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Darby Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Darby 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.

$300k
Granted FY2023
2
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$200k
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 2023.

Education$540kYouth Development$200kPublic Benefit$185kArts & Culture$110kPublic Safety & Disaster$25kHealth$25kInternational$5k
02FY2023 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$200,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SQUASH HAVEN INC$200,000
THE FOUNDATION FOR CITY COLLEGE$100,000
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 (FY17–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 84% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%THE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INC: $100k → 8%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $15k → 17%ENDOWMENT OF THE UNITED STATES INST: $5k → 14%LYFORD CAY CLUB CHARITABLE TRUST: $25k → 13%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $15k → 17%WARRIOR-SCHOLAR PROJECT: $50k → 14%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $15k → 17%COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FED BUD: $25k → 14%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $15k → 17%COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: $10k → 14%THE FOUNDATION FOR CITY COLLEGE: $100k → 17%NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: $250k → 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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

25%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$275k · 3 repeat orgs$815k to everyone else

3 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2023, 3 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
8

Total granted

$275k
$515k

Still filing today

0%
88%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $300k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’23
EducationInternationalHuman ServicesArts & CulturePublic BenefitOther
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

  • CF
    COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NJ
    2× · 2017–2018 · $175k
  • TM
    THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
    4× · 2017–2020 · $60k
  • YU
    YALE UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2019–2020 · $40k

Funded once

  • NY
    New York Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $250k · revenue +51%
  • TA
    THE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue ×17
  • TH
    TREASURY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
    one grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue -42% · 28% of their budget
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
Institute for Experiential Learning Inc

The mission of the washington internship institute is to foster students' intellectual, personal, and professional development through individually tailored, quality internships and challenging academic coursework that take full advantage…

Education
2
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
3
Council On Foreign Relations Inc

The council on foreign relations (cfr) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and…

International
4
Manhattanville University

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

Education
5
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
6
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art

See schedule ovision: the cooper union for the advancement of science and art is dedicated to peter cooper's radical commitment to diversity and his founding vision that fair access to an inspiring free education and forums for courageous…

Education
7
Long Island University

To provide excellence and access in private higher education to those who seek to expand their knowledge and prepare themselves for meaningful, educated lives and for service to their communities and the world.

—
8
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
9
Yale University

To improve the world through research, scholarship, education, preservation, and practice.

Education
10
Foreign Policy Research Institute

The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…

International
11
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
12
Boston Architectural College

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

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The American Exchange Project Inc; the most unlike its peers is New York University. 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 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. 9 of the 13 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
7/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

New York University: $250,000 · EducationNew York UniversityTHE FOUNDATION FOR CITY COLLEGE: $100,000 · EducationTHE FOUNDATION FOR CITY COLLEGETHE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INC: $100,000 · EducationTHE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INCWARRIOR-SCHOLAR PROJECT FOUNDATION: $50,000 · EducationWARRIOR-SCHOLAR PROJECT FOUNDATIONCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NJ: $175,000 · OtherCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NJTHE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $60,000 · OtherTHE METROPOLITAN OPERAYALE UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · OtherYALE UNIVERSITYCOMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FED BUD: $25,000 · OtherCOMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FED…SQUASH HAVEN INC: $200,000 · Human ServicesSQUASH HAVEN INCTREASURY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: $50,000 · Arts & CultureTHE LYFORD CAY CLUB CHARITABLE TRUST INC: $25,000 · InternationalENDOWMENT OF THE US INSTITUTE OF PEACE: $5,000 · InternationalCOMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: $10,000 · Public Benefit
Education$500,000Other$300,000Human Services$200,000Arts & Culture$50,000International$30,000Public Benefit$10,000

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 budgetNew York University: $250,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSQUASH HAVEN INC: $200,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetTHE FOUNDATION FOR CITY COLLEGE: $100,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTREASURY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: $50,000 over 1y, 28% of budgetWARRIOR-SCHOLAR PROJECT FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetCOMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: $10,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetENDOWMENT OF THE US INSTITUTE OF PEACE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

National Philanthropi…Jewish Communal FundGs Donor Advised Phil…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
National Philanthropic TrustPA12.8× affinity7 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Jewish Communal Fund · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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

2023
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Squash Haven Inc: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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 13 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2023, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Darby’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