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Gifford Family Foundation at a glance

· 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 it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0191% classified

What it funded, over time

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

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

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

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

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:

Its 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 its 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
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.

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

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +39% since the first grant, against +25% for those 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%
+25%

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
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

  • 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%
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

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. 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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greater Boston Food Bank Inc; 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 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. 18 of the 23 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/18
Grantees still filing
14/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and 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 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 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
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.

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.

Eastern Bank Foundati…Boston Foundation IncThe Blackbaud Giving …National Philanthropi…American Online Givin…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
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

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 32%
  • Pathways for Childreninc: 86% of income from government
  • Mab Community Services Inc: 69% of income from government
  • Bridge Over Troubled Waters Inc: 32% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Food Bank Inc: 22% of income from government
  • Horizons for Homeless Children: 21% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% 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, 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.

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 23 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