· Private foundation
Donald R and Esther Simon 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k14 grants · $52k
- $10k–50k24 grants · $407k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $155k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $55,000 |
| HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER | $50,000 |
| JSL FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| HILLEL OF METRO DETROIT | $40,000 |
| FRESH AIR SOCIETY | $40,000 |
| GILDA'S CLUB OF METRO DETROIT | $30,000 |
| METRO FOOD RESCUE | $25,000 |
| DETROIT EMPLOYMENT SOLUTONS CO - PROJECT CLEAN SLATE | $20,000 |
| THE PINK FUND | $20,000 |
| OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH ALLIANCE | $20,000 |
| WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN | $17,000 |
| JARC | $15,000 |
| JEWISH FEDERATION OF METRO DETROIT | $15,000 |
| JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT | $15,000 |
| MICHIGAN ADVOCACY PROGRAM | $15,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $425k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +15% since the first grant, against -7% for the ones you funded once.
36 repeat relationships — 27 still active in FY2024, 9 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $75k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- FAFRESH AIR SOCIETY5× · 2020–2024 · $245k · revenue +332%
- HMHOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER INC7× · 2017–2024 · $228k · revenue +133%
- GCGILDA'S CLUB METRO DETROIT4× · 2020–2024 · $160k · revenue +15%
Funded once
- IAISAAC AGREE DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUEone grant, 2020 · $50k
- PCPROJECT CLEAN SLATEone grant, 2020 · $50k
- JSJEWISH SENIOR LIFE OF METRO DETROITone grant, 2022 · $50k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The jewish agency binds jews across ideologies and civilizations together in a worldwide jewish family with israel at its center. it provides the global framework for aliyah, ensures global jewish safety, strengthens jewish identity and…
The jewish fund is organized and operates exclusively for charitable, educational, and religious purposes. the fund's primary activities are: supporting a jewish health care mission in the greater detroit area and michigan; promotion of…
Minneapolis jewish federation is a nonprofit organization that promotes a culture of philanthropy, leverages resources to meet local and global jewish needs, and facilitates community planning to ensure a thriving and secure future.
Based on jewish values, the jewish federation of greater los angeles convenes and leads the community and leverages its resources to assure the continuity of the jewish people, support a secure state of israel, care for jews in need here…
We nurture a sense of community and enrich the lives of older adults, while embracing jewish values and celebrating life.
Mjhs health system is a charitable not-for-profit established to support the activities of affiliated organizations. mjhs is built on the core values of compassion, dignity and respect, first established by the four brooklyn ladies in…
The jewish women's archive documents jewish women's stories, elevates their voices, and inspires them to be agents of change.jwa is dedicated to expanding and transforming the historical narrative by restoring jewish women and gender…
Jewish federation of san diego county is dedicated to building a vibrant, caring, connected, and enduring jewish community.
The network is an international membership association of more than 170 non profit human service agencies in the united states, canada and israel. its members provide a full range of human services for the jewish community and beyond,…
To proclaim the gospel, grow the messianic jewish community and engage the church concerning israel and the jewish people. this is done through education, evangelism and being a movement leader, all with excellence in order to transform…
To build / maintain a strong and united jewish community in order to ensure the continuity of the jewish people. the federation is the central agency for meeting jewish needs and articulating jewish concerns in the capital region, in…
The united jewish foundation of detroit owns, manages and invests jewish communal assets, including general and endowment funds, agency endowments, supporting foundations and real property. the foundation is committed to ensuring that…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Jewish Family Service and the most unlike its peers is Gilda's Club Metro Detroit. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
54 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 54 of the 82 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds FRESH AIR SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds JSL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GILDA'S CLUB METRO DETROIT ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION OF DETROIT ↗
- Who funds THE OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH FUND INC ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE ↗
- Who funds YAD EZRA ↗
- Who funds PINK FUND INC ↗
- Who funds JARC ↗
- Who funds ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF UNITED HATZALAH INC ↗
- Who funds GLOBALGIVING FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds GLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds GESHER HUMAN SERVICES ↗
- Who funds HOSPITALITY HOUSE ↗
- Who funds Metro Food Rescue ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds SOCIETY FOR HUMANISTIC JUDAISM ↗
- Who funds SEEDS OF PEACE INC ↗
- Who funds FORGOTTEN HARVEST INC ↗
- Who funds LIGHTHOUSE OF OAKLAND COUNTY ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL FLORIDA INC ↗
- Who funds The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN OVARIAN CANCER ALLIANCE ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Marjorie and Maxwell Jospey Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · The Ravitz Foundation · United Jewish Foundation · The Kresge Foundation · George M and Jo Elyn Nyman Charitable Trust · Deroy Testamentary Foundation · The Eugene Applebaum Family Foundation · Ben N Teitel Charitable Trust · United Way for Southeastern Michigan · Meyer & Anna Prentis Family Foundation · The Irving and Ethel Palman 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 Donald R and Esther Simon 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida Inc — 0% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Donald R and Esther Simon Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Donald R and Esther Simon 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.