission bentley university believes good business can impact more than the bottom line - it can change the world. bentley is a community of future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting…
Bard college seeks to provide a challenging academic program and a supportive environment that fosters a collaborative interchange of ideas in the classroom as well as ambition to achieve excellence.
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.
To build a structurally sound and musically vital ensemble which seeks to explore and present music of the 20th century. all schools, movements and styles from the turn of the century to the present day will be offered. it is the practical…
The mission of the broad institute is to propel progress in biomedicine, through research aimed at the understanding and treatment of disease and the dissemination of scientific knowledge to the scientific community to benefit the public.…
Boston children's chorus harnesses the power of music to connect our city's diverse communities, cultivate empathy, and inspire social inquiry.
To provide access to high-quality music education for anyone who seeks it, regardless of economic status, ability level, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation.
Manhattan school of music is deeply committed to excellence in education, performance, and creative activity; to the humanity of the school's environment; and to the cultural enrichment of the larger community. a premiere international…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Childrens Museum and the most unlike its peers is Hathaway Brown School. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
17 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 25 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds EDVESTORS INC ↗
- Who funds BRAZELTON TOUCHPOINTS PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds PUTNEY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds HATHAWAY BROWN SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds FAMILYAID BOSTON INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS INC ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN MODERN OPERA COMPANY ↗
- Who funds BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds THE CHILDRENS MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE CO INC ↗
- Who funds THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC ↗
- Who funds FRACTURED ATLAS INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · Boston Foundation Inc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Catherine & Paul Buttenwieser Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
- Familyaid Boston Inc — 4% of income from government
- The Childrens Museum — 1% of income from government
- The Institute of Contemporary Art Inc — 1% of income from government
- Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras Inc — 1% of income from government
- The Trustees of Mount Holyoke College — 1% of income from government
- Edvestors Inc — 1% of income from government
- Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc — 0% of income from government
- American Repertory Theatre Co Inc — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.