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Joan and Joseph Birman Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Joan and Joseph Birman Foundation

$330k
Granted FY2020
16
Grants FY2020
1
States reached
$125k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
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 2020.

Science & Tech$534kArts & Culture$11kCivil Rights$5kInternational$4kHealth$3kPhilanthropy$3kReligion$2kSocial Science$500
02FY2020 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k9 grants · $25k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $64k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $241k
$7,319
Median grant
1
States reached
$953
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
American Mathematical Society$125,000
American Mathematical Society$59,000
American Mathematical Society$56,568
American Mathematical Society$22,671
American Mathematical Society$17,395
American Mathematical Society$12,518
American Mathematical Society$11,895
American Mathematical Society$7,319
American Mathematical Society$5,300
American Mathematical Society$3,009
American Mathematical Society$2,949
American Mathematical Society$2,365
American Mathematical Society$1,474
American Mathematical Society$1,328
American Mathematical Society$1,196
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 (FY17–17, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Committee of Concerned Scientists: $2k → 17%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 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
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Chartered by a unanimous act of congress, the museum is america's national institution for the documentation, study, interpretation, and education of holocaust history and serves as our country's memorial to the victims of the holocaust.…

Arts & Culture
2
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
3
Bar Ilan University in Israel Inc

Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.

—
4
The Central European University

Ceu is committed to promoting the values of open society and self-reflective critical thinking. it aims at excellence in the mastery of established knowledge, courage to pursue the creation of new knowledge in the humanities, the social…

International
5
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
6
Yeshiva University

The university is composed of several colleges and schools providing undergraduate, graduate, professional and post-doctoral education and training and research and clinical programs.

Education
7
Us Middle East Project Inc

The organization's mission is to engage in non partisan analysis of u.s. foreign policy in the middle east, with special emphasis on the middle east peace process, and to present policymakers in the united states, in the region and in the…

International
8
Computer History Museum

Chm decodes technology - its computing past, digital present, and future impact on humanity.

Arts & Culture
9
American Academy of Sciences and Letters Inc

The American Academy of Sciences and Letters (AASL) promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. It encourages the fruitful exchange of ideas within academia and society at large…

Education
10
Middle East Media and Research Institute Inc

The middle east media research institute (memri) explores the middle east through its media, providing timely translations from arabic, farsi, urdu, pashtu, and turkish media and publishing original analysis of political, ideological,…

International
11
Association for Computing Machinery Inc

We are an intl. scientific & educational org. dedicated to advancing art, science & technology.

Science & Tech
12
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

The weitzman national museum of american jewish history, on independence mall in philadelphia, presents educational programs and experiences that preserve, explore, and celebrate the history of jews in america. its purpose is to connect…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is American Academy of Arts & Sciences; the most unlike its peers is Human Rights in China 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

13 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. 13 of the 20 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/13
Grantees still filing
10/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY: $530,045 · Science & TechAMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY+1 more: $500 · Science & TechThirteenWNET: $3,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $3,000 · OtherPlanned Parenthood: $3,000 · OtherTEMPLE ISRAEL OF SOUTHERN WESTCHE: $2,020 · OtherCourant Institute of New York Unive: $2,000 · Other+4 more: $2,000 · OtherHUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA INC: $2,000 · InternationalNEW ISRAEL FUND: $2,000 · InternationalAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TECHNION ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INC: $1,000 · InternationalTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $3,000 · Arts & CultureMuseum of Modern Art: $500 · Arts & CultureMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $500 · Arts & CultureANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $3,000 · Civil RightsUNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC: $3,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMITTEE OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $1,500 · Human Services
Science & Tech$530,545Other$15,020International$5,000Arts & Culture$4,000Civil Rights$3,000Philanthropy$3,000Human Services$1,500

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 budgetAMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY: $530,045 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNEW ISRAEL FUND: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMITTEE OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $1,500 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TECHNION ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY - LOUIS BAMBERGER & MRS FELIX FULD FOUNDATION: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMuseum of Modern Art: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFriends of IHES Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $500 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.

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.

National Philanthropi…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
National Philanthropic TrustPA9.7× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Joan and Joseph Birman Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Joan and Joseph Birman 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 7%
  • Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation: 7% of income from government
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 3% of 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 · 0–15%
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 20 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2021) is on record but names no grant recipient in the published copy, so the figures above are from FY2020, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Joan and Joseph Birman’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