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Lois Chiles Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Lois Chiles 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.

$1.1M
Granted FY2025still arriving
33
Grants FY2025still arriving
9
States reached
$375k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$3.7MHealth$812kFood & Nutrition$325kEducation$315kRecreation & Sports$185kHousing & Shelter$157kEnvironment$92kPublic Benefit$91kOther$0
02FY2025 · 33 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k9 grants · $35k
  • $10k–50k19 grants · $275k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $400k
  • $250k+1 grant · $375k
$10,000
Median grant
9
States reached
$2.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY$375,000
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY$125,000
YALE REPERTORY THEATRE ASSOCIATES INC$100,000
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER$100,000
DAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE$75,000
CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC$25,000
SIR JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM FOUNDATION$25,000
DAILY HISTORY QUOTE INC$20,000
VOICES OF JUBILEE$20,000
SHARE OUR STRENGTH(NO KIDS HUNGRY)$20,000
THE BEACON PROJECT$20,000
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA$20,000
Individual grant recipient$15,000
THE PROMISE OF JUSTICE INITIATIVE$10,000
GOD'S LOVE WE DELIVER INC$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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $120k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MOTION PICTURE & TELEVISION FUND(MPTF): $10k → 14%MOTION PICTURE & TELEVISION FUND: $5k → 14%ADAMA FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%MOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM: $100k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
IL
NY
NJ
CT
CA
VA
KS
DC
LA
TX
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.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$5.1M · 42 repeat orgs$917k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +30% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

42 repeat relationships: 18 still active in FY2025, 24 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

42
35

Total granted

$5.1M
$630k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
0%

Still filing today

83%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $287k 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
Arts & CultureEducationHealthRecreation & SportsFood & NutritionEnvironmentOther
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

  • AM
    American Museum of Natural History
    6× · 2020–2025 · $1.7M · revenue +25%
  • NY
    New York Historical Society
    6× · 2020–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +5%
  • SL
    ST LUKES CHAMBER ENSEMBLE INC
    4× · 2020–2024 · $154k · revenue +97%

Funded once

  • YU
    YALE UNIVERSITY-CLASS OF 1954
    one grant, 2024 · $100k
  • MS
    MOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM INC
    one grant, 2024 · $100k · revenue 0%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $50k
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
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
2
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
3
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
4
New York Genome Center Inc

Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.

Health
5
New York Botanical Garden

The new york botanical garden is a museum of plants and a scientific research center devoted to the study of plants and their uses. it is the garden's mission to improve public understanding of the natural world, horticulture, and the…

Environment
6
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
7
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
8
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The metropolitan museum of art collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas.

Arts & Culture
9
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…

Health
10
University of Miami

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

Education
11
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
12
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Inc

Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Naacp Legal Defense & Educ Fund Inc; the most unlike its peers is Islesboro Affordable Property. 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

65 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. 65 of the 92 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)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
64/65
Grantees still filing
35/65
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

American Museum of Natural History: $1,725,000 · Arts & CultureAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryNew York Historical Society: $1,076,000 · Arts & CultureNew York Historical SocietyST LUKES CHAMBER ENSEMBLE INC: $154,150 · Arts & Culture+13 more: $193,500 · Arts & Culture+13 moreMD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: $545,000 · OtherMD ANDERSON CANCER CENTERDAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALE: $275,000 · OtherDAVID GEFFEN SCHOOL OF DRAMA AT YALEYALE UNIVERSITY-CLASS OF 1954: $100,000 · OtherYALE REPERTORY THEATRE ASSOCIATES INC: $100,000 · OtherSHARE OUR STRENGTH: $80,000 · OtherTHE MOODY CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $75,000 · OtherTOWN OF ISLEBORO FOR IESC: $70,000 · Other+43 more: $844,000 · Other+43 moreCENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC: $145,000 · Recreation & SportsIslesboro Community Center: $15,000 · Recreation & SportsCAMP HOLIDAY TRAILS: $15,000 · Recreation & SportsFELIX ORGANIZATION - ADOPTEES FOR CHILDREN INC: $10,000 · Recreation & Sports+1 more: $5,000 · Recreation & SportsTEACHING MATTERS INC: $51,000 · EducationTHE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $50,000 · EducationCenter for Educational Innovation Inc: $25,000 · EducationHARLEM ACADEMY: $23,000 · EducationTHE WRITING REVOLUTION INC: $10,000 · EducationThe Trustees of Princeton University: $10,000 · EducationWilliam Marsh Rice University: $10,000 · Education+2 more: $6,000 · EducationThe Beacon Project: $105,000 · Housing & ShelterIslesboro Affordable Property: $50,000 · Housing & Shelter+1 more: $2,000 · Housing & ShelterFOCUSED ULTRASOUND FOUNDATION: $60,000 · HealthPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $40,000 · HealthFOUNTAIN HOUSE INC: $11,000 · HealthPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK INC: $10,000 · HealthLifeFlight Foundation: $6,000 · HealthBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $5,000 · HealthMOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM INC: $100,000 · Human ServicesMOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION FUND: $15,000 · Human ServicesADAMA FOUNDATION: $5,000 · Human Services
Arts & Culture$3,148,650Other$2,089,000Recreation & Sports$190,000Education$185,000Housing & Shelter$157,000Health$132,000Human Services$120,000

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 budgetAmerican Museum of Natural History: $1,725,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetNew York Historical Society: $1,076,000 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetST LUKES CHAMBER ENSEMBLE INC: $154,150 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetCENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC: $145,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Beacon Project: $105,000 over 6y, 4.2% of budgetMOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSHARE OUR STRENGTH: $80,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetFOOD BANK FOR NEW YORK CITY: $60,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetFOCUSED ULTRASOUND FOUNDATION: $60,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetGOD'S LOVE WE DELIVER INC: $60,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetISLESBORO COMMUNITY FUND: $53,000 over 6y, 7.5% of budgetTEACHING MATTERS INC: $51,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetIslesboro Affordable Property: $50,000 over 1y, 25% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $50,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE WILLIAM A FARNSWORTH LIBRARY AND ART MUSEUM INC: $50,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PROMISE OF JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $40,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetFeeding America: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHOMAS JEFFERSON FOUNDATION INC: $26,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCenter for Educational Innovation Inc: $25,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetJazz Foundation of America Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetHARLEM ACADEMY: $23,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetFINCH COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION TRUST: $21,000 over 3y, 20% of budgetThe Houston Food Bank: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TEXAS DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetBOTANICAL GARDEN OF THE PIEDMONT: $16,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetMOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION FUND: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetStages: $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHERRING GUT COASTAL SCIENCE CENTER: $15,000 over 3y, 4.0% of budgetIslesboro Community Center: $15,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetCAMP HOLIDAY TRAILS: $15,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetFOUNTAIN HOUSE INC: $11,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHermann Park Conservancy: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBODY TRAFFIC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE WRITING REVOLUTION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSouthern Smoke Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCITYMEALS-ON-WHEELS: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWilliam Marsh Rice University: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLifeFlight of Maine LLC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLifeFlight Foundation: $6,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetWESTERN ALBEMARLE RESCUE SQUAD FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetNew York Civil Rights Coalition Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 2.9% 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.

Maine Community Found…Windhover FoundationThe Albright Foundati…Palace Head Foundatio…Clarence & Anne Dillo…Pendleton Mazer Famil…Oakwood Foundation Ch…National Philanthropi…The Ford FoundationJewish Communal FundThe Chicago Community…Shell USA Company Fou…
Maine Community Foundation IncME19.3× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Windhover Foundation · The Albright Foundation · Palace Head Foundation Inc · Clarence & Anne Dillon Dunwalke Trust · Pendleton Mazer Family Fund · Oakwood Foundation Charitable Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · The Ford Foundation · Jewish Communal Fund · The Chicago Community Trust · Shell USA Company Foundation

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 Lois Chiles Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lois Chiles Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
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 Lois Chiles Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Lois Chiles 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 92 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 Lois Chiles’ 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