· Private foundation
First Niagara Foundation
Its FY2022 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2022.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k5 grants · $18k
- $10k–50k43 grants · $971k
- $50k–250k26 grants · $2.8M
- $250k+7 grants · $3.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE WOMEN AND CHILDRENS HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO FOUNDATION | $1,500,000 |
| RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK | $625,000 |
| MOUNT ST MARYS HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC | $500,000 |
| THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP | $250,000 |
| BUFFALO ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER INC | $250,000 |
| GERARD PLACE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FUND COMPANY INC | $250,000 |
| YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUFFALO NIAGARA | $250,000 |
| BUFFALO NIAGARA MEDICAL CAMPUS INC | $200,000 |
| HISPANIC HERITAGE COUNCIL OF WESTERN NEW YORK INC | $200,000 |
| PROVIDENCE FARM COLLECTIVE CORP | $200,000 |
| FEEDMORE FOUNDATION OF WESTERN NEW YORK INC | $200,000 |
| CITY YEAR INC | $200,000 |
| HEART LOVE & SOUL INC | $150,000 |
| BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY INC | $150,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO | $150,000 |
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 (FY20–22, $2.9M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +32% since the first grant, against +5% for the ones you funded once.
91 repeat relationships — 43 still active in FY2022, 48 since wound down; 31 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (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 FY2022, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.7M 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
- TCTHE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO FOUNDATION2× · 2020–2022 · $1.5M · revenue +180%
- BABUFFALO ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER INC2× · 2020–2022 · $1.1M · revenue +28% · 43% of their budget
BUFFALO PREP INC3× · 2020–2022 · $860k · revenue +15% · 31% of their budget
Funded once
- WEWESTMINSTER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE INCone grant, 2021 · $1.5M · revenue -55% · 31% of their budget
- DUD'YOUVILLE UNIVERSITYone grant, 2020 · $750k · revenue +15%
- PIPEOPLE INCone grant, 2020 · $600k
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 improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community.
The legal aid bureau of buffalo, inc., a not-for-profit organization, provides legal representation to financially needy men, women and children in western new york. through its skilled staff, the legal aid bureau seeks equal justice for…
To attract new employers to the buffalo niagara region through outreach to growing companies around the world. to support business attraction, expansion and entrepreneurship, invest buffalo niagara collaborates with local businesses,…
The community health center of buffalo, inc operates four freestanding federally qualified health centers licensed as a diagnostic and treatment center under article 28 of the ny state health law. the center provides a broad range of…
The specific mission of the organization is to coordinate resources to inspire and empower people to acheive their full potential.
Central ny quest has been established to serve the needs of persons with intellectual, developmental and mental health disorders in the central new york region.
To bring businesses, job seekers and training providers together to provide skilled workers for every business and employment for every job seeker.
To strengthen the capacity of local united ways through their charitable human service activities to be leaders in achieving results that improve the lives of all new yorkers.
Lawny increases access to justice through excellent legal representation, advocacy and service.
To transform our region by stimulating the growth and creation of dynamic companies in order to provide a superior standard of living for residents.
United way of greater rochester's mission is to unite the good will and resources of the greater rochester community so that everyone can thrive. united way supports a broad network of human service organizations, community initiatives and…
Food bank of central new york is a not-for-profit organization: our mission is to lead the effort to eliminate hunger in our region, through partnerships with others in our community, through education, advocacy, and distribution of…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Ulster County Inc and the most unlike its peers is Dress for Success Buffalo. 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 37 years old; the field is 23. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.5% lost their exemption, against 8% 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.
181 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. 181 of the 217 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WESTMINSTER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO PREP INC ↗
- Who funds THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds D'YOUVILLE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds The Research Foundation for The State University of New York ↗
- Who funds CITY MISSION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds GERARD PLACE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FUND COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF BUFFALO INC ↗
- Who funds MOUNT ST MARY'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ROSWELL PARK ALLIANCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Rural Outreach Center Inc ↗
- Who funds PROVIDENCE FARM COLLECTIVE CORP ↗
- Who funds COMPEER WEST INC ↗
- Who funds HEART LOVE & SOUL INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO NIAGARA MEDICAL CAMPUS INC ↗
- Who funds SAY YES BUFFALO SCHOLARSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION BUFFALO NIAGARA ↗
- Who funds THE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
- Who funds VETERANS ONE-STOP CENTER OF WNY INC ↗
- Who funds PEACE OF THE CITY MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds EXPLORE & MORE A CHILDREN'S MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds NIAGARA AQUARIUM FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Teach for America Inc ↗
- Who funds BURCHFIELD PENNEY ART CENTER ↗
- Who funds EHS INC ↗
- Who funds Net Positive Inc ↗
- Who funds FEEDMORE WNY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HISPANIC HERITAGE COUNCIL OF WESTERN NEW YORK INC ↗
- Who funds CITY YEAR INC ↗
- Who funds THE UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY CHAPTER OF NYSARC INC ↗
- Who funds GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF WESTERN NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds EIGHT DAYS OF HOPE INC ↗
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: Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · The John R Oishei Foundation · The Peter and Elizabeth C Tower Foundation · Cullen Foundation · The Western New York Foundation · Buffalo Bills Foundation Inc · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · United Way of Buffalo and Erie County · Rich Family Foundation · The Baird Foundation · James H Cummings Foundation Inc · The Margaret L Wendt 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 First Niagara 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.
- The Mass Mentoring Partnership Inc — 63% of income from government
- Governor's Partnership to Protect Connecticut's Workforce Inc — 44% of income from government
- Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership Inc — 17% of income from government
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Connecticut Inc — 15% of income from government
- New Haven Reads Community Book Bank Inc — 13% of income from government
- City Year Inc — 11% of income from government
- Ywca Hartford Region Inc — 7% of income from government
- The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven — 2% 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to First Niagara Foundation?
Find your warmest path to First Niagara 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.