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Jean and Murray Nelson Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Jean and Murray Nelson 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.

$35k
Granted FY2025still arriving
14
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$16k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$123kEducation$15kHuman Services$2k
02FY2025 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k13 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $16k
$300
Median grant
1
States reached
$399k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS$16,000
JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION$7,000
NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE$3,500
IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL$3,000
NEWTON YMCA$1,500
ARTS CONNECTION$1,250
LYNNVILLE LIBRARY$300
MINGO LIBRARY$300
COLFAX LIBRARY$300
MONROE LIBRARY$300
NEWTON LIBRARY$300
PRARIE CITY LIBRARY$300
BAXTER LIBRARY$300
SULLY LIBRARY$300
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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%PRAIRIE CITY MONROE HS VISUAL ARTS: $350 → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS: $16k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $7k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS: $6k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $6k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS & ARTISTS: $6k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION INC: $6k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS & ARTISTS: $6k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS & ARTISTS: $5k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS: $4k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $4k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS & ARTISTS: $4k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $4k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $4k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $3k → 9%CENTRE FOR ARTS & ARTISTS: $3k → 9%IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $3k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $3k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $2k → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $2k → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $2k → 9%JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION: $2k → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $2k → 9%IOWA SCUPTURE FESTIVAL: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $2k → 9%IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $2k → 9%IOWA SCUPTURE FESTIVAL: $2k → 9%NEWTON YMCA: $2k → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $1k → 9%IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $1k → 9%IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $1k → 9%IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $1k → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $750 → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $750 → 9%IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $500 → 9%NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE: $500 → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $500 → 9%ARTS CONNECTION: $500 → 9%CMHS VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM: $350 → 9%LYNNVILLE SULLY HS VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM: $350 → 9%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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$127k · 13 repeat orgs$4k to everyone else

13 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
4

Total granted

$127k
$1k

Still filing today

15%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time
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

  • CF
    CENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS
    8× · 2017–2025 · $50k · revenue ×55 · 27% of their budget
  • NC
    NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE INC
    8× · 2017–2025 · $14k · revenue +35%
  • IS
    IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL
    8× · 2017–2025 · $12k · revenue +3%

Funded once

  • LS
    LYNNVILLE SULLY HS VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM
    one grant, 2021 · $350
  • CV
    CMHS VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM
    one grant, 2021 · $350
  • BH
    BAXTER HS VISUAL ARTS PROGRAMS
    one grant, 2021 · $350
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
04the grantee network

5 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. 5 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
4/5
Grantees still filing
3/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

JASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION INC: $34,350 · OtherJASPER COUNTY CONCERT ASSOCIATION INCIOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $12,000 · OtherIOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVALARTS CONNECTION INC: $11,000 · OtherARTS CONNECTION INC+17 more: $9,700 · Other+17 moreCENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS: $50,000 · Arts & CultureCENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTSNEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE INC: $14,250 · Arts & CultureNEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE INCNEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $7,850 · Education
Other$67,050Arts & Culture$64,250Education$7,850

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS: $50,000 over 8y, 27% of budgetNEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE INC: $14,250 over 8y, 4.1% of budgetIOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL: $12,000 over 8y, 8.1% of budgetNEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $7,850 over 4y, 5.5% of budgetNEWTON YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% 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 CENTRE FOR ARTS AND ARTISTS ↗
  • Who funds NEWTON COMMUNITY THEATRE INC ↗
  • Who funds IOWA SCULPTURE FESTIVAL ↗
  • Who funds NEWTON COMMUNITY EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds NEWTON YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 Jean and Murray Nelson Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Jean and Murray Nelson 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 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