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· Private foundation

John & Helen Nicholson Scholar

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.

$8k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$2k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01

What you funded, over time

By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 48% of JOHN & HELEN NICHOLSON SCHOLAR’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.

02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$1,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$187k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY$2,000
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE$2,000
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY$1,000
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA$1,000
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA$1,000
JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY$1,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 72% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%BOSTON COLLEGE: $1k → 7%FRAMINGHAM STATE UNIVERSITY: $1k → 8%MERRIMACK COLLEGE: $2k → 10%STONEHILL COLLEGE: $1k → 11%UMASS AMHERST: $3k → 12%UMASS BOSTON: $1k → 16%VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY: $1k → 10%PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE: $2k → 11%CORNELL UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%NYU: $1k → 17%FURMAN UNIVERSITY: $1k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA: $1k → 16%The University of Alabama: $1k → 17%SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY: $1k → 9%HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%Providence College: $1k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: $1k → 27%LOYOLA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: $1k → 8%VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY: $1k → 22%JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY: $1k → 29%UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT: $1k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: $1k → 11%Saint Anselm College: $1k → 7%SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY: $1k → 7%UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $1k → 9%MAINE COLLEGE OF ART: $1k → 7%UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND: $1k → 9%CURRY COLLEGE: $1k → 7%UMASS LOWELL: $1k → 8%MERIMACK COLLEGE: $1k → 10%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA: $1k → 16%FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY: $1k → 9%PROVIDENCE COLLEGE: $1k → 14%James Madison University: $1k → 29%MERRIMACK COLLEGE: $1k → 10%Johnson & Wales University: $1k → 14%NORTHERN ESSEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $1k → 10%Johnson & Wales University: $1k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

ME
VT
NH
IL
NY
MA
PA
CT
RI
CO
VA
MD
NC
SC
AL
GA

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

25%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$12k · 5 repeat orgs$36k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +42% since the first grant, against +18% for the ones you funded once.

5 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
28

Total granted

$12k
$30k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%
+18%

Still filing today

60%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 25% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

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

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

  • MERRIMACK COLLEGE
    3× · 2017–2023 · $4k · revenue +77%
  • JW
    JOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2020–2022 · $2k · revenue -15%
  • PROVIDENCE COLLEGE
    2× · 2020–2021 · $2k · revenue +42%

Funded once

  • UA
    UMASS AMHERST
    one grant, 2024 · $3k
  • MC
    MAINE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGNgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue +69%
  • SC
    STONEHILL COLLEGE INC
    one grant, 2023 · $1k · revenue +23%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
2
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
3
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
4
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
5
Roger Williams University

At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…

Education
6
Endicott College

Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.

Education
7
Dean College

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,…

Education
8
Saint Xavier University

Saint xavier university, a catholic institution inspired by the heritage of the sisters of mercy, educates persons to search for truth, think critically, communicate effectively and serve wisely and compassionately in support of human…

Education
9
The Catholic University of America

As the national university of the catholic church in the united states, founded and sponsored by the bishops of the country with the approval of the holy see, the catholic university of america is committed to being a comprehensive…

Education
10
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
11
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
12
Seton Hall University

Seton hall university is a catholic institution of higher education

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sacred Heart University Incorporated and the most unlike its peers is University of New England. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 79 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%10%10–20yr16%5%20–35yr13%15%35–55yr16%70%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%11%10–20yr16%4%20–35yr13%11%35–55yr16%75%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/20
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,545

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.

04the grantee network

19 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. 19 of the 37 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
19/19
Grantees still filing
14/19
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MERRIMACK COLLEGE — $4,000 · EducationMERRIMACK COLLEGEJOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · EducationJOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITYLOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO — $2,000 · EducationLOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGORensselaer Polytechnic Institute — $2,000 · EducationRensselaer Polytechnic InstitutePROVIDENCE COLLEGE — $2,000 · EducationPROVIDENCE COLLEGEMAINE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN — $1,000 · EducationSTONEHILL COLLEGE INC — $1,000 · EducationSouthern New Hampshire University — $1,000 · EducationFURMAN UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · EducationFairfield University — $1,000 · EducationHIGH POINT UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · EducationVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · EducationCURRY COLLEGE — $1,000 · EducationTRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE — $1,000 · EducationSACRED HEART UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED — $1,000 · EducationCornell University — $1,000 · EducationSAINT ANSELM COLLEGE — $1,000 · EducationUniversity of New England — $1,000 · EducationUMASS AMHERST — $3,000 · OtherUMASS AMHERSTUNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA — $2,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINAJAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · OtherJAMES MADISON UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA — $1,000 · OtherPENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · OtherVIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · OtherFRAMINGHAM STATE UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT — $1,000 · OtherUMASS LOWELL — $1,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN — $1,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA — $1,000 · OtherNYU — $1,000 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · OtherNORTHERN ESSEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE — $1,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE — $1,000 · OtherThe University of Alabama — $1,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND — $1,000 · OtherCOLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY — $1,000 · OtherUMASS BOSTON — $1,000 · Other
Education$25,000Other$23,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMERRIMACK COLLEGE — $4,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRensselaer Polytechnic Institute — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROVIDENCE COLLEGE — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMAINE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTONEHILL COLLEGE INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern New Hampshire University — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFURMAN UNIVERSITY — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFairfield University — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHIGH POINT UNIVERSITY — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCURRY COLLEGE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSACRED HEART UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAINT ANSELM COLLEGE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of New England — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization John & Helen Nicholson Scholar 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.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston College — 2% of income from government
  • Merrimack College — 2% of income from government
  • Stonehill College Inc — 1% of income from government
  • Fairfield University — 1% of income from government
  • Sacred Heart University Incorporated — 0% of income from government
  • Curry College — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 37 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines