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· Private foundation

Dean Foundation Children (Ima)

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.

$220k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Human Services$560kHealth$152kEducation$110kRecreation & Sports$110kCommunity Improvement$110kHousing & Shelter$90kAnimals$88kCivil Rights$56k
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
18 DEGREES$20,000
CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES INC$20,000
THOM CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES$20,000
HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS$20,000
NURTURY$20,000
ELLIS MEMORIAL AND ELDRIDGE HOUSE$20,000
EAST END HOUSE INC$20,000
CAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION$20,000
EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC$20,000
MA SOCIETY PREVENTION OF CRUELTY$20,000
MASS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION$20,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $430k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 74% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%ROOM TO GROW: $10k → 17%EAST END HOUSE INC: $22k → 8%EAST END HOUSE INC: $20k → 8%EAST END HOUSE INC: $17k → 8%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $22k → 16%EAST END HOUSE INC: $17k → 8%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $20k → 16%EAST END HOUSE INC: $17k → 8%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $17k → 16%EAST END HOUSE INC: $17k → 8%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $17k → 16%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $17k → 16%EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $17k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $22k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $20k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $17k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $17k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $17k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $17k → 16%SOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $22k → 16%SOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $17k → 16%SOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $17k → 16%SOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $17k → 16%SOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $17k → 16%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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.3M · 15 repeat orgs$10k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +48% since the first grant, against -6% for those funded once.

15 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
1

Total granted

$1.3M
$10k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+48%
-6%

Still filing today

73%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesRecreation & SportsEducationHealthOther
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

  • 1D
    18 DEGREES INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $110k · revenue +48%
  • CC
    CAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $110k · revenue +29%
  • EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $110k · revenue +121%

Funded once

  • ROOM TO GROW NATIONAL INC
    one grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue -6%
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
Edward Street Child Services Inc

Collaborates to improve the quality and impact of early education and care, enhancing the development of young children and strengthening families in central massachusetts.

Environment
2
The Boston Children's School Inc

To promote the growth and development of children while teaching them how to learn efficiently and experience the joy of learning

Education
3
The Open Center for Children Inc

Since 1972, the open center for children has worked in partnership with families to create a nurturing early education and care experience. the play-based curriculum inspires children to become motivated, self-directed learners, feel…

—
4
Children's Hospital Corporation

Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service

Health
5
The Children's Center of Brookline and Greater Boston Inc

To provide quality daycare and early childhood education to families of brookline and greater boston.

Education
6
Campus Child Care Inc

To provide high quality care and education for young children and their families at harvard university and surrounding communities.

Human Services
7
Boston Community Pediatrics Inc

Boston community pediatrics (bcp) provides ambulatory pediatric and related health care services to the residents of boston, massachusetts, and surrounding communities. bcp is a new model of innovative pediatric healthcare that addresses…

Health
8
Lexington Playcare Center Inc

LPC's mission is to help children become good friends, proficient problem solvers, creative risk takers, and self-governing, accepting classmates. We want them to be as self-sufficient and independent as they can be based on their age and…

Human Services
9
Infant Toddler Children's Center Inc

To be a learning community where children, from infants to school age, come together with experienced and responsive teachers to learn about themselves, each other, and the world.

Human Services
10
Northeast Center for Youth and Families Inc

Provide a range of high-quality, community-based, behavioral health services to empower individuals and families to live healthy and successful lives.

Human Services
11
Brookline Schools Staff Children's Cente

The organization's missions is to provide quality child care to children of teachers in the brookline, ma school system and others as per qualification procedures.

—
12
Child Care of the Berkshires Inc

The organization provides child care services to families through child care centers and a network of family child care homes. child care of the berkshires also strengthens families through support services and home visiting focused on…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is East Boston Social Centers Inc; the most unlike its peers is City Mission 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

12 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. 12 of the 16 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
10/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

18 DEGREES INC: $110,000 · Other18 DEGREES INCNURTURY INC: $110,000 · OtherNURTURY INCMA SOCIETY PREVENTION OF CRUELTY: $88,000 · OtherMA SOCIETY PREVENTION OF CRUELTYCITY MISSION INC: $56,000 · OtherCITY MISSION INCCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES NEWBEDFORD: $49,000 · OtherCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES NEWBEDFORDMASS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION: $42,000 · OtherMASS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTIONCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES INC: $37,000 · OtherCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES INCCHILD AND FAMILY SVS OF NEW BEDFORD: $24,000 · OtherEAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $110,000 · Human ServicesEAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INCTHE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS INC: $110,000 · Human ServicesTHE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS INCEAST END HOUSE INC: $110,000 · Human ServicesEAST END HOUSE INCSOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE INC: $90,000 · Human ServicesSOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE INC+1 more: $10,000 · Human ServicesCAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION INC: $110,000 · Recreation & SportsCAMBRIDGE…ELLIS EARLY LEARNING INC: $110,000 · EducationELLIS EAR…DOUGLAS A THOM CLINIC INC: $110,000 · HealthDOUGLAS A…
Other$516,000Human Services$430,000Recreation & Sports$110,000Education$110,000Health$110,000

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 budget18 DEGREES INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetCAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION INC: $110,000 over 6y, 3.1% of budgetEAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetELLIS EARLY LEARNING INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetTHE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetNURTURY INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetDOUGLAS A THOM CLINIC INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetEAST END HOUSE INC: $110,000 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetSOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE INC: $90,000 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetCITY MISSION INC: $56,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES INC: $37,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetROOM TO GROW NATIONAL INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% 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.

  • Who funds 18 DEGREES INC ↗
  • Who funds CAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION INC ↗
  • Who funds EAST BOSTON SOCIAL CENTERS INC ↗
  • Who funds ELLIS EARLY LEARNING INC ↗
  • Who funds THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS INC ↗
  • Who funds NURTURY INC ↗
  • Who funds DOUGLAS A THOM CLINIC INC ↗
  • Who funds EAST END HOUSE INC ↗
  • Who funds SOUTH BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE INC ↗
  • Who funds CITY MISSION INC ↗
  • Who funds CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES INC ↗
  • Who funds ROOM TO GROW NATIONAL INC ↗

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.

Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc)MA21.8× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc · Boston Foundation Inc · Liberty Mutual Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · Franklin Square House Foundation Inc · Philanthropy Massachusetts Inc · Rockland Trust - East Boston Savings Bank Foundation Inc · Bushrod H Campbell & Adah F Hall Charity Fund · Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · American Online Giving Foundation Inc

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 Dean Foundation Children (Ima) funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Dean Foundation Children (Ima). Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 30%
  • 18 Degrees Inc: 66% of income from government
  • Nurtury Inc: 51% of income from government
  • East Boston Social Centers Inc: 40% of income from government
  • The Home for Little Wanderers Inc: 34% of income from government
  • Douglas a Thom Clinic Inc: 30% of income from government
  • Child and Family Services Inc: 22% of income from government
  • Cambridge Camping Association Inc: 17% of income from government
  • Ellis Early Learning Inc: 13% of income from government
  • East End House Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 16 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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