· Private foundation
James W O'Brien Foundation Inc
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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k8 grants · $34k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $110k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $337k
- $250k+1 grant · $256k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MERRIMACK COLLEGE | $255,575 |
| BOSTON COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL | $150,000 |
| ST MARY'S HIGH SCHOOL | $125,000 |
| LYNN ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL | $61,849 |
| GIRLS INC OF LYNN | $30,000 |
| CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL | $25,000 |
| SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL | $20,000 |
| THE AUGUSTINIAN FUND | $20,000 |
| VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY CHARLES WIDGER SCHOOL OF LAW | $15,000 |
| ST MICHAEL'S PARISH TODAY'S MASSES | $5,006 |
| FRONT DOOR AGENCY | $5,000 |
| YMCA OF GREATER NASHUA | $5,000 |
| NASHUA CHILDREN'S HOME | $5,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF NASHUA | $5,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF LYNN | $4,500 |
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 (FY24–24, $17k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
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.
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 bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.
Dean college is a private, residential new england college grounded in a culture and tradition that all students deserve the opportunity to discover and exceed their greatest aspirations. a personal and transformative community since 1865,…
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…
Emmanuel college is a coed, residential catholic liberal arts and sciences college with 2,112 undergraduate and graduate students.
Saint anselm is a catholic, benedictine college providing all of its students a distinctive liberal arts education that incorporates opportunities for professional and career preparation. it does so in a learning community that encourages…
Nichols college strives to develop tomorrow's leaders through a dynamic, career-focused business education. the college transforms students into successful graduates who respond to challenges, are eager for responsibility, and assume…
The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.
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…
Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…
Hilbert college is an independent institution of higher learning that embraces its catholic franciscan heritage and values. students from diverse backgrounds are educated in liberal arts and professional programs to become informed…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Girls Incorporated of Boston and Lynn and the most unlike its peers is Lower Cape Outreach Councilinc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 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. 10 of the 19 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 MERRIMACK COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds GIRLS INCORPORATED OF BOSTON AND LYNN ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL OF LAWRENCE INC ↗
- Who funds SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Young Men's Christian Association of Greater Nashua ↗
- Who funds NASHUA CHILDREN'S HOME ↗
- Who funds THE FRONT DOOR AGENCY INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF LYNN INC ↗
- Who funds LOWER CAPE OUTREACH COUNCILINC ↗
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: Eastern Bank Foundation · Td Charitable Foundation · Fidelity Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation Inc · American Tower Corporation Foundation Inc · New Hampshire Charitable Foundation · Citizens Charitable Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund
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 James W O'Brien Foundation Inc 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.
- Girls Incorporated of Boston and Lynn — 28% of income from government
- Lower Cape Outreach Councilinc — 6% of income from government
- Merrimack College — 1% of income from government
- Suffolk University — 1% of income from government
- Boys & Girls Club of Lynn Inc — 0% of income from government
- Central Catholic High School of Lawrence Inc — 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 James W O'Brien Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to James W O'Brien Foundation Inc 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.