· Private foundation
Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 49% of LESTER E FOSTER & PHYLLIS M FOSTER FOUNDATION’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.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k13 grants · $36k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHAKOUR MUSIC INSTITUTE | $50,000 |
| EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIV | $10,000 |
| WILLIMANTIC RENAISSANCE | $6,000 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS | $5,000 |
| WILLIMANTIC VFW POST 1724 | $5,000 |
| GREATER HARTFORD FESTIVAL OF JAZZ | $5,000 |
| HORIZONS INC - GOLF TOURNAMENT | $3,500 |
| WINDHAM HOSPITAL GOLF CLA | $3,000 |
| CT AUDUBON SOCIETY | $2,500 |
| TEMPLE BNAI ISRAEL | $1,200 |
| JOLLY JOHNS KEEP YOU TRUCKIN | $1,000 |
| THREAD CITY HOP FEST | $1,000 |
| ESCU FOUNDATION INC | $1,000 |
| SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL | $1,000 |
| WINDHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $750 |
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.
None of your grants could be placed against low income need for this view.
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.
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.
26 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2025, 18 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 20% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $77k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- CSCOVENANT SOUP KITCHEN INC8× · 2017–2024 · $622k · revenue +155%
- EFECSU FOUNDATION INC4× · 2017–2022 · $338k · revenue +14%
- WHWINDHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC7× · 2018–2025 · $303k · revenue +269% · 39% of their budget
Funded once
- WNWINDHAM NO FREEZE PROJECTone grant, 2022 · $275k
- OCOUR COMPANIONS DOMESTIC ANIMAL SANCTUARY INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue +58%
- FNFIRST NATIONAL NIU FOUDATIONone grant, 2021 · $58k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The purpose of the "Society" is to collect, preserve, and interpret Wethersfield's past for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations.
The foundation devotes its time to the preservation and beautification of public areas within the town of windham and provides support, including to other qualified tax-exempt organizations, to help achieve this goal (continues on schedule…
The purpose of this charitable organization shall be to assist Hartford Hospital in promoting the health, education and welfare of the community in accordance with the policies set forth by the governing body of Hartford Hospital; to raise…
The mission of the library is to serve to the community, cultivate knowledge, promote curiosity, and inspire lifelong learning.
Provide fire and emergency protection to residents of Harwinton, Ct and surrounding towns
The mission of the Hampton Historical Society is to increase public knowledge and understanding of the history and cultural heritage of the town of Hampton, New Hampshire, from its earliest inhabitants to the present generation. We will…
The West Hartford Library Foundation promotes and supports the West Hartford Public Library by providing a source of funding for the purchase of library materials, services, equipment, furnishings and capital improvements.
To preserve historically significant properties in the hartford community, purchasing same, if possible, and maintaining them as historical landmarks.
The Hartford Artisans Weaving Center is a supportive and creative community that preserves, promotes and teaches the craft of hand-weaving. We teach fiber-related classes for all ages, curate exhibits and sales, and run a unique artisan…
To Promote Intellectual Improvement and Social Culture; and to Establish and Maintain a Library for Residents and Taxpayers of the Town of Watertown, Connecticut.
Promote cinemas for education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Covenant Soup Kitchen Inc and the most unlike its peers is Musicians Lifeline Inc. 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 34 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 4% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
20 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. 20 of the 76 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds COVENANT SOUP KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds ECSU FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds WINDHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HORIZONS INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER HARTFORD FESTIVAL OF JAZZ INC ↗
- Who funds THE HAMPTON FIRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds OUR COMPANIONS DOMESTIC ANIMAL SANCTUARY INC ↗
- Who funds GENERATIONS FAMILY HEALTH CENTER ↗
- Who funds GOOD HOPE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds WINDHAM THEATRE GUILD INC ↗
- Who funds CONNECTICUT AUDUBON SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Inc ↗
- Who funds WORK VESSELS FOR VETS INC ↗
- Who funds WINDHAM TEXTILE AND HISTORY MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds Willimantic Renaissance Inc ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Newalliance Foundation Inc · Connecticut Humanities Council Inc · Hartford Foundation for Public Giving · Ossen Family Foundation · Aetna Foundation Inc · Sbm Charitable Foundation Inc · Chelsea Groton Foundation · Arbella Insurance Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation 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.
- Horizons Inc — 39% of income from government
- Generations Family Health Center — 20% of income from government
- The Hampton Fire Company — 2% of income from government
- Connecticut Audubon Society Inc — 1% of income from government
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.