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Plinth

· Private foundation

Cornerstone Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$106k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$45k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Philanthropy$340kHuman Services$100kReligion$79kHousing & Shelter$60kHealth$39kPublic Safety & Disaster$34kYouth Development$15kCivil Rights$15kOther$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $1k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $105k
$15,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNITED WAY OF MASS BAY & MERRIMACK$44,500
FIRST METHODIST CHURCH$15,569
BETHANY HILL PLACE$15,000
FAMILY HOMELESS SHELTER - FAMILY PROMISE$15,000
WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER$14,500
THE SOCIETY OF JESUS OF NEW ENGLAND$823
CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF WORCESTER$340
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–23, $80k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $20k → 8%SOUTHEAST ASIAN COALITION: $20k → 11%SOUTHEAST ASIAN COALITION: $20k → 11%FATHERS UPLIFT: $20k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

64%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$442k · 7 repeat orgs$250k to everyone else

7 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
10

Total granted

$442k
$190k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-3%
+14%

Still filing today

43%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 43% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $61k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesPhilanthropyReligionYouth DevelopmentEducationOther

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

  • United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc
    6× · 2017–2024 · $254k · revenue -3%
  • FM
    FIRST METHODIST CHURCH
    7× · 2017–2025 · $74k
  • SOUTHEAST ASIAN COALITION OF CENTRAL MA
    2× · 2022–2023 · $40k · revenue -3%

Funded once

  • THE LENNY ZAKIM FUND
    one grant, 2021 · $42k · revenue -64%
  • CV
    CAPE VERDEAN WOMEN UNITED INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $20k · revenue +91%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2022 · $20k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Urban Impact Initiative Massachusetts

Urban Impact is dedicated to prioritizing the reduction of the impact of poverty for families in the Commonwealth. The organization offers a plethora of small business corporate and community opportunities. These opportunities include…

Youth Development
2
Massachusetts Council of Human Services Providers Inc

To advance the interests of the human services sector and providers through advocacy, education, and engagement of diverse stakeholders for collective impact.

3
Massachusetts Nonprofit Network

The mission of the massachusetts nonprofit network is to unite and strengthen the nonprofit sector in the commonwealth through public policy, public awareness, and capacity building services.

Education
4
Massachusetts Education & Career Opportunities Inc

Massachusetts education and career opportunities, inc. (massedco, inc.) is a statewide network of service sites that provides education and career advising to over 12,000 low-income, first generation individuals each year. massedco…

Education
5
St Mary's Center for Women & Children Inc

St. Mary's Center for Women and Children (SMC), a multi-service organization supporting women, children, and families, believes shelter is not enough to erase the devastation of cyclical poverty and homelessness.Grounded in social justice,…

Unclassified
6
Ywca of Southeastern Massachusetts Inc

The organization's mission is to empower women and girls and their families, and to eliminate racism. to accomplish these goals, the ywca provides a wide range of services in four areas: adult, youth, health, and residential.

7
Massachusetts Fair Housing Center Inc

Mfhc is committed to ending systemic housing discrimination and creating inclusive communities through education, outreach, advocacy, housing counseling and enforcement.

Housing & Shelter
8
The Massachusetts Association for Community Action Inc

To strengthen and connect the statewide network of community action agencies and collectively advocate for an end to poverty.

Civil Rights
9
Massachusetts Regional Employment Board Association

The massachusetts workforce association (mwa) is a statewide membership association that leads, advocates and convenes on behalf of the massachusetts workforce development system.

Employment
10
Rcap Solutions Inc Formerly Rural Housing Improvement Inc

Rental assistance received from a government agency under section 8 of the housing assistance payments program. providing technical assistance and training to low-income rural communities and other agencies in order to provide or enhance…

11
Jewish Vocational Service Inc

To empower individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers, while partnering with employers to hire, develop, and retain productive workforces.

Employment
12
Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership Inc D/B/a Metro Housing Boston

Metro housing boston mobilizes wide-ranging resources to provide innovative and personalized services that lead families and individuals to housing stability, economic security, and an improved quality of life.

Housing & Shelter

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trinity Boston Connects Inc and the most unlike its peers is United Way of Massachusetts Bay 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

9 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 21 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
4/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc — $254,000 · PhilanthropyUnited Way Of Massachusetts Bay IncFIRST METHODIST CHURCH — $73,631 · OtherFIRST METHODIST CHURCHUNITED WAY OF MASS BAY & MERRIMACK — $44,500 · OtherUNITED WAY OF MASS BAY & MERRIMACKWE ARE BETTER TOGETHER — $39,500 · OtherWE ARE BETTER TOGETHERIndividual grant recipient — $20,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientFAMILY HOMELESS SHELTER — $15,000 · OtherFAMILY HOMELESS SHELTERFAMILY HOMELESS SHELTER - FAMILY PROMISE — $15,000 · OtherFAMILY HOMELESS SHELTER - FAMILY PROMISEIndividual grant recipient — $13,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipientJEREMIAH'S HOSPICE INC — $13,500 · OtherJEREMIAH'S HOSPICE INCIndividual grant recipient — $11,000 · Other+4 more — $5,744 · OtherSOUTHEAST ASIAN COALITION OF CENTRAL MA — $40,000 · Human ServicesSOUTHEAST ASIAN …CAPE VERDEAN WOMEN UNITED INC — $20,000 · Human ServicesCAPE VERDEAN WOM…American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $20,000 · Human ServicesAmerican Nationa…FATHERS UPLIFT INCORPORATED — $20,000 · Human ServicesFATHERS UPLIFT I…THE LENNY ZAKIM FUND — $41,500 · ReligionBETHANY HILL PLACE — $30,000 · EducationTRINITY BOSTON CONNECTS INC — $15,000 · Youth Development
Philanthropy$254,000Other$251,375Human Services$100,000Religion$41,500Education$30,000Youth Development$15,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUnited Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc — $254,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE LENNY ZAKIM FUND — $41,500 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetSOUTHEAST ASIAN COALITION OF CENTRAL MA — $40,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetBETHANY HILL PLACE — $30,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetCAPE VERDEAN WOMEN UNITED INC — $20,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFATHERS UPLIFT INCORPORATED — $20,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTRINITY BOSTON CONNECTS INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER — $340 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc
  • Who funds THE LENNY ZAKIM FUND
  • Who funds SOUTHEAST ASIAN COALITION OF CENTRAL MA
  • Who funds BETHANY HILL PLACE
  • Who funds CAPE VERDEAN WOMEN UNITED INC
  • Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches
  • Who funds FATHERS UPLIFT INCORPORATED
  • Who funds TRINITY BOSTON CONNECTS INC
  • Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER

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.

Boston Foundation IncMA14.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · 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 Cornerstone 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 30%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 23%
  • Cape Verdean Women United Inc37% of income from government
  • United Way of Massachusetts Bay Inc23% of income from government
  • Fathers Uplift Incorporated22% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 21 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph