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Missouri · Private foundation

Elster Forbes 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.

$342k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
12
Grants FY2025
10
Organizations funded FY2024
40%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$25,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$82,000
Organizations funded a year
7 to 12
FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
9
Total assets, FY2025
$7.1M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 40% of the organizations Elster Forbes Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 33% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $116k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’21’22’23’24
HealthHuman ServicesInternationalEnvironmentOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving12$342k42%
FY202410$351k40%
FY20238$288k25%
FY202212$378k58%
FY20219$323k56%
FY20207$390kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Health$1.2MFood & Nutrition$280kHousing & Shelter$230kAnimals$170kInternational$150kHuman Services$70kEducation$13kEnvironment$3k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
NY
MA
OR
IN
NJ
CA
MO
VA
NC
SC
DC
TX
FL

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 20 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 10 recipients with no EIN on record ($756k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Elster Forbes Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFeeding America: $280,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetMental Health America Inc: $250,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetFamily Promise Inc: $200,000 over 3y, 1.3% of budgetUnited States Fund for Unicef: $150,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research: $132,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetK9s for Warriors Inc: $85,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetNot One More Vet Inc: $70,000 over 3y, 2.6% of budgetBabies Need Bottoms Inc: $60,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetInternational Center for Clubhouse Development Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetLines for Life: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPalmetto Animal Assisted Life Servi: $10,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetRock Steady Boxing Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetAssistance League of St Louis: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetLiteracy Together: $5,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetCalebs Closet: $5,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetThe Finger Lakes Land Trust Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHomeless Prenatal Program Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRossman School: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 18.

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.

The Blackbaud Giving FundSC11.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Elster Forbes Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Elster Forbes Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Elster Forbes 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.

About Elster Forbes Foundation

How much does Elster Forbes Foundation give?
Elster Forbes Foundation reported 12 grants totaling $342,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 7 and 12 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Elster Forbes Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (56%), Food & Nutrition (14%), Housing & Shelter (11%).
Who are Elster Forbes Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Feeding America ($280k), Mental Health America Inc ($250k), Family Promise Inc ($200k).
Does Elster Forbes Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 40% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Elster Forbes Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Elster Forbes Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Blackbaud Giving Fund, Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc, American Online Giving Foundation Inc.
Where is Elster Forbes Foundation based?
Elster Forbes Foundation is based in MO.

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 30 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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