· Private foundation
Howard and Geraldine Polinger 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2018–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k24 grants · $80k
- $10k–50k25 grants · $549k
- $50k–250k26 grants · $2.8M
- $250k+3 grants · $875k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHINGTON INC | $325,000 |
| HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION | $300,000 |
| LEHRHAUS CENTER FOR JEWISH LIFE AND LEARNING INC | $250,000 |
| JEWISH FUNDERS NETWORK | $200,000 |
| THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHINGTON INC | $180,000 |
| THE SHABBAT PROJECT INC | $180,000 |
| MEM GLOBAL | $180,000 |
| ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE | $170,000 |
| REBOOT INC | $150,000 |
| CHILDRENS LAW CENTER INCORPORATED | $150,000 |
| LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS EDUCATION FUND | $115,000 |
| BUILDING BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIVER | $112,675 |
| FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES INC | $100,000 |
| ICIVICS INC | $100,000 |
| JEWS UNITED FOR JUSTICE INC | $100,000 |
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 (FY18–25, $1.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 67% 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 11% of Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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 +29% since the first grant, against +27% for the ones you funded once.
124 repeat relationships — 62 still active in FY2025, 62 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $653k 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
- THTHE HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION8× · 2018–2025 · $1.9M · revenue +120%
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc8× · 2018–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +16%- CHCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION2× · 2022–2024 · $960k · revenue +6%
Funded once
- LOLEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS EDUCATION FUNDone grant, 2020 · $203k
- DWDC WHEEL PRODUCTIONS INCDBA DANCE PLACEone grant, 2018 · $100k
- CPCHINESE PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION FBO BLACK FUTURES LABSone grant, 2021 · $87k
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.
The jewish agency binds jews across ideologies and civilizations together in a worldwide jewish family with israel at its center. it provides the global framework for aliyah, ensures global jewish safety, strengthens jewish identity and…
As the central community relations agency of the organized jewish community in our nation's capital, the jcrc of greater washington endeavors to foster a society based on freedom, justice and democratic pluralism for it is such a society…
AJC's mission is to enhance the wellbeing of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. In pursuit of this mission, AJC advances democratic principles, fights…
The national council of jewish women is a grassroots nonpartisan organization of volunteers and advocates who strive for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children and families.
Minneapolis jewish federation is a nonprofit organization that promotes a culture of philanthropy, leverages resources to meet local and global jewish needs, and facilitates community planning to ensure a thriving and secure future.
Based on jewish values, the jewish federation of greater los angeles convenes and leads the community and leverages its resources to assure the continuity of the jewish people, support a secure state of israel, care for jews in need here…
The mission of gw hillel is to provide an open, warm, and pluralistic environment in which students can shape their college experience by connecting socially, culturally, and spiritually to their judaism. hillel aims to foster students'…
To proclaim the gospel, grow the messianic jewish community and engage the church concerning israel and the jewish people. this is done through education, evangelism and being a movement leader, all with excellence in order to transform…
To strengthen and expand the u.s.-israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the united states and israel.
The jewish electorate institute (jei) is an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization that surveys, interprets, reports, and educates the public about the perspectives, voting behaviors, and motivations of the american jewish…
Avodah develops lifelong social justice leaders whose work is informed by jewish values and who inspire the jewish community to work toward a more just and equitable world.
To conduct educational activities and to provide scholarly perspectives on foreign and domestic policies that impact the jewish community in the united states and the broader american public.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Repair the World and the most unlike its peers is Flamboyan 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.
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 31 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.7% lost their exemption, against 13% 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.
141 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. 141 of the 175 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
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 JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHINGTON INC ↗
- Who funds THE HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds MOISHE HOUSE ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FUNDERS NETWORK ↗
- Who funds BUILDING BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIVER INC ↗
- Who funds ICIVICS INC ↗
- Who funds SIXTH & I SYNAGOGUE INC ↗
- Who funds HILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE ↗
- Who funds ONETABLE INC ↗
- Who funds LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds WESTERN STATES CENTER ↗
- Who funds FROM THE TOP INC ↗
- Who funds EDLAVITCH JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF WASHINGTON DC INC ↗
- Who funds JEWS UNITED FOR JUSTICE INC ↗
- Who funds REBOOT INC ↗
- Who funds FACING HISTORY & OURSELVES INC ↗
- Who funds JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY ↗
- Who funds DC PUBLIC EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds SITAR ARTS CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE WASHINGTON BALLET ↗
- Who funds MAMATOTO VILLAGE INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S NATIONAL ↗
- Who funds DANCE PLACE ↗
- Who funds THE MEDSTAR-GEORGETOWN MEDICAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds DC ACTION FOR CHILDREN TODAY DC ACT ↗
- Who funds REPAIR THE WORLD ↗
- Who funds Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc ↗
- Who funds LEVINE MUSIC INC ↗
- Who funds Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum ↗
- Who funds LEHRHAUS CENTER FOR JEWISH LIFE AND LEARNING INC ↗
- Who funds WAY TO RISE ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds VALLEY BEIT MIDRASH ↗
- Who funds 350ORG ↗
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: The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · England Family Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · The Morningstar Philanthropic Foundation D/B/A the Morningstar Foundation · The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington Inc · Philip L Graham Fund co Graham Holdings Company · Galena-Yorktown Foundation · The Robert P and Arlene R Kogod Family Foundation · The Gary and Pennie Abramson Charitable Foundation · Clark Charitable Foundation Inc Dba a James & Alice B Clark Foundation · The Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation Dba Jim Joseph 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 Howard and Geraldine Polinger 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.
- Jewish Family Service & Children's Center of Clifton-Passaicinc — 19% of income from government
- Icivics Inc — 13% of income from government
- Imagination Stage Inc — 13% of income from government
- Action for Boston Community Development Inc — 11% of income from government
- The Strathmore Hall Foundation Inc — 7% of income from government
- From the Top Inc — 6% of income from government
- Island Housing Trust Corporation — 1% of income from government
- Bender Jcc of Greater Washington — 1% of income from government
- Jewish Social Service Agency — 1% of income from government
- Yeshiva of Greater Washington Inc — 1% of income from government
- Hebrew Home of Greater Washington Inc — 0% of income from government
- Goucher College — 0% of income from government
- Island Grown Initiative Ltd — 0% 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 Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family 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.