· Private foundation
Elf Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $2k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $175k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SISTERS HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $70,000 |
| ROSWELL PARK ALLIANCE FOUNDATION | $55,000 |
| HOSPICE FOUNDATION BUFFALO | $50,000 |
| FF THOMPSON FOUNDATION INC | $10,000 |
| FEEDMORE WNY FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
| AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION | $1,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $18k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-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.
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.
21 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 16 since wound down; 1 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k 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
- RPROSWELL PARK ALLIANCE FOUNDATION2× · 2023–2025 · $155k · revenue +19%
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER4× · 2018–2022 · $121k · revenue +65%- MFMERCY FLIGHT CENTRAL INC4× · 2019–2022 · $44k · revenue +41%
Funded once
- HFHIRSHBERG FOUNDATION FOR PAone grant, 2020 · $5k
- DFDAYSTAR FOR MEDICALLY FRAGILE CHILDREN D/B/A DAYSTAR KIDSgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue +578%
- SRST ROSE CATHOLIC CHURCHone grant, 2021 · $2k
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.
To establish, erect and maintain a general hospital and dispensary in the county of monroe, ny for medical and surgical aid, care and treatment of persons in need thereof; to carry on and conduct a training school for nurses; to promote…
The organization is organized and operated for the benefit of all of the affiliates within rochester regional health system. the organization supports and assists the affiliates by reviewing and monitoring their missions, objectives,…
See schedule oto make a positive difference in the lives and health status of individuals in the city of rochester, ny and western monroe county. we will educate our community, our providers, and future health care professionals in order…
Our mission is to provide skilled, compassionate, cost-effective care that promotes wellness and meets the community's healthcare needs.
Canton potsdam hospital's mission is to provide skilled, compassionate, cost-effective care that promotes wellness and meets community needs.
United memorial medical center is the only acute care hospital in genesee county, with 131 licensed acute care beds that provide the necessary healthcare services to a regional population of approximately 138,000 residents and operates the…
To operate an inpatient and outpatient hospital, clinics and treatment centers for the delivery of acute medical, surgical and preventative health care services.
Rochester general health system, provides patient care, senior housing, laboratory services, and community outreach to residents and other clients in monroe county, new york and several surrounding counties.
Healthcare on a nonprofit basis to promote the health of the community as a whole.
Massena hospital's mission is to provide quality healthcare and the best patient experience.
Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.
Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sisters of Charity Hospital Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Project Motherpath Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 46 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% 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.
26 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. 26 of the 58 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 SISTERS OF CHARITY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ROSWELL PARK ALLIANCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER ↗
- Who funds MERCY FLIGHT CENTRAL INC ↗
- Who funds ERIE COUNTY SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds THE SUMMIT CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HUGS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds F F THOMPSON HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds HARRY CHAPIN FOOD BANK OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA INC ↗
- Who funds WNY WOMEN'S FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds DAYSTAR FOR MEDICALLY FRAGILE CHILDREN D/B/A DAYSTAR KIDS ↗
- Who funds FEEDMORE WNY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CITY MISSION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds PROJECT MOTHERPATH INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICARES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds PARKINSON'S FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds LIFESPAN OF GREATER ROCHESTER INC ↗
- Who funds ONTARIO COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds ROCHESTER SCHOOL OF THE HOLY CHILDHOOD I ↗
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: Rochester Area Community Foundation · Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Inc · Summers Foundation Inc · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation · United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes Inc · The Riedman Foundation · Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc · Esl Charitable Foundation · JM McDonald Foundation Inc · Wegman Family Charitable 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 Elf 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.
- Americares Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
- Wounded Warrior Project 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.