· Private foundation
Eastman 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k7 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $15k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY | $15,000 |
| ERIE COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT FOUNDATION | $2,500 |
| THE EVERGLADES FOUNDATION | $2,500 |
| HILARY GRACE FOUNDATION | $1,500 |
| SHEA'S BUFFALO THEATRE | $1,200 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB | $1,000 |
| SKIN CANCER FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| JACK ROGERS FOUNDATION | $500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–21, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
17 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY9× · 2017–2025 · $233k · revenue -35%- RPROSWELL PARK ALLIANCE FOUNDATION4× · 2017–2024 · $83k · revenue -2%
- MUMEDAILLE UNIVERSITY6× · 2017–2023 · $60k · revenue +12%
Funded once
- BSBUFFALO STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2017 · $16k · revenue +19%
- NENEW ERA CAP FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $10k · revenue +545%
- BFBUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMYone grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +24%
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.
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.
Invest buffalo niagara foundation, inc. is a vehicle to solicit charitable contributions to develop programs, collaborate with, and provide funding to organizations that advance and encourage economic development in western new york.
The mission of the university at buffalo foundation, inc. is to support and promote the activities and programs of the university at buffalo, state university of new york.
Provide financial assistance in the form of educational scholarships to qualified high school students.
To support and strengthen the fundraising programs of the state university of new york at oneonta so that gifts and grants are raised for student scholarships, faculty/student research, lectureships, and numerous academic and institutional…
The organization's exempt purpose is to promote and cultivate the quality of education and activities for students of the state university of new york at buffalo. the organization carries out those charitable and educational purposes by…
The mission of the university at albany foundation is to encourage, receive, accept, hold, invest, and manage money and property of every description, and the disbursement thereof for the promotion, development and advancement of the…
How this is measured
22 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. 22 of the 53 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY ↗
- Who funds ROSWELL PARK ALLIANCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MEDAILLE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds KEVIN GUEST HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NEW ERA CAP FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds THE EVERGLADES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE HILARY GRACE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CITY MISSION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds ECMC FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO SABRES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ERIE COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE SKIN CANCER FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ITALIAN-AMERICAN POLICE ASSN OF WNY ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · The Baird Foundation · First Niagara Foundation · Equitable Foundation Inc · Rich Family Foundation · Zeron Foundation · Demakos Foundation · The Osc Charitable Foundation · Cullen Foundation of Western New York Inc · Buffalo Sabres Foundation · James H Cummings Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Eastman Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Eastman Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Eastman Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Eastman 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.
Play a game based on Eastman’s filings →