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Davis Educational Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Davis Educational Foundation

To strengthen the undergraduate programs of public and private, regionally accredited baccalaureate degree granting colleges and universities located in New England through grants.

$3.4M
Granted FY2024still arriving
22
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$322k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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.

Education$29MEmployment$723kEnvironment$529kScience & Tech$260kHealth$108kFood & Nutrition$10k
02FY2024 · 22 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k7 grants · $70k
  • $50k–250k9 grants · $1.5M
  • $250k+6 grants · $1.8M
$159,790
Median grant
6
States reached
$130M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
University of Vermont$322,148
College of Our Lady of the Elms$317,627
Rhode Island School of Design$315,247
University of Connecticut$297,000
Eastern Connecticut State University$281,120
Salem State University$274,374
Bowdoin College$249,300
Babson College$240,000
Lasell University$233,000
Plymouth State University$231,985
Boston College$159,790
Boston University$140,000
University System of New Hampshire$127,794
Five Colleges Incorporated$84,700
University of New England$80,000
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 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 82% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Marine Biological Laboratory: $250k → 8%Merrimack College: $229k → 10%Fitchburg State University: $251k → 11%Simmons University: $300k → 16%Association of American Colleges & Universities: $373k → 14%University of Connecticut: $297k → 11%Eastern Connecticut State University: $281k → 12%Salve Regina University: $303k → 7%Bryant University: $294k → 14%Johnson State College: $225k → 9%Bennington College Corporation: $300k → 11%Franklin Pierce University: $234k → 9%University of New Hampshire: $360k → 9%Dartmouth College: $245k → 10%Bowdoin College: $249k → 7%University of New England: $255k → 9%Unity College: $291k → 13%University of Maine System: $297k → 15%Northeastern University: $250k → 16%Eastern Connecticut State University: $245k → 12%University of New Haven: $234k → 12%Rivier University: $234k → 7%Forum for the Future of Higher Education: $300k → 8%Southern New Hampshire University: $352k → 7%Plymouth State University: $232k → 10%College of Our Lady of the Elms: $318k → 17%University of Massachusetts: $483k → 8%College of Our Lady of the Elms: $240k → 17%Albertus Magnus College: $249k → 12%Brown University: $225k → 14%Champlain College Inc: $282k → 10%University of Massachusetts Lowell: $296k → 8%University of Vermont: $322k → 10%Smith College: $251k → 12%Springfield College: $265k → 17%University System of New Hampshire: $300k → 7%Rhode Island School of Design: $315k → 14%Johnson & Wales University: $227k → 14%Worcester Polytechnic Institute: $240k → 11%Massachusetts Institute Of Technology: $300k → 8%New England College: $225k → 7%Harvard University: $241k → 8%Salem State University: $274k → 10%Babson College: $240k → 7%The Boston Consortium For Higher Education Inc: $735k → 8%Lasell University: $289k → 8%Lasell University: $282k → 8%Lasell University: $233k → 8%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 8% of Davis Educational Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 99% of the giving stays in ME; by stated purpose, 93%.

Davis Educational Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
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.

79%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$23M · 67 repeat orgs$6.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +21% for those funded once.

67 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2024, 52 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

67
43

Total granted

$23M
$5.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%
+21%

Still filing today

84%
84%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $666k 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
EducationScience & TechOther
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

  • SN
    Southern New Hampshire University
    3× · 2018–2023 · $681k · revenue +100%
  • MERRIMACK COLLEGE
    4× · 2017–2022 · $555k · revenue +77%
  • RU
    Rivier University
    3× · 2017–2021 · $464k · revenue +61%

Funded once

  • AA
    AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIESgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $373k · revenue +55%
  • FF
    FORUM FOR THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
    one grant, 2017 · $300k · revenue -58%
  • WS
    WESTFIELD STATE UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2022 · $299k
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
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
2
Dickinson College

Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship

Education
3
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
4
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
5
Meredith College

Meredith college, grounded in the liberal arts and committed to professional preparation, educates and inspires students to live with integrity and provide leadership for the needs, opportunities and challenges of society.

Education
6
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education
7
Macalester College

Macalester is committed to being a preeminent liberal arts college with an educational program known for its high standards for scholarship and its special emphasis on internationalism, multiculturalism, and service to society.

Education
8
Mcdaniel College Inc

Mcdaniel college is a diverse student-centered community committed to excellence in the liberal arts & sciences and professional studies with careful mentoring and attention to the individual. mcdaniel changes lives. we challenge students…

Education
9
Randolph College Inc

See detailed description of organization's primary mission provided on schedule o

Education
10
Manhattanville University

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

Education
11
Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh dickinson university is a center of academic excellence dedicated to the preparation of world citizens through global education. the university strives to provide students with the multi-disciplinary, intercultural, and ethical…

Education
12
Carleton College

See schedule o.founded in 1866, carleton college is a private, coeducational liberal arts college of 2,007 students located in the historic river town of northfield, minnesota. nationally recognized as the nation's top college for…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Connecticut College; the most unlike its peers is Marlboro College. 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

103 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. 103 of the 119 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)
100/103
Grantees still filing
76/103
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LASELL UNIVERSITY: $1,352,675 · EducationLASELL UNIVERSITYThe Boston Consortium for Higher Educati: $833,000 · EducationSouthern New Hampshire University: $681,400 · Education+88 more: $16,968,695 · Education+88 moreUNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $1,655,381 · OtherUNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF NEW HAMPSHIREUNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM INC: $1,364,778 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MAINE SYSTEM INCUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: $1,323,522 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTSCOMMUNITY COLLEGE OF VERMONT - MONTPELIER: $1,191,920 · OtherCOMMUNITY COLLEGE OF VERMONT - MONTPE…EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY: $839,793 · OtherEASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE: $564,528 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRIC…CAPE COD COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $504,783 · Other+19 more: $2,734,279 · Other+19 moreBROWN UNIVERSITY: $418,494 · Community ImprovementMARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY: $249,898 · Science & Tech
Education$19,835,770Other$10,178,984Community Improvement$418,494Science & Tech$249,898

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLASELL UNIVERSITY: $1,352,675 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetThe Boston Consortium for Higher Educati: $833,000 over 2y, 38% of budgetSouthern New Hampshire University: $681,400 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOLLEGE OF OUR LADY OF THE ELMS: $567,627 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetMERRIMACK COLLEGE: $554,603 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetRivier University: $464,128 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetBABSON COLLEGE: $450,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $418,494 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION: $385,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetSALVE REGINA UNIVERSITY: $368,075 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $353,345 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetRHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN: $350,247 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of New England: $344,800 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of New Haven: $337,582 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBRYANT UNIVERSITY: $328,596 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetNew England College: $326,275 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetUnity Environmental University: $316,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetSACRED HEART UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED: $313,098 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetSIMMONS UNIVERSITY: $309,750 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHOMAS COLLEGE: $304,197 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $300,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFORUM FOR THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION: $300,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT FOUNDATION INC: $297,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE: $285,773 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCHAMPLAIN COLLEGE INCORPORATED: $281,704 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $274,998 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBowdoin College: $274,300 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetALBERTUS MAGNUS COLLEGE: $273,800 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $269,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSPRINGFIELD COLLEGE: $264,695 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Middlebury College: $263,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY: $262,345 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY: $249,898 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetColby-Sawyer College: $244,583 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFranklin Pierce University: $243,800 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $241,042 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE: $234,790 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY: $234,549 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGORDON COLLEGE: $231,033 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetWHEATON COLLEGE: $225,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBOSTON LIBRARY CONSORTIUM INC: $225,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetEMERSON COLLEGE: $213,713 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHusson University: $207,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE: $203,600 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCAMBRIDGE COLLEGE INC: $194,729 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetLESLEY UNIVERSITY: $193,349 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSAINT MICHAEL'S COLLEGE: $193,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD: $192,780 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 Collegiate A…Miller Ua Morey & Hel…O'Meara Foundation IncThe George I Alden Tr…Fidelity FoundationFrederic E Skillings …Vera Grace Greenlaw T…Ralph & Helen Kelley …Council of Independen…Albert H & Reuben S S…Wheeler Clinic IncCommunity Foundation …
National Collegiate Athletic AssociationIN32.6× affinity14 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Collegiate Athletic Association · Miller Ua Morey & Helen Schol · O'Meara Foundation Inc · The George I Alden Trust · Fidelity Foundation · Frederic E Skillings Trust Uw · Vera Grace Greenlaw Trust Portland Trust Co LLC · Ralph & Helen Kelley Fdn · Council of Independent Colleges · Albert H & Reuben S Stone Fund · Wheeler Clinic Inc · Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts

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

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 90%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Marine Biological Laboratory: 32% of income from government
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 26% of income from government
  • Norwich University: 14% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 11% of income from government
  • Brandeis University: 8% of income from government
  • Landmark College Inc: 6% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 5% of income from government
  • Montserrat College of Art Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 4% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston College: 2% of income from government
  • Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Merrimack College: 2% of income from government
  • Trustees of Clark University: 2% of income from government
  • Boston Library Consortium Inc: 1% of income from government
  • University of New Haven: 1% of income from government
  • Wesleyan University: 1% of income from government
  • Bay Path University: 1% of income from government
  • Albertus Magnus College: 1% of income from government
  • The Sisters of Saint Ann Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Lasell University: 1% of income from government
  • Bennington College Corporation: 1% of income from government
  • Regis College: 1% of income from government
  • Mitchell College: 1% of income from government
  • University of Saint Joseph: 1% of income from government
  • Stonehill College Inc: 1% of income from government
  • University of Hartford: 1% of income from government
  • Saint Michael's College: 1% of income from government
  • Wellesley College: 1% of income from government
  • Fairfield University: 1% of income from government
  • Suffolk University: 1% of income from government
  • Mcphs University: 1% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Middlebury College: 0% of income from government
  • Sacred Heart University Incorporated: 0% of income from government
  • The Trustees of the Smith College: 0% of income from government
  • Curry College: 0% of income from government
  • Quinnipiac University: 0% of income from government
  • The Trustees of Mount Holyoke College: 0% of income from government
  • Simmons University: 0% of income from government
  • Western New England University: 0% of income from government
  • Franklin W Olin College of Engineering Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Babson College: 0% of income from government
  • Champlain College Incorporated: 0% of income from government
  • Gordon College: 0% of income from government
  • Nichols College: 0% of income from government
  • Connecticut College: 0% of income from government
  • Springfield College: 0% of income from government
  • Endicott College: 0% of income from government
  • Sterling College: 0% of income from government
  • Emerson College: 0% of income from government
  • Wheaton College: 0% of income from government
  • Lesley University: 0% of income from government
  • Boston Architectural College: 0% of income from government
  • American International College: 0% of income from government
  • Berklee College of Music Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Emmanuel College: 0% of income from government
  • Bentley University: 0% of income from government
  • Amherst College Trustees: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
9get no government money at all
12report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Davis Educational Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Davis Educational 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.

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 119 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 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

Play a game based on Davis Educational’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