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Last Resort Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Last Resort 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.

$25k
Granted FY2025still arriving
2
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$15k
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, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$140kArts & Culture$45kPhilanthropy$45kSocial Science$15kReligion$7k
02FY2025 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$15,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$387k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY$15,000
CHAPEL & YORK FOUNDATION$10,000
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 (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 74% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%BERKSHIRE SCHOOL INC: $15k → 12%HOLY INNOCENTS CHURCH: $4k → 14%THE DIMON INSTITUTE INC: $15k → 17%PAIDEIA INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDY: $15k → 20%KIND FOUNDATTION: $15k → 6%WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INC: $30k → 16%WESTMINSTER SCHOOL: $15k → 11%WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $10k → 15%BERKSHIRE SCHOOL INC: $10k → 12%HOLY INNOCENTS CHURCH: $3k → 14%CHAPEL & YORK FOUNDATION: $15k → 17%PAIDEIA INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDY: $15k → 20%WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INC: $15k → 16%CHAPEL & YORK FOUNDATION: $10k → 17%THE PAIDEIA INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDY: $15k → 20%WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INC: $5k → 16%CHAPEL & YORK FOUNDATION: $5k → 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.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$167k · 5 repeat orgs$55k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +21% since the first grant, against +10% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
4

Total granted

$167k
$55k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+10%

Still filing today

80%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationPhilanthropyArts & CultureOther
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

  • WS
    WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
    3× · 2022–2024 · $50k · revenue +19%
  • PI
    PAIDEIA INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDY
    3× · 2020–2022 · $45k · revenue +103%
  • Southern Methodist University
    3× · 2022–2025 · $40k · revenue +3%

Funded once

  • KF
    Kind Foundation
    one grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue -62%
  • TO
    TRUSTEES OF WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $15k · revenue +32%
  • TD
    THE DIMON INSTITUTE INC
    one grant, 2020 · $15k
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
The Westminster Schools Inc

Westminster is a coeducational Christian, independent day school for grades pre-first through 12, committed to creating an educational experience where bright, curious, motivated students who are nurtured by challenge can grow into leaders…

Education
2
Whitworth University

Since 1890, whitworth has held fast to its founding mission of providing "an education of mind and heart" through rigorous intellectual inquiry guided by dedicated christian scholars.

Education
3
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
4
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
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
The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge

The mission of the university of cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. organizationally, we achieve this through two divisions…

—
7
Westminster School Inc

To provide the opportunity for a superior elementary and middle school education based on exceptionally high curricula and standards.

Education
8
Westminster College

The mission of westminster college is to help students develop competencies, commitments, and characteristics which have distinguished human beings at their best. see continuation on schedule o.the liberal arts tradition is the foundation…

Education
9
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
10
Westminster Academy

The school provides classical christian education to students in grades junior kindergarten through twelve.

Education
11
Westmont College

Higher Education: Westmont College is an undergraduate, residential, Christian, liberal arts community serving God's kingdom by cultivating thoughtful scholars, grateful servants and faithful leaders for global engagement with the academy,…

Education
12
Goucher College

Goucher College provides an innovative liberal arts education that prepares students with a broad, humane perspective for a life of inquiry, creativity, and critical and analytical thinking. The College's vision is to become a top-100…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trustees of Westminster School Inc; the most unlike its peers is Kind Foundation. 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

8 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. 8 of the 10 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)
8/8
Grantees still filing
7/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Southern Methodist University: $40,000 · EducationSouthern Methodist UniversityTHE BERKSHIRE SCHOOL INC: $25,000 · EducationTHE BERKSHIRE SCHOOL INCTRUSTEES OF WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INC: $15,000 · EducationTRUSTEES OF WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INCWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $10,000 · EducationWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITYWESTMINSTER SCHOOL: $50,000 · OtherWESTMINSTER SCHOOLTHE DIMON INSTITUTE INC: $15,000 · OtherTHE DIMON INSTITUTE INCHOLY INNOCENTS CHURCH: $6,550 · OtherHOLY INNOCENTS CHURCHPAIDEIA INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDY: $45,000 · Arts & CulturePAIDEIA INSTITUTE FO…CHAPEL & YORK US FOUNDATION INC: $30,000 · PhilanthropyCHAPEL & YORK US FOU…Kind Foundation: $15,000 · PhilanthropyKind Foundation
Education$90,000Other$71,550Arts & Culture$45,000Philanthropy$45,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetWESTMINSTER SCHOOL: $50,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetPAIDEIA INSTITUTE FOR HUMANISTIC STUDY: $45,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetSouthern Methodist University: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCHAPEL & YORK US FOUNDATION INC: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BERKSHIRE SCHOOL INC: $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF WESTMINSTER SCHOOL INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $10,000 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%25%56%100%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
    2get 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 Last Resort Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Last Resort 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 10 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 Last Resort’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