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Chu Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Chu Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$2.3M
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$1.3M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Public Benefit$9.1MEducation$3.2MArts & Culture$3.1MInternational$888kHealth$50k
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $248k
  • $250k+3 grants · $2.1M
$400,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$24M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HARVARD COLLEGE$1,257,532
PARTNERS IN HEALTH$404,494
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$400,000
MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA$188,269
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO$60,122
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION$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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 43% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $80k → 8%PARTNERS IN HEALTH: $409k → 16%ONEMUSIC PROJECT INC: $16k → 17%ALBUQUERQUE ACADAMY: $1.4M → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $25k → 19%MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $50k → 8%PARTNERS IN HEALTH: $404k → 16%ONEMUSIC PROJECT INC: $8k → 17%ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY: $882k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $50k → 19%MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $21k → 8%PARTNERS IN HEALTH: $50k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $400k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $25k → 19%HARVARD COLLEGE: $2.3M → 8%PARTNERS IN HEALTH: $25k → 16%NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: $968k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $25k → 19%HARVARD COLLEGE: $1.9M → 8%NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: $533k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $25k → 19%HARVARD COLLEGE: $1.3M → 8%NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: $349k → 17%HARVARD COLLEGE: $1.2M → 8%NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: $326k → 17%HARVARD COLLEGE: $1.1M → 8%NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: $115k → 17%HARVARD COLLEGE: $1.1M → 8%NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC: $23k → 17%HARVARD COLLEGE: $225k → 8%MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA: $209k → 17%MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA: $203k → 17%MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA: $200k → 17%MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA: $188k → 17%CHARLES WANG COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER: $25k → 17%CHARLES WANG COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER: $25k → 17%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.
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 5% of Chu Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 22% of the giving stays in NY; by stated purpose, 14%.

Chu Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 9.7% 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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$16M · 9 repeat orgs$0 to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
0

Total granted

$16M
$0

Still filing today

67%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthArts & CultureEducationOther
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

  • TP
    THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC
    5× · 2017–2022 · $2.3M · revenue +21%
  • AA
    ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY
    2× · 2017–2018 · $2.3M · revenue +38%
  • PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION
    4× · 2018–2024 · $888k · revenue +91%

Funded once

    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
    University of Miami

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

    Education
    2
    New York University

    Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

    Education
    3
    Columbia College Chicago

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

    Education
    4
    Manhattanville University

    To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

    Education
    5
    The Trustees of the Smith College

    Smith college educates women of promise for lives of distinction and purpose. a college of and for the world, smith college links the power of the liberal arts to excellence in research and scholarship, developing leaders for society's…

    Education
    6
    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
    7
    Cornell University

    Education, research, medical services and other public services.

    Education
    8
    Boston Architectural College

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

    —
    9
    Lehigh University

    The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

    Education
    10
    Ie New York College

    (see schedule o)

    Education
    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
    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
    How this is measured
    The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York; the most unlike its peers is Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation. 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

    8 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. 8 of the 11 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)
    8/8
    Grantees still filing
    8/8
    Grew since first funded

    Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

    HARVARD COLLEGE: $9,146,105 · OtherHARVARD COLLEGE+2 more: $267,503 · OtherTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $2,313,725 · Arts & CultureTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMP…MUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA: $800,279 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF CHINESE IN …ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY: $2,256,288 · EducationALBUQUERQUE ACADEMYTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $400,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLU…Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $151,520 · EducationUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $150,000 · EducationPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $888,244 · HealthCHARLES B WANG COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC: $50,000 · Health
    Other$9,413,608Arts & Culture$3,114,004Education$2,957,808Health$938,244

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

    25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $2,313,725 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY: $2,256,288 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $888,244 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetMUSEUM OF CHINESE IN AMERICA: $800,279 over 4y, 8.8% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $400,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $151,520 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $150,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCHARLES B WANG COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC: $50,000 over 2y, 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.

    How much its grantees rely on government

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

    2024
    ’20’21’22’23’24’25
    no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 35%
    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
    • Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    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 11 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    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