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Doran Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Doran Family Foundation

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.

$50k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$701kEducation$473kHealth$173kHuman Services$127kYouth Development$110kEnvironment$53kPhilanthropy$50kCommunity Improvement$40kOther$0
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$50,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ALEXANDER TWILIGHT ACADEMY$50,000
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 (FY18–24, $66k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%VOICES OF NAPLES: $10k → 11%VOICE OF NAPLES: $5k → 11%ROOM TO GROW: $1k → 16%SOCIAL FINANCE INC: $25k → 16%SOCIAL FINANCE INC: $25k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
WA
IL
NY
MA
CT
RI
CA
VA
MD
TN
NC
DC
TX
FL
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 6% of Doran Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 85% of the giving stays in MA; by stated purpose, 75%.

Doran Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 10.0% directed abroad (not shown)
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.

73%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 21 repeat orgs$446k to everyone else

21 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
45

Total granted

$1.2M
$446k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+6%
+18%

Still filing today

81%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

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

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthHuman ServicesEnvironmentPhilanthropyOther
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

  • BS
    BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC
    5× · 2018–2022 · $225k · revenue +6%
  • AT
    ALEXANDER TWILIGHT ACADEMY INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $220k · revenue +122%
  • WM
    WELLINGTON MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION
    3× · 2017–2022 · $110k · revenue +23%

Funded once

  • NC
    NSCDA-MA CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
    one grant, 2020 · $50k
  • VH
    VINEYARD HAVEN PUBLIC LIBRARY
    one grant, 2019 · $50k
  • SJ
    SAN JUAN ISLANDS ARGRICULTURAL GUILDgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $25k · revenue +167%
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
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Inc

Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…

Arts & Culture
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
Boston Architectural College

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

—
4
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
5
Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…

Science & Tech
6
The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.

Education
7
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
8
Bard College

Bard college seeks to provide a challenging academic program and a supportive environment that fosters a collaborative interchange of ideas in the classroom as well as ambition to achieve excellence.

Education
9
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
10
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
11
The Trustees of the Smith College

Smith college educates women of promise for lives of distinction and purpose. a college of and for the world, smith college links the power of the liberal arts to excellence in research and scholarship, developing leaders for society's…

Education
12
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
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 The Somerset Club Charitable Trust. 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

46 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. 46 of the 67 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
45/46
Grantees still filing
28/46
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ALEXANDER TWILIGHT ACADEMY INC: $220,000 · EducationALEXANDER TWILIGHT ACADEMY INCYale University: $207,070 · EducationYale UniversityTHE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INC: $70,000 · EducationTHE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INCTRUSTEES OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY: $30,000 · EducationST GEORGE'S SCHOOL: $25,000 · EducationTHE WINSOR SCHOOL: $21,500 · Education+3 more: $16,500 · EducationNSCDA-MA CAPITAL CAMPAIGN: $50,000 · OtherNSCDA-MA CAPITAL CAMPAIGNVINEYARD HAVEN PUBLIC LIBRARY: $50,000 · OtherVINEYARD HAVEN PUBLIC LIBRARYHENRY AND ALISON MCCANCE CENTER: $50,000 · OtherHENRY AND ALISON MCCANCE CENTERBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL: $45,000 · OtherBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICALAPPLE ORCHARD SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $30,000 · OtherAPPLE ORCHARD SCHOLARSHIP FUNDMACARTHUR FOUNDATION: $30,000 · OtherMACARTHUR FOUNDATIONAFRICAN MISSION: $25,000 · OtherCONSERVATORY LAB CHARTER SCHOOL: $25,000 · OtherHARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: $25,000 · OtherTHE VINEYARD HAVEN PUBLIC: $25,000 · OtherTHE CONSERVANCY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: $25,000 · OtherCHURCH OF THE REDEEMER: $20,000 · OtherSAN JUAN ISLANDS ARGRICULTURAL GUILD: $25,000 · OtherVINEYARD CONSERVATION SOCIETY INC: $21,000 · Other+24 more: $115,627 · Other+24 moreBOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC: $224,505 · Arts & CultureBOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTR…MARTHA'S VINEYARD MUSEUM INC: $107,500 · Arts & CultureMARTHA'S VINEYARD MUSEUM…FRIENDS OF FAIRSTED: $27,500 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF FAIRSTED152 COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · Arts & CultureMARTHA'S VINEYARD FILM SOCIETY INC: $15,000 · Arts & Culture+5 more: $17,500 · Arts & CultureWELLINGTON MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION: $110,000 · Philanthropy+1 more: $2,500 · PhilanthropySHELTERING ARMS FOUNDATION: $55,000 · HealthALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $50,000 · Health+2 more: $2,000 · HealthSocial Finance Inc: $50,000 · Human ServicesVOICES OF NAPLES INC: $15,000 · Human Services+1 more: $1,000 · Human ServicesNEW PROFIT INC: $40,000 · Community Improvement
Education$590,070Other$561,627Arts & Culture$407,005Philanthropy$112,500Health$107,000Human Services$66,000Community Improvement$40,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetBOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC: $224,505 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetALEXANDER TWILIGHT ACADEMY INC: $220,000 over 5y, 5.4% of budgetYale University: $207,070 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWELLINGTON MANAGEMENT FOUNDATION: $110,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetMARTHA'S VINEYARD MUSEUM INC: $107,500 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetTHE AMERICAN EXCHANGE PROJECT INC: $70,000 over 3y, 5.5% of budgetSHELTERING ARMS FOUNDATION: $55,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetSocial Finance Inc: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNEW PROFIT INC: $40,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTRUSTEES OF PHILLIPS ACADEMY: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF FAIRSTED: $27,500 over 2y, 42% of budgetSAN JUAN ISLANDS ARGRICULTURAL GUILD: $25,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetST GEORGE'S SCHOOL: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CONSERVANCY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE WINSOR SCHOOL: $21,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetVINEYARD CONSERVATION SOCIETY INC: $21,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budget152 COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 2y, 5.6% of budgetMARTHA'S VINEYARD FILM SOCIETY INC: $15,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetMULTIPLE SCLEROSIS FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetMAHLER FOUNDATION: $15,000 over 1y, 23% of budgetMARTHA'S VINEYARD CEREBRAL PALSY CAMP INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetISLAND HOUSING TRUST CORPORATION: $7,127 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE SOMERSET CLUB CHARITABLE TRUST: $5,000 over 1y, 27% of budgetMARTHA'S VINEYARD PRESERVATION TRUST INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAMAZING THINGS ARTS CENTER INC: $5,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetAPERTURE FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetENNEAGRAM PRISON PROJECT: $4,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS OF CEELI INSTITUTE: $3,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE QUEBEC-LABRADOR FOUNDATION INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE SAN JUAN PRESERVATION TRUST: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMORY'S PRESERVATION INC: $1,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE SAN JUANS: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSTEPS TO SUCCESS INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetROOM TO GROW NATIONAL INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JACKSON LABORATORY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCALLING ALL CROWS INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIDAY HARBOR FOOD BANK: $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Boston Foundation IncThe Albright Foundati…The Goldman Sachs Cha…San Juan Island Commu…Justin & Genevieve Wy…Martha's Vineyard Ban…ImpactassetsincGreater Washington Co…The Bessemer Giving F…Gs Donor Advised Phil…Seattle FoundationVanguard Charitable E…
Boston Foundation IncMA21.2× affinity10 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · The Albright Foundation · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · San Juan Island Community Foundation · Justin & Genevieve Wyner Trust · Martha's Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation Inc · Impactassetsinc · Greater Washington Community Foundation · The Bessemer Giving Fund · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Seattle Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 160%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Brookline Greenspace Alliance Inc: 19% of income from government
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • Social Finance Inc: 12% of income from government
  • Steps to Success Inc: 5% of income from government
  • Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Martha's Vineyard Film Society Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Island Housing Trust Corporation: 1% of income from government
  • New England Conservatory of Music: 1% of income from government
  • The Institute of Contemporary Art Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Edith Wharton Restoration Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
16get no government money at all
7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 Doran Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Doran Family 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 67 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

Play a game based on Doran Family’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