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James S McDonnell Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

James S McDonnell Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$30M
Granted FY2024still arriving
82
Grants FY2024still arriving
10
States reached
$5.1M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$41MPhilanthropy$20MScience & Tech$11MRecreation & Sports$6.6MHealth$5.8MCommunity Improvement$3.6MHuman Services$2.8MCivil Rights$2.0MOther$0
02FY2024 · 82 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $4k
  • $10k–50k23 grants · $667k
  • $50k–250k31 grants · $4.0M
  • $250k+26 grants · $25M
$120,000
Median grant
10
States reached
$457M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FOREST PARK FOREVER INC$5,120,000
CURATORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST LOUIS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY$3,361,590
FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS$2,250,000
ST LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$1,950,000
DAVIS & ELKINS COLLEGE$1,160,000
ST LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$1,000,000
SMALL BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT CENTER$1,000,000
ST LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$966,000
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL INC$900,000
NEIGHBORHOOD SOLIDARITY FUND$782,500
WEPOWER$637,539
ST LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION$575,000
BIOSTL$565,297
BIOSTL$565,297
BIOSTL$514,985
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 (FY24–24, $275k) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF METROPOLITAN ST LOUIS: $275k → 21%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.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
NH
WA
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
IA
IN
PA
NJ
CT
CA
CO
MO
WV
VA
DE
AZ
NM
SC
DC
LA
GA
TX
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.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$59M · 52 repeat orgs$35M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +33% since the first grant, against +25% for those funded once.

52 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 48 since wound down; 39 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

52
33

Total granted

$59M
$6.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
+25%

Still filing today

33%
42%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 3% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $29M went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationCommunity ImprovementHealthPhilanthropyScience & TechInternationalOther
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

  • TJ
    THE JSM CHARITABLE TRUST
    3× · 2020–2022 · $20M · revenue +198% · 100% of their budget
  • TU
    Temple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education
    4× · 2020–2024 · $2.5M · revenue +14%
  • CM
    Carnegie Mellon University
    3× · 2020–2022 · $1.8M · revenue +35%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
    one grant, 2022 · $665k
  • SL
    ST LOUIS UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2022 · $256k · revenue -10%
  • SU
    STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
    one grant, 2020 · $250k
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
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
2
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
3
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
4
Manhattanville University

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

Education
5
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.…

—
6
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
7
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
8
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
9
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
10
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
11
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
12
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Pittsburgh; the most unlike its peers is The Michael D and Margaret Ann Latta Charitable Foundation. 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

66 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. 66 of the 130 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
66/66
Grantees still filing
40/66
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ST LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5,275,820 · OtherST LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONCURATORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST LOUIS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY: $4,073,168 · OtherCURATORS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST LOUIS ON BEH…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA- DAVIS: $2,206,279 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $1,992,185 · OtherIndiana University School of Medicine: $1,933,425 · OtherIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY: $1,865,878 · OtherCarnegie Mellon University: $1,766,454 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $1,697,307 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: $1,616,435 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: $1,593,097 · Other+69 more: $23,686,236 · Other+69 moreTHE JSM CHARITABLE TRUST: $19,545,879 · PhilanthropyTHE JSM CHARITABLE TRUS…+3 more: $517,000 · PhilanthropyTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $2,531,951 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIV…Temple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $2,469,788 · EducationTemple University - …BIOSTL: $2,160,564 · EducationBIOSTLUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $1,726,254 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF PITTSB…WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $1,440,927 · EducationWASHINGTON UNIVERSIT…DAVIS & ELKINS COLLEGE: $1,160,000 · EducationDAVIS & ELKINS COLLE…President and Fellows of Harvard College: $1,004,037 · EducationPresident and Fellow…Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $900,000 · Education+27 more: $4,774,969 · Education+27 moreForest Park Forever Inc: $5,120,000 · EnvironmentNEIGHBORHOOD SOLIDARITY FUND: $1,185,500 · Community ImprovementSMALL BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT CENTER: $1,000,000 · Community ImprovementWEPOWER: $662,539 · Community ImprovementENTREPRENEUR STARTUP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $350,000 · Community ImprovementCORTEX: $200,000 · Community Improvement+1 more: $40,000 · Community ImprovementFEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: $2,250,000 · International+1 more: $67,000 · InternationalSANTA FE INSTITUTE: $1,226,861 · Science & TechST LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION: $575,000 · Science & TechNATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $200,000 · Science & Tech
Other$47,706,284Philanthropy$20,062,879Education$18,168,490Environment$5,120,000Community Improvement$3,438,039International$2,317,000Science & Tech$2,001,861

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 budgetTHE JSM CHARITABLE TRUST: $19,545,879 over 3y, 100% of budgetForest Park Forever Inc: $5,120,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $2,531,951 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $2,469,788 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetFEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS: $2,250,000 over 1y, 7.6% of budgetBIOSTL: $2,160,564 over 1y, 12% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University: $1,766,454 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $1,726,254 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: $1,593,097 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $1,444,037 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $1,440,927 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSANTA FE INSTITUTE: $1,226,861 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD SOLIDARITY FUND: $1,185,500 over 1y, 26% of budgetDAVIS & ELKINS COLLEGE: $1,160,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $1,004,037 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSMALL BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT CENTER: $1,000,000 over 1y, 32% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $900,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY - ST LOUIS: $900,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetWEPOWER: $662,539 over 1y, 20% of budgetST LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION: $575,000 over 1y, 7.1% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $550,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGoalsetter Foundation Inc: $454,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $450,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetENTREPRENEUR STARTUP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $350,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetNew York University: $305,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $303,500 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $291,102 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF METROPOLITAN ST LOUIS: $275,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetST LOUIS UNIVERSITY: $255,897 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRochester Institute of Technology: $250,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Michigan: $250,000 over 2y, 47% of budgetTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $250,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetST LOUIS LIFE SCIENCES PROJECT: $225,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetCALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: $200,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPOMONA COLLEGE: $200,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCornell University: $200,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $200,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNUS AMERICA FOUNDATION INC: $200,000 over 2y, 3.1% of budgetCORTEX: $200,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $200,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLEGAL SERVICES OF EASTERN MISSOURI INC: $157,264 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetSKIDMORE COLLEGE: $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE: $116,268 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE FOUNDATION FOR BARNES-JEWISH HOSPITAL: $110,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Broad Institute Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe President and Trustees of Colby College: $100,000 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.

  • Who funds THE JSM CHARITABLE TRUST ↗
  • Who funds Forest Park Forever Inc ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
  • Who funds Temple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education ↗
  • Who funds FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS ↗
  • Who funds BIOSTL ↗
  • Who funds Carnegie Mellon University ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds SANTA FE INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds NEIGHBORHOOD SOLIDARITY FUND ↗
  • Who funds DAVIS & ELKINS COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
  • Who funds SMALL BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT CENTER ↗
  • Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
  • Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY - ST LOUIS ↗
  • Who funds WEPOWER ↗
  • Who funds ST LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Goalsetter Foundation Inc ↗

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.

St Louis Community Fo…United Way of Greater…Washington UniversityWells Fargo FoundationBjc Health System Dba…St Louis Community Fo…Commerce Bancshares F…Enterprise Holdings F…Regional Business Cou…Trio Foundation of St…Centene FoundationMac Five Foundation I…
St Louis Community Foundation IncMO41.8× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: St Louis Community Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater St Louis Inc · Washington University · Wells Fargo Foundation · Bjc Health System Dba Bjc Healthcare · St Louis Community Foundation · Commerce Bancshares Foundation · Enterprise Holdings Foundation · Regional Business Council · Trio Foundation of St Louis · Centene Foundation · Mac Five Foundation Inc

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 James S McDonnell Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from James S McDonnell Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • University of Delaware: 30% of income from government
  • The Broad Institute Inc: 19% of income from government
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston College: 3% of income from government
  • Wellesley College: 1% of income from government
  • The Trustees of Mount Holyoke College: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to James S McDonnell Foundation?

Find your warmest path to James S McDonnell 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.

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 130 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on James S McDonnell’s 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