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Connecticut · Private foundation

Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$96k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
15
Grants FY2025
14
Organizations funded FY2024
43%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$3,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$50,000
Organizations funded a year
11 to 22
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
2
Total assets, FY2025
$164k
Applications
Takes unsolicited applications
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 43% of the organizations Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 18% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthArts & CultureRecreation & SportsPublic Safety & DisasterAnimalsHuman ServicesOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving15$96k47%
FY202414$83k43%
FY202311$173k36%
FY202222$2.1M64%
FY202118$278k39%
FY202017$284k29%
FY201915$135k27%
FY201819$172k37%
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$707kFood & Nutrition$622kHuman Services$491kEducation$471kArts & Culture$303kPublic Benefit$285kReligion$245kAnimals$122kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Covenant Soup Kitchen Inc$621,985817%
Ecsu Foundation Inc$338,250412%
Windham Hospital Foundation Inc$303,250739%
Town of Windham$284,5006n/a
Horizons Inc$279,50058%
Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz Inc$152,650317%
The Hampton Fire Company$100,500246%
Our Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary Inc$100,00014%
Generations Family Health Center$96,00040%
Good Hope Country Day School Inc$61,70041%
Show all 24 grantees
All grantees of Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Covenant Soup Kitchen Inc$621,985817%
Ecsu Foundation Inc$338,250412%
Windham Hospital Foundation Inc$303,250739%
Town of Windham$284,5006n/a
Horizons Inc$279,50058%
Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz Inc$152,650317%
The Hampton Fire Company$100,500246%
Our Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary Inc$100,00014%
Generations Family Health Center$96,00040%
Good Hope Country Day School Inc$61,70041%
Windham Theatre Guild Inc$50,000182%
Connecticut Audubon Society Inc$16,00070%
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Inc$12,00030%
Work Vessels for Vets Inc$10,00016%
Windham Textile and History Museum Inc$9,0003n/a
Willimantic Renaissance Inc$6,0001n/a
St Josephs Church Corp$5,0001n/a
Perception Programs Inc$3,00010%
Andover Hebron Marlborough Youth and Family Services Inc$2,00010%
Willimantic Victorian Neighborhood$2,0002n/a
Musicians Lifeline Inc$1,000110%
Jolly Johns Keep You Truckin Fund Inc$1,00011%
The Fletcher Memorial Library Inc$80011%
Enfield Town Of$6121n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 52 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.0M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 18 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$10k$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCovenant Soup Kitchen Inc: $621,985 over 8y, 17% of budgetEcsu Foundation Inc: $338,250 over 4y, 12% of budgetWindham Hospital Foundation Inc: $303,250 over 7y, 39% of budgetHorizons Inc: $279,500 over 5y, 8.2% of budgetGreater Hartford Festival of Jazz Inc: $152,650 over 3y, 17% of budgetThe Hampton Fire Company: $100,500 over 2y, 46% of budgetOur Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetGenerations Family Health Center: $96,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetGood Hope Country Day School Inc: $61,700 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetWindham Theatre Guild Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 82% of budgetConnecticut Audubon Society Inc: $16,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetThe Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center Inc: $12,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetWork Vessels for Vets Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetPerception Programs Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAndover Hebron Marlborough Youth and Family Services Inc: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMusicians Lifeline Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 10% of budgetJolly Johns Keep You Truckin Fund Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetThe Fletcher Memorial Library Inc: $800 over 1y, 1.2% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 18.

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.

Newalliance Foundation IncCT17.7× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

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

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.

Compare Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation with peer funders

About Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation

How much does Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation give?
Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation reported 15 grants totaling $95,950 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 22 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (20%), Food & Nutrition (18%), Human Services (14%).
Who are Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Covenant Soup Kitchen Inc ($622k), Ecsu Foundation Inc ($338k), Windham Hospital Foundation Inc ($303k).
Does Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 43% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Newalliance Foundation Inc, Connecticut Humanities Council Inc, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Where is Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation based?
Lester E Foster & Phyllis M Foster Foundation is based in CT.

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 76 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

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