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Elizabeth B Ellis Foundation Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

Elizabeth B Ellis Foundation Trust

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.

$263k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$140k
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.

Arts & Culture$1.2MEducation$213kPhilanthropy$57kReligion$49kPublic Safety & Disaster$27kHuman Services$17kCommunity Improvement$10kHealth$10kOther$0
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $18k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $105k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $140k
$15,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$2.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM$140,000
BOSTON UNIVERSITY$42,500
BARNES FOUNDATION$20,000
BACK ON MY FEET$17,000
THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE$15,000
HADASSAH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$10,000
THE EMERGENCY AID OF PENNSYLAVANIA$9,500
HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH$7,500
THE METROPOLITAN BUSINESS CITIZENS$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 19%, against an area that typically sits at 17%. 74% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 17%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $43k → 16%UPPER BLACK FOOT HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $25k → 9%THE EMERGENCY AID OF PENNSYLAVANIA: $10k → 6%BARNES FOUNDATION: $20k → 22%ATLANTIC CAPE MAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $15k → 11%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%BARNES FOUNDATION: $10k → 22%ATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $15k → 11%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%BARNES FOUNDATION: $10k → 22%ATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $15k → 11%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%BARNES FOUNDATION: $10k → 22%ATLANTIC CAPE MAY COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $15k → 11%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%BARNES FOUNDATION: $5k → 22%ATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $15k → 11%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%BARNES FOUNDATION: $5k → 22%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%BARNES FOUNDATION: $5k → 22%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $15k → 22%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $18k → 16%HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $8k → 7%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $7k → 7%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $7k → 7%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $6k → 7%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $5k → 7%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%HAWS AVE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $5k → 7%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%HADASSAH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: $10k → 22%THE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $10k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $140k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $136k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $120k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $109k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $100k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $100k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $100k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $100k → 22%AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $100k → 22%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.
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.5M · 13 repeat orgs$53k to everyone else

13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
2

Total granted

$1.5M
$26k

Still filing today

31%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $27k 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
EducationPhilanthropyArts & CultureHuman ServicesOther
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

  • TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY
    9× · 2017–2025 · $183k · revenue +45%
  • TB
    THE BARNES FOUNDATION
    7× · 2019–2025 · $65k · revenue +37%
  • AC
    ATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATI
    2× · 2017–2018 · $30k · revenue +110%

Funded once

  • UB
    UPPER BLACK FOOT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
    one grant, 2023 · $25k
  • PA
    POTTSTOWN AREA POLICE ATHLETIC LEAG
    one grant, 2017 · $700
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
04the grantee network

5 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. 5 of the 17 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/5
Grantees still filing
4/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

AMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUM: $1,004,900 · OtherAMERICAN SWEDISH HISTORICAL MUSEUMTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $182,500 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITYTHE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE: $95,000 · OtherTHE CHAMBER OF ORCHESTRA OF PHILADE+10 more: $187,700 · Other+10 moreTHE BARNES FOUNDATION: $65,000 · Arts & CultureATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATI: $30,000 · EducationBACK ON MY FEET: $17,000 · Human ServicesTHE SCHULTZ-HILL FOUNDATION: $12,000 · Philanthropy
Other$1,470,100Arts & Culture$65,000Education$30,000Human Services$17,000Philanthropy$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 budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $182,500 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BARNES FOUNDATION: $65,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATI: $30,000 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetTHE SCHULTZ-HILL FOUNDATION: $12,000 over 8y, 2.0% 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.

  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE BARNES FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds ATLANTIC CAPE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATI ↗
  • Who funds BACK ON MY FEET ↗
  • Who funds THE SCHULTZ-HILL FOUNDATION ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Elizabeth B Ellis Foundation Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Elizabeth B Ellis Foundation Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
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 Elizabeth B Ellis Foundation Trust?

Find your warmest path to Elizabeth B Ellis Foundation Trust 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 17 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

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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