Connecticut · Private foundation
Cornelia and Michael Bessie 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.
- $168k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 20
- Grants FY2025
- 14
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 50%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $7,500
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $20,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 6 to 26
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 9
- Total assets, FY2025
- $3.4M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 50% of the organizations Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 47% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 53% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $63k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 20 | $168k | 55% |
| FY2024 | 14 | $134k | 50% |
| FY2023 | 11 | $135k | 45% |
| FY2022 | 16 | $161k | 63% |
| FY2021 | 10 | $130k | 50% |
| FY2020 | 17 | $241k | 88% |
| FY2019 | 26 | $320k | 54% |
| FY2018 | 6 | $75k | 50% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flying Gravity Circus Inc | $88,500 | 6 | 9% |
| Classical Uprising | $81,000 | 5 | 6% |
| Harris Center for Conservation Education Inc | $73,700 | 6 | 1% |
| Ray of Light Farm Inc | $60,000 | 5 | 4% |
| Grand Monadnock Youth Choirs | $55,000 | 4 | 26% |
| Pat Mac's Pack Inc | $53,000 | 6 | 5% |
| New York Shakespeare Festival | $45,000 | 3 | 0% |
| Nuday | $40,000 | 3 | 5% |
| The Riley Farm Rescue Inc | $35,000 | 4 | 3% |
| City Seed Inc | $25,000 | 1 | 8% |
Show all 65 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 20 recipients with no EIN on record ($336k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 56 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: Cornelia Bessie Memorial Foundation · Liberty Bank Foundation Inc · Chelsea Groton Foundation · Peoples United Community Foundation · Hartford Foundation for Public Giving · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · Connecticut Foodshare Inc · Kitchings Family Foundation · The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut Inc · Aetna Foundation Inc · Bobs Discount Furniture Charitable Foundation Inc · New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
How this is measured
Compare Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation with peer funders
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Cornelia and Michael Bessie 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.
About Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation
- How much does Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation give?
- Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation reported 20 grants totaling $168,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 6 and 26 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (26%), Animals (13%), Food & Nutrition (10%).
- Who are Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Flying Gravity Circus Inc ($89k), Classical Uprising ($81k), Harris Center for Conservation Education Inc ($74k).
- Does Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 50% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Cornelia Bessie Memorial Foundation, Liberty Bank Foundation Inc, Chelsea Groton Foundation.
- Where is Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation based?
- Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation is based in CT.
Play a game based on Cornelia and Michael Bessie’s filings →