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Joyce & Daniel Cowin Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Joyce & Daniel Cowin 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.

$793k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$513k
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, FY2019 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$4.6MEducation$1.6MHealth$465kPhilanthropy$179kRecreation & Sports$50kScience & Tech$25kFood & Nutrition$13k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $225k
  • $250k+1 grant · $513k
$100,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY$512,500
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM$125,000
THE FRICK COLLECTION$100,000
CENTAUR AI INSTITUTE$25,000
THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR$25,000
WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY$5,000
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 (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 98% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CENTAUR AI INSTITUTE: $25k → 6%UNTERMYER GARDENS CONSERVANCY INC: $50k → 9%AMERICAN MUSEUM OF FOLK ART: $45k → 13%MULTIPLYING GOOD INC: $25k → 17%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $60k → 11%UNC COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $188k → 13%MULTIPLYING GOOD INC: $25k → 17%UNC COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $63k → 13%UJA FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTROPIES OF NY: $26k → 17%UJA FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTROPIES OF NY: $26k → 17%UJA FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTROPIES OF NY: $26k → 17%UJA FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTROPIES OF NY: $26k → 17%JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND: $25k → 17%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $500k → 17%THE FRICK COLLECTION: $200k → 17%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $500k → 17%THE FRICK COLLECTION: $100k → 17%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $137k → 17%THE FRICK COLLECTION: $100k → 17%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $97k → 17%THE FRICK COLLECTION: $100k → 17%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $58k → 17%THE FRICK COLLECTION: $50k → 17%THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR: $300k → 17%THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR: $250k → 17%THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR: $150k → 17%AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: $125k → 17%AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: $125k → 17%THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR: $65k → 17%THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR: $50k → 17%AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: $50k → 17%THE CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CTR: $25k → 17%THE NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK: $20k → 17%NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: $200k → 17%NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: $200k → 17%ALZHEIMER'S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATION: $50k → 17%THE HUNTER COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $25k → 17%FOOD EDUCATION FUND INC: $13k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $547k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $513k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $426k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $425k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $301k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $300k → 17%NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $175k → 17%KENNEDY CHILDREN'S CENTER INC: $15k → 17%THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $50k → 17%NEW YORK LANDMARKS CONSERVANCY INC: $50k → 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 grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$6.5M · 10 repeat orgs$358k to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
9

Total granted

$6.5M
$328k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-4%
+50%

Still filing today

80%
89%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CulturePhilanthropySocial ScienceRecreation & SportsScience & TechOther
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

  • NY
    New York Historical Society
    7× · 2019–2025 · $2.7M · revenue +1%
  • TC
    The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Inc
    7× · 2019–2025 · $850k · revenue +130%
  • UJ
    UNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC
    4× · 2019–2022 · $104k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • DUKE UNIVERSITYgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $60k · revenue +44%
  • AD
    ALZHEIMER'S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $50k · revenue +108%
  • NY
    NEW YORK LANDMARKS CONSERVANCY INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue +33%
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
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
2
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
3
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
4
The Jewish Museum

The mission of the jewish museum is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and jewish culture. see schedule o for more information.

Arts & Culture
5
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
6
The Graduate Center Foundation Inc

The graduate center foundation is committed to promoting and safe-guarding the success of the graduate center by raising funds and managing and investing donations for use by the graduate center. the board of trustees of the foundation…

—
7
Bard College

Bard college seeks to provide a challenging academic program and a supportive environment that fosters a collaborative interchange of ideas in the classroom as well as ambition to achieve excellence.

Education
8
The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.

Education
9
Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan school of music is deeply committed to excellence in education, performance, and creative activity; to the humanity of the school's environment; and to the cultural enrichment of the larger community. a premiere international…

Arts & Culture
10
Harvard Club of Ny Historical Foundation
Environment
11
New York Hall of Science

Nysci's mission is to nurture generations of passionate learners, critical thinkers, and active citizens through design make play - an approach to learning and engagement that is deeply rooted in research on stem learning and guides the…

Arts & Culture
12
Berggruen Institute
Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Frick Collection; the most unlike its peers is The Neue Galerie New York. 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

19 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. 19 of the 22 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
19/19
Grantees still filing
12/19
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

New York Historical Society: $2,686,000 · Arts & CultureNew York Historical SocietyThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Inc: $850,000 · Arts & CultureThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center IncAMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: $300,000 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM+1 more: $20,000 · Arts & CultureTeachers College Columbia University: $1,292,000 · EducationTeachers College Columbi…DUKE UNIVERSITY: $60,000 · EducationTHE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $60,000 · Education+4 more: $58,000 · EducationThe Frick Collection: $550,000 · OtherThe Frick CollectionNEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: $400,000 · OtherNEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN…UNC COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $250,000 · OtherUNC COLLEGE OF ARTS &…NEW YORK LANDMARKS CONSERVANCY INC: $50,000 · OtherAMERICAN MUSEUM OF FOLK ART: $45,000 · OtherUNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC: $104,000 · PhilanthropyMULTIPLYING GOOD INC: $50,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH COMMUNAL FUND: $25,000 · PhilanthropyALZHEIMER'S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATION: $50,000 · Social ScienceUNTERMYER GARDENS CONSERVANCY INC: $50,000 · Recreation & SportsCENTAUR AI INSTITUTE: $25,000 · Science & Tech
Arts & Culture$3,856,000Education$1,470,000Other$1,295,000Philanthropy$179,000Social Science$50,000Recreation & Sports$50,000Science & Tech$25,000

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 budgetNew York Historical Society: $2,686,000 over 7y, 1.2% of budgetTeachers College Columbia University: $1,292,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetThe Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Inc: $850,000 over 7y, 3.2% of budgetThe Frick Collection: $550,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetAMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM: $300,000 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetUNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC: $104,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $60,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $60,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DRUG DISCOVERY FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNEW YORK LANDMARKS CONSERVANCY INC: $50,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetMULTIPLYING GOOD INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetUNTERMYER GARDENS CONSERVANCY INC: $50,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetCENTAUR AI INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 32% of budgetJEWISH COMMUNAL FUND: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HUNTER COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE NEUE GALERIE NEW YORK: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetKENNEDY CHILDRENS CENTER: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFOOD EDUCATION FUND INC: $13,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetWilliam Marsh Rice University: $5,000 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.

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

American Online Givin…
American Online Giving Foundation IncDE7.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving 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 Joyce & Daniel Cowin Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Joyce & Daniel Cowin Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 Joyce & Daniel Cowin Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Joyce & Daniel Cowin 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 22 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

    Play a game based on Joyce & Daniel Cowin’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