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Plinth

· Private foundation

Eastern Light Tr

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.

$17k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fund
0192% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20202025.

Human Services$18kReligion$11kHousing & Shelter$4kFood & Nutrition$3kArts & Culture$2kAnimals$1kCrime & Legal$500Civil Rights$500Other$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k6 grants · $7k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$500
Median grant
1
States reached
$478k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Cambridge Council on Aging$10,000
St Mary Orthodox Church$4,000
Boston Health Care for the Homeless$1,000
The Greater Boston Food Bank$500
Bridges Homeward Cambridge Family Childrens Service$500
City Stings United$500
Individual grant recipient$500
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–25, $7k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 50% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 9%Boston Health Care for the Homeless: $1k → 16%Boston Health Care for the Homeless: $1k → 16%Boston Health Care for the Homeless: $500 → 16%Boston Healthcare for the Homeless: $500 → 16%Boston Healthcare for the Homeless: $500 → 16%Cambridge Family Children's Servic: $1k → 8%Cambridge Family and Children Servi: $500 → 8%Bridges Homeward: $500 → 8%Bridges Homeward Cambridge Family Childrens Service: $500 → 8%Bridges Homeward: $500 → 8%Bridges Homeward Cambridge Family Childrens Service: $500 → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$26k · 10 repeat orgs$15k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +74% since the first grant, against +27% for the ones you funded once.

10 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
9

Total granted

$26k
$5k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+74%
+27%

Still filing today

80%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 41% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k 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
Housing & ShelterHuman ServicesHealthArts & CultureCrime & LegalFood & NutritionOther

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

  • BH
    BRIDGES HOMEWARD INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $4k · revenue +10%
  • BOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS PROGRAM INC
    5× · 2020–2025 · $4k · revenue +54%
  • CS
    CITY STRINGS UNITED INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $2k · revenue +330%

Funded once

  • HF
    Habitat For Humanity
    one grant, 2021 · $1k
  • HH
    Helping Hands Monkey Helpers
    one grant, 2021 · $1k
  • SE
    SOMERVILLE-CAMBRIDGE ELDER SERVICES INCORPORATED
    one grant, 2021 · $700 · revenue +22%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Neighborhealth Corporation

Neighborhealth's mission is to promote and sustain healthy communities, families, and individuals by providing accessible, person-centered, and compassionate, high-quality health care services to all who live and work in our service area,…

Health
2
Boston Senior Home Care Inc

Boston senior home care is committed to ensuring that culturally diverse adults and individuals with disabilities, particularly those of limited means, can remain safely in their homes and community with dignity and independence.

3
Massachusetts Council of Human Services Providers Inc

To advance the interests of the human services sector and providers through advocacy, education, and engagement of diverse stakeholders for collective impact.

4
Home for Aged Women in Salem

The organization's mission is to encourage and support the facility's residents in maintaining family and life long relationships through the operation of a 36-bed residential care facility in salem, massachusetts. brookhouse home welcomes…

5
Boston Area Rape Crisis Center Inc

The boston area rape crisis center (barcc) works to end sexual violence through healing and social change. as the only rape crisis center in greater boston and one of the nation's oldest, barcc provides free, inclusive, empowerment-based…

Health
6
Commonwealth Care Alliance Inc

Commonwealth care alliance, inc.'s mission is to improve the health and well-being of people with significant needs by innovating, coordinating and providing the highest quality, individualized care.

Health
7
Pine Street Inn Housing Ii Inc

Pine street inn housing ii, inc. is a massachusetts not-for-profit corporation, which was organized to provide ten elderly individuals with housing facilities and services at the inn's menino house at geneva avenue in boston,…

Housing & Shelter
8
Caspar Inc

Caspar's mission is to provide community-based services to those affected by substance use disorders. caspar offers a comprehensive array of outreach, shelter, stabilization, residential aftercare, and prevention services to meet the needs…

Health
9
Aclu Foundation of Massachusetts Inc

Aclu foundation of ma was established to defend freedoms guaranteed in the constitution and bill of rights through public education and litigation.

Civil Rights
10
Brookview House Inc

Brookview's mission is to help homeless and at risk families learn the skills necessary to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.

Human Services
11
Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership Inc D/B/a Metro Housing Boston

Metro housing boston mobilizes wide-ranging resources to provide innovative and personalized services that lead families and individuals to housing stability, economic security, and an improved quality of life.

Housing & Shelter
12
Central Boston Elder Services Inc

To provide home care services, referrals and advocacy to the elderly population located in the boston area.

Human Services

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is De Novo Center for Justice and Healing and the most unlike its peers is Kataluma 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

14 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 14 of the 20 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/14
Grantees still filing
14/14
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Cambridge Council on Aging — $10,000 · OtherCambridge Council on AgingSt Mary Orthodox Church — $9,500 · OtherSt Mary Orthodox ChurchIndividual grant recipient — $1,250 · OtherGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $1,250 · OtherHabitat For Humanity — $1,000 · OtherHelping Hands Monkey Helpers — $1,000 · Other+4 more — $2,200 · Other+4 moreBRIDGES HOMEWARD INC — $3,500 · Human ServicesBRIDGES HOMEWARD IN…BOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS PROGRAM INC — $3,500 · Human ServicesBOSTON HEALTH CARE …KATALUMA INC — $1,500 · Housing & ShelterHALEY HOUSE INC & AFFILIATES — $1,300 · Housing & ShelterROSIE'S PLACE INC — $450 · Housing & ShelterCITY STRINGS UNITED INC — $1,550 · Arts & CultureAXIA WOMEN INC — $1,300 · ReligionFOOD FOR FREE COMMITTEE INC — $1,250 · Food & NutritionDE NOVO CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND HEALING — $500 · HealthPARKINSON'S FOUNDATION INC — $250 · Health
Other$26,200Human Services$7,000Housing & Shelter$3,250Arts & Culture$1,550Religion$1,300Food & Nutrition$1,250Health$750

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetBRIDGES HOMEWARD INC — $3,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetBOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS PROGRAM INC — $3,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCITY STRINGS UNITED INC — $1,550 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetKATALUMA INC — $1,500 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetAXIA WOMEN INC — $1,300 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetHALEY HOUSE INC & AFFILIATES — $1,300 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetFOOD FOR FREE COMMITTEE INC — $1,250 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $1,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSOMERVILLE-CAMBRIDGE ELDER SERVICES INCORPORATED — $700 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINT'L ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDE NOVO CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND HEALING — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetROSIE'S PLACE INC — $450 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPARKINSON'S FOUNDATION INC — $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Eastern Bank FoundationMA13.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Eastern Bank Foundation · Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Eastern Light Tr 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 8%
  • Bridges Homeward Inc77% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Food Bank Inc22% of income from government
  • De Novo Center for Justice and Healing9% of income from government
  • Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Inc8% of income from government
  • City Strings United Inc7% of income from government
  • Int'l Orthodox Christian Charities Inc7% of income from government
  • Food for Free Committee Inc3% of income from government
  • Rosie's Place Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 20 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph