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Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$91k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$477kRecreation & Sports$45kArts & Culture$30kHealth$15k
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k11 grants · $76k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $15k
$7,500
Median grant
7
States reached
$1.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$15,000
TRINITY UNIVERSITY$7,500
Carnegie Mellon University$7,500
SWARTHMORE COLLEGE$7,500
Georgetown University$7,500
HOWARD UNIVERSITY$7,500
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND$7,500
ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY$7,500
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO$7,500
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO$7,500
AMHERST COLLEGE$7,500
ETHICAL CULTURE FIELDSTON SCHOOL$1,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 65% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $6k → 8%AMHERST COLLEGE: $10k → 12%WILLIAMS COLLEGE: $10k → 12%FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE: $10k → 9%SWARTHMORE COLLEGE: $8k → 10%Carnegie Mellon University: $8k → 11%ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $8k → 14%HAMILTON COLLEGE: $5k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $6k → 17%TRINITY UNIVERSITY: $8k → 16%Georgetown University: $8k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $10k → 14%WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $15k → 7%ELON UNIVERSITY: $5k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND: $8k → 7%SPELMAN COLLEGE: $10k → 13%EMORY UNIVERSITY: $5k → 14%SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN: $10k → 16%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $15k → 14%TULANE UNIVERSITY: $6k → 23%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $6k → 8%AMHERST COLLEGE: $8k → 12%WILLIAMS COLLEGE: $5k → 12%FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE: $5k → 9%SWARTHMORE COLLEGE: $8k → 10%Carnegie Mellon University: $8k → 11%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $6k → 17%TRINITY UNIVERSITY: $8k → 16%Georgetown University: $8k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $5k → 14%WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $5k → 7%UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND: $8k → 7%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $15k → 14%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $6k → 8%AMHERST COLLEGE: $6k → 12%SWARTHMORE COLLEGE: $8k → 10%TRINITY UNIVERSITY: $8k → 16%HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $8k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND: $8k → 7%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $8k → 14%AMHERST COLLEGE: $6k → 12%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $8k → 14%AMHERST COLLEGE: $6k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $8k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $8k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $8k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $8k → 14%NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: $6k → 17%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

IL
MI
NY
MA
PA
CT
RI
CA
NC
DC
LA
GA
TX
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 100% of Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 19% of the giving stays in NY; by stated purpose, 0%.

Elbert Lenrow Fund Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$501k · 26 repeat orgs$39k to everyone else

26 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

26
4

Total granted

$501k
$16k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+40%
+59%

Still filing today

81%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23k 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
EducationArts & CultureRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • AC
    AMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES
    8× · 2017–2025 · $51k · revenue +141%
  • Northwestern University
    4× · 2022–2025 · $45k · revenue +4%
  • WU
    WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
    4× · 2017–2021 · $30k · revenue +40%

Funded once

  • EU
    EMORY UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2017 · $5k
  • Cornell Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +59%
  • PC
    Pitzer Collegegraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $4k · revenue +49%
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
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
2
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
3
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
4
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
5
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
6
Dickinson College

Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship

Education
7
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
8
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
9
Endicott College

Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.

Education
10
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
11
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
12
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Georgetown University; the most unlike its peers is Red Monkey Theater Group Inc. 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

27 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. 27 of the 35 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
27/27
Grantees still filing
22/27
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

AMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $50,500 · EducationAMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEESWESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $30,000 · EducationWESLEYAN UNIVERSITYUniversity of Chicago: $30,000 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoTrustees of Tufts College: $23,000 · EducationTrustees of Tufts CollegeTrinity University: $22,500 · EducationTrinity UniversitySWARTHMORE COLLEGE: $22,500 · EducationSWARTHMORE COLLEGETHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $22,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORKNew York University: $21,000 · EducationNew York UniversityTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $21,000 · EducationTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUNDWilliams College: $20,000 · EducationWilliams CollegeSpelman College: $20,000 · EducationSpelman CollegeGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $15,000 · EducationFRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE: $15,000 · Education+8 more: $57,000 · Education+8 moreMCGILL UNIVERSITY: $37,000 · OtherMCGILL UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND: $22,500 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLANDSAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART DESIGN: $20,000 · OtherSAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART DESI…University of Michigan: $15,000 · OtherUniversity of MichiganCarnegie Mellon University: $15,000 · OtherCarnegie Mellon UniversityUNIVERSITY OF TORONTO: $7,500 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF TORONTOTHE CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS: $6,000 · OtherPROJECT UNIQUE INC: $6,000 · OtherEMORY UNIVERSITY: $5,000 · Other+2 more: $6,000 · OtherNorthwestern University: $45,000 · Recreation & SportsNorthwest…THE LITTLE ORCHESTRA SOCIETYORPHEON INC: $6,000 · Arts & CultureRED MONKEY THEATER GROUP INC: $6,000 · Arts & Culture
Education$369,500Other$140,000Recreation & Sports$45,000Arts & Culture$12,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $50,500 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $45,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $23,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTrinity University: $22,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSWARTHMORE COLLEGE: $22,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $22,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNew York University: $21,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $21,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWilliams College: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSpelman College: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Michigan: $15,000 over 2y, 4.7% of budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFRANKLIN & MARSHALL COLLEGE: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBARNARD COLLEGE: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetElon University: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetETHICAL CULTURE FIELDSTON SCHOOL: $8,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetRochester Institute of Technology: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LITTLE ORCHESTRA SOCIETYORPHEON INC: $6,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTrustees of Hamilton College: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPitzer College: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVE INC: $4,000 over 2y, 1.2% 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Wesleyan University: 1% of income from government
  • Amherst College Trustees: 0% of income from government
  • Williams College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report 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 Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc?

Find your warmest path to Elbert Lenrow Fund Inc 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 35 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 Elbert Lenrow’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