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Leo & Marjorie Stern Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Leo & Marjorie Stern Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$196k
Granted FY2024still arriving
2
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$196k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Education$197kArts & Culture$16kHealth$10kCivil Rights$8kScience & Tech$2kEnvironment$1kOther$0
02FY2024 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $125
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $196k
$196,301
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY$196,301
ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION$125
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 (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 53% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%ARIZONA OPERA: $3k → 11%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $500 → 8%INTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION: $100 → 14%PLANNED PARENTHOOD: $100 → 17%MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $3k → 9%PHOENIX ART MUSEUM: $1k → 11%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $500 → 8%INTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION: $100 → 14%MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%ARIZONA OPERA: $1k → 11%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $500 → 8%INTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION: $100 → 14%MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $1k → 9%PHOENIX ART MUSEUM: $754 → 11%ARIZONA PBS: $500 → 11%ARIZONA PBS: $500 → 11%ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION: $125 → 11%DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN: $1k → 11%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.
$228k · 11 repeat orgs$6k to everyone else

11 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 10 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
3

Total granted

$228k
$6k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+8%
+79%

Still filing today

73%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $125 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’24
Arts & CultureHealthEducationCivil RightsEnvironmentOther
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

  • The Trustees of Princeton University
    3× · 2018–2024 · $197k · revenue +8%
  • AL
    ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
    3× · 2018–2021 · $8k · revenue +80%
  • CG
    CLL Global Research Foundation
    2× · 2018–2021 · $3k · revenue +7%

Funded once

  • PC
    Phoenix Chamber Music Society
    one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +9%
  • DB
    DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $1k · revenue +79%
  • PP
    PLANNED PARENTHOOD
    one grant, 2021 · $100
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
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
3
Association for Computing Machinery Inc

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

Science & Tech
4
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
5
The Adler Planetarium

The adler planetarium ('adler') is a not-for-profit cultural institution whose mission is to connect people to the universe and each other under the sky we all share. it aspires to be the world's premier center for engaging in astronomy…

Arts & Culture
6
The Translational Genomics Research Institute

Please see schedule o

Health
7
Lowell Observatory

The mission of lowell observatory is to pursue the study of astronomy, especially the study of our solar system and its evolution; to conduct pure research in astronomical phenomena; and to maintain quality public education and outreach…

Science & Tech
8
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
9
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
10
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
11
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
12
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Arizona Opera Company; the most unlike its peers is International Myeloma 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

11 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. 11 of the 16 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
8/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

The Trustees of Princeton University: $197,301 · EducationThe Trustees of Princeton University+1 more: $1,500 · EducationPhoenix Chamber Music Society: $5,100 · Arts & CultureARIZONA OPERA COMPANY: $3,750 · Arts & CulturePHOENIX ART MUSEUM: $2,141 · Arts & CultureArizona Theatre Company: $1,100 · Arts & CultureTHE MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC: $6,000 · HealthCLL Global Research Foundation: $2,500 · HealthANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $8,250 · Civil RightsFRIENDS OF PUBLIC RADIO AZ: $4,000 · OtherMD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: $1,250 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $1,000 · OtherINTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION: $300 · Other+2 more: $225 · OtherDESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN INC: $1,000 · Environment
Education$198,801Arts & Culture$12,091Health$8,500Civil Rights$8,250Other$6,775Environment$1,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $197,301 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $8,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MULTIPLE MYELOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC: $6,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPhoenix Chamber Music Society: $5,100 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetARIZONA OPERA COMPANY: $3,750 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCLL Global Research Foundation: $2,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPHOENIX ART MUSEUM: $2,141 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetArizona Theatre Company: $1,100 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION: $300 over 3y, 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.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO7.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Leo & Marjorie Stern Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Leo & Marjorie Stern Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 12% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 5% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report 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
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 16 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Leo & Marjorie Stern’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