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Plinth

· Private foundation

Gifford Family 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.

$245k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$75k
Largest
01What you fund
0191% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20202025.

Animals$210kInternational$100kYouth Development$100kFood & Nutrition$55kHealth$53kHuman Services$35kHousing & Shelter$15kEducation$13kOther$0
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $70k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $175k
$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SWEET PAWS RESCUE$75,000
STRONG WINGS ADVENTURE SCHOOL$50,000
MASSACHUSETTS EYE & EAR INFIRMARY$50,000
NOURISH NANTUCKET-NANTUCKET RESOURCE$30,000
BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS$20,000
YOUTH VILLAGES INC$20,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–25, $55k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%PATHWAYS FOR CHILDREN: $5k → 10%TOUCH FOUNDATION INC: $5k → 20%YOUTH VILLAGES INC: $20k → 17%PATHWAYS FOR CHILDREN: $5k → 10%PATHWAYS FOR CHILDREN: $5k → 10%HORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN: $15k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

41%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$400k · 7 repeat orgs$585k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +39% since the first grant, against +24% for the ones you funded once.

7 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
12

Total granted

$400k
$435k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%
+24%

Still filing today

86%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 39% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $150k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesAnimalsHealthEducationYouth DevelopmentInternationalOther

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

  • INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE INC
    4× · 2020–2023 · $100k · revenue +42%
  • DO
    DAVID ORTIZ CHILDREN'S FUND
    4× · 2020–2023 · $95k · revenue +35%
  • Sweet Paws Rescue Inc
    2× · 2021–2025 · $80k · revenue +25%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2021 · $350k
  • S
    SPOONFULS
    one grant, 2024 · $20k · revenue 0%
  • HF
    HORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDRENgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $15k · revenue +47%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

2
Children's Hospital Corporation

Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service

Health
3
The Boston Foundation for Sight Inc

Our mission is to improve quality of life by transforming the understanding, treatment, and care of the ocular surface.

Human Services
4
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
5
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
6
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
7
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

8
Boston Harbor Now Inc

Our mission is to ensure that the people of greater boston benefit from a vibrant, resilient, and inclusive waterfront, harbor, and islands; these spaces are equitable, accessible, and adapted to climate change; and to ensure our public,…

Environment
9
Mass General Brigham Incorporated & Affiliates Group Return

Mass general brigham incorporated is developing an integrated health care delivery system throughout the region that offers patients a continuum of coordinated, high-quality care.

Health
10
The Bridgespan Group Inc

Bridgespan's mission is to build a better world by strengthening the ability of mission-driven organizations and philanthropists to achieve breakthrough results in addressing society's most important challenges and opportunities.

Community Improvement
11
New England Lawboston

New england law/boston dedicates itself to preparing students to be successful lawyers and leaders in the public and private sectors through integrated practical, theoretical and ethical education of the highest caliber and to contributing…

Education
12
Boston Foundation Inc

As Greater Boston's community foundation, the Boston Foundation devotes its resources to expanding opportunities, improving lives and strengthening communities. See Schedule OThe Foundation fulfills this mission in three principal ways:…

Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greater Boston Food Bank Inc and the most unlike its peers is Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

18 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 18 of the 23 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/18
Grantees still filing
14/18
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Individual grant recipient — $350,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientSTRONG WINGS ADVENTURE SCHOOL — $50,000 · OtherSTRONG WINGS ADVENTURE SCHOOLIndividual grant recipient — $40,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient+7 more — $42,500 · Other+7 moreINTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE INC — $100,000 · AnimalsINTERNATIONAL FUND FOR A…Sweet Paws Rescue Inc — $80,000 · AnimalsSweet Paws Rescue IncMASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS — $30,000 · AnimalsMASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FO…DAVID ORTIZ CHILDREN'S FUND — $95,000 · InternationalDAVID ORTI…MASSACHUSETTS EYE & EAR INFIRMARY — $50,000 · HealthMASSACHUSE…BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS INC — $40,000 · HealthBRIDGE OVE…+1 more — $2,500 · HealthYOUTH VILLAGES INC — $20,000 · Human ServicesHORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN — $15,000 · Human ServicesPATHWAYS FOR CHILDRENINC — $15,000 · Human ServicesTOUCH HEALTH INC — $5,000 · Human ServicesNOURISH NANTUCKET INC — $30,000 · Community ImprovementSPOONFULS — $20,000 · Food & Nutrition
Other$482,500Animals$210,000International$95,000Health$92,500Human Services$55,000Community Improvement$30,000Food & Nutrition$20,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetINTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE INC — $100,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetDAVID ORTIZ CHILDREN'S FUND — $95,000 over 4y, 3.4% of budgetSweet Paws Rescue Inc — $80,000 over 2y, 4.5% of budgetBRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS INC — $40,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetNOURISH NANTUCKET INC — $30,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS — $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetYOUTH VILLAGES INC — $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSPOONFULS — $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPATHWAYS FOR CHILDRENINC — $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetElevate Youth Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetST PAUL'S SCHOOL — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTOUCH HEALTH INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBowdoin College — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMAB COMMUNITY SERVICES INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Eastern Bank FoundationMA13.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Eastern Bank Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Gifford Family 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 32%
  • Pathways for Childreninc86% of income from government
  • Mab Community Services Inc69% of income from government
  • Bridge Over Troubled Waters Inc32% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Food Bank Inc22% of income from government
  • Horizons for Homeless Children21% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 23 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph