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Harbor Lights Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Harbor Lights Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.0M
Granted FY2022
82
Grants FY2022
14
States reached
$150k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of Harbor Lights Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund For Wealth Management Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year Harbor Lights Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 40 organizations, $1M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

42
’20
33
’21
40
’22
30
’23
0
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Philanthropy$16MEducation$1.0MInternational$394kSocial Science$349kHealth$237kArts & Culture$151kReligion$145kEnvironment$113kOther$0
02FY2022 · 82 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 82 grants below total $951,500, the rows itemized in this filing. The $1,000,000 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $48,500 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2022

  • Under $10k63 grants · $182k
  • $10k–50k14 grants · $265k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $505k
$4,000
Median grant
14
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL$150,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY$140,000
HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH$80,000
CHRIST CHURCH GREENWICH$80,000
AMERICARES FOUNDATION$55,000
HALO TRUST USA$45,000
RIEKES CENTER$40,000
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER$35,000
AMERICARES FOUNDATION$30,000
NORWICH UNIVERSITY$20,000
FEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES$15,000
RIEKES CENTER$10,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY$10,000
GREENWICH HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION$10,000
ITHACA COLLEGE$10,000
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 (FY24–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund: $15.4M → 17%Yale School Of Medicine: $40k → 12%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.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 55 repeat orgs$317k to everyone else

55 repeat relationships: 49 still active in FY2022, 6 since wound down; 25 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

55
36

Total granted

$1.9M
$126k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%
+34%

Still filing today

65%
36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $155k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23
EducationArts & CultureEnvironmentHealthInternationalPhilanthropyOther
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

  • AMERICARES FOUNDATION INC
    4× · 2020–2023 · $318k · revenue +28%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
    4× · 2020–2023 · $183k · revenue +22%
  • TH
    THE HALO TRUST (USA) INC
    4× · 2020–2023 · $84k · revenue +190%

Funded once

  • AF
    AMERICAS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $29k
  • PU
    PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ANNUAL FUND
    one grant, 2021 · $10k
  • GH
    GREENWICH HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +20%
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
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
2
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
3
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
4
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
5
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
6
Boston Architectural College

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

—
7
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
8
Rhode Island School of Design

The mission of rhode island school of design, through its college and museum,is to educate its students and the public in the creation and (see schedule o)appreciation of works of art and design, to discover and transmit knowledge and to…

Education
9
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
10
Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…

Science & Tech
11
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
12
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Taft School Corporation; the most unlike its peers is Cos Cob Volunteer Services Foundation Inc. 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

68 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. 68 of the 120 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)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
66/68
Grantees still filing
51/68
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

GS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC: $15,960,071 · PhilanthropyGS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC+5 more: $58,500 · PhilanthropyTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $590,500 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF DENVER: $183,334 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $87,000 · EducationITHACA COLLEGE: $78,000 · EducationRiekes Center for Human Enhancement: $76,500 · EducationYale University: $50,000 · Education+13 more: $143,500 · EducationHARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: $346,000 · OtherCHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $180,000 · OtherGreenwich Hospital Association: $35,000 · Other+63 more: $374,750 · OtherAMERICARES FOUNDATION INC: $318,130 · InternationalTHE HALO TRUST (USA) INC: $84,000 · InternationalWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $16,000 · International+2 more: $4,000 · InternationalNEWPORT ART MUSEUM AND ART ASSOCIATION: $30,000 · Arts & CultureIYRS SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY & TRADES INC: $20,000 · Arts & CultureNORTON MUSEUM OF ART INC: $18,000 · Arts & CultureWNET: $17,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: $13,000 · Arts & CultureBRUCE MUSEUM INC: $11,000 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF THE HIGH LINE INC: $7,000 · Arts & Culture+2 more: $6,500 · Arts & CultureOCEANA ACTION INC: $50,000 · EnvironmentORLEANS CONSERVATION TRUST: $19,000 · EnvironmentTHE CORAL RESTORATION FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 · EnvironmentWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC: $10,000 · EnvironmentCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC: $10,000 · Environment+3 more: $4,000 · EnvironmentSEQUOIA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $19,000 · HealthST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $17,000 · HealthSAIL TO PREVAIL: $10,000 · HealthGREENWICH HOSPITAL: $10,000 · HealthGlobal Alliance for Rheumatic & Congenital Hearts: $5,000 · Health+2 more: $2,000 · Health
Philanthropy$16,018,571Education$1,208,834Other$935,750International$422,130Arts & Culture$122,500Environment$103,000Health$63,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetGS DONOR ADVISED PHILANTHROPY FUND FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT INC: $15,960,071 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $590,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICARES FOUNDATION INC: $318,130 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DENVER: $183,334 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $87,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HALO TRUST (USA) INC: $84,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetITHACA COLLEGE: $78,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetRiekes Center for Human Enhancement: $76,500 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetYale University: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE COLORADO COLLEGE: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNorwich University: $32,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFEDERATION OF PROTESTANT WELFARE AGENCIES INC: $30,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetNEWPORT ART MUSEUM AND ART ASSOCIATION: $30,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetIYRS SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY & TRADES INC: $20,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetSEQUOIA HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $19,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetORLEANS CONSERVATION TRUST: $19,000 over 4y, 1.5% of budgetROBERT POTTER LEAGUE FOR ANIMALS INC: $18,500 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetNORTON MUSEUM OF ART INC: $18,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWNET: $17,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $17,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $16,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $16,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMENLO PARK-ATHERTON EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $15,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetMUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: $13,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLOGGERHEAD MARINELIFE CENTER INC: $12,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBRUCE MUSEUM INC: $11,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSAIL TO PREVAIL: $10,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetTHE CORAL RESTORATION FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC: $10,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGREENWICH HOSPITAL: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPACE UNIVERSITY: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK YACHT CLUB FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetJupiter Medical Center Foundation Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBURLINGAME COMMUNITY FOR EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetPeggy Adams Animal Rescue League of the Palm Beaches Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NEW YORK TIMES COMMUNITIES FUND: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetIslesboro Islands Trust: $7,500 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetTHE SAILING FOUNDATION OF NEW YORK INC: $7,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE HIGH LINE INC: $7,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCos Cob Volunteer Services Foundation Inc.: $5,000 over 1y, 22% of budgetFALMOUTH EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetTHE TAFT SCHOOL CORPORATION: $4,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBRUNSWICK SCHOOL INC: $4,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCURIODYSSEY: $3,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGREENWICH ARTS COUNCIL INC: $3,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetGREENWICH EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE INC: $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe Newport Tree Conservancy: $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% 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.

Karl F and Teryn B We…Lyn & Margaret Comfor…Van Beuren Charitable…The New York Communit…Gs Donor Advised Phil…Alletta Morris McBean…Hamilton Family Found…Gordon E and Betty I …The Rhode Island Comm…Boston Foundation IncWinifred M Purdy Foun…Brooks-Mathews Founda…
Karl F and Teryn B Weintz Foundation IncFL22.1× affinity8 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Karl F and Teryn B Weintz Foundation Inc · Lyn & Margaret Comfort Charitable Foundation · Van Beuren Charitable Foundation Inc · The New York Community Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust · Hamilton Family Foundation · Gordon E and Betty I Moore Foundation · The Rhode Island Community Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Winifred M Purdy Foundation · Brooks-Mathews 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 Harbor Lights Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Harbor Lights Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%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%
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
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.

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 120 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 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Harbor Lights’ filings →

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