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· Private foundation
MARGARET S LINDSAY FOUNDATION OF 1989
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$297k
Granted FY2024
14
Grants
1
Communities
$70k
Largest
01What you fund
0168% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2019–2024.
Health$490kArts & Culture$203kRecreation & Sports$202kEducation$145kHousing & Shelter$10kAnimals$5kOther$488k
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2019
—
2020
illnesslifeforcancer
2021
healthchildrenillnesscancercaringeducationlifefor
2022
cancerpatientslifeforeducationillness
2023
education
2024
safeeducation
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 14 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k5 grants · $27k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $140k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $130k
$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$6.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
- THE SAMARITANS$70,000
- HALE EDUCATION INC$60,000
- BELLFORGE ARTS CENTER$29,850
- COURAGEOUS PARENTS NETWORK$25,000
- SHELTER MUSIC BOSTON$25,000
- COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER$20,000
- ARTS WAYLAND$20,000
- MARTHA VINEYARD CANCER SUPPORT$10,000
- MARTHA'S VINEYARD MUSEUM$10,000
- GRANTS 23$9,960
- WESTON AIC$6,000
- THE CHILDRENS ROOM$5,000
- SHERIFF'S MEADOW$5,000
- HARVARD EPWORTH CHURCH$1,340
02The need
04
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.
show:
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10% — the area typically sits at 7%. 75% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
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; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your edge
repeat funding
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.
87%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.3M · 12 repeat orgs$207k to everyone else
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +178% since the first grant, against +106% for the ones you funded once.
12 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
12
11
Total granted
$1.3M
$147k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+178%
+106%
Still filing today
50%
36%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Arts & CultureHealthRecreation & SportsAnimalsEducationHousing & ShelterOther
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
THE SAMARITANS5× · 2020–2024 · $270k · revenue +304%- CPCOURAGEOUS PARENTS NETWORK5× · 2020–2024 · $220k · revenue +72%
- HEHALE EDUCATION INC4× · 2021–2024 · $192k · revenue +141%
Funded once
- TSTHE SAMARITANSone grant, 2019 · $50k
- OHOREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY M HOLLNAD CPNone grant, 2021 · $25k
- ACACE COACHESone grant, 2020 · $15k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
04Your field
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.
1
Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership
Metro housing boston mobilizes wide-ranging resources to provide innovative and personalized services that lead families and individuals to housing stability, economic security, and an improved quality of life.
Housing & Shelter
2
Massachusetts Affordable Housing
Massachusetts affordable housing alliance, inc. (maha) breaks down barriers facing first-time and first-generation home buyers and owners through education, counseling, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.
Housing & Shelter
3
Ronald McDonald House Charities
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Maine creates, finds and supports programs that directly improve the health and well being of children statewide; provides affordable home away from home lodging which increases access to medical care for…
Health
4
Martha's Vineyard Donors Collaborative Inc
Expand philanthropy on Marthas Vineyard and support its nonprofit organizations through capacity building and advocacy.
Philanthropy
5
Brookline Arts Center
The Brookline Arts Center is a visual arts center committed to bringing the community meaningful experience in the arts through classes, exhibitions and outreach.
Arts & Culture
6
Maine Equal Justice Partners
Maine Equal Justice is a Nonprofit legal aid and economic justice organization working to increase economic security, opportunity, and equity for people in Maine.
Crime & Legal
7
Brighton Marine Inc
To ensure quality health care is delivered to uniformed service beneficiaries.
Health
8
Maine Media College
Maine Media College educates and inspires visual artists and storytellers to achieve their creative potential.
—
9
Legal Services for Maine Elders
Provide free legal services to maine residents aged sixty and over and medicare advocacy services to anyone eligible for medicare.
Crime & Legal
10
Walkboston Inc
Walkboston makes walking safer and easier in massachusetts to encourage better health, a cleaner environment and vibrant communities.
Unclassified
11
Wellesley Media Corporation
The Wellesley Media Corporation is an independent non-profit corporation that supports the informing of Wellesley citizens with regards to Town civic, cultural, and community matters on two local cable channels.
Education
12
Volunteer Lawyers Project
Volunteer lawyers project increases access to justice by delivering high quality pro bono legal services to eligible clients in the greater boston area.
Crime & Legal
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ellie Fund Inc and the most unlike its peers is Courageous Parents Networkinc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network
11 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
10/11
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Health$490,000Other$488,275Arts & Culture$202,500Recreation & Sports$202,000Education$145,000Housing & Shelter$10,000Animals$5,000
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 THE SAMARITANS ↗
- Who funds COURAGEOUS PARENTS NETWORK ↗
- Who funds HALE EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds SHELTER MUSIC BOSTON ↗
- Who funds THE ELLIE FUND ↗
- Who funds METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES ↗
- Who funds CAMP CASCO ↗
- Who funds MARTHA'S VINEYARD MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds HOSPITALITY HOMES ↗
- Who funds PEOPLE FOR CATS ↗
- Who funds WESTON DRAMA WORKSHOP ↗
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.
Boston Foundation IncMA15× affinity5 shared granteesties to 10 of 10Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · The Ilene Beal Charitable Foundation · Stifler Family Foundation · GivenGain Foundation USA · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 organisation MARGARET S LINDSAY FOUNDATION OF 1989 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.
2024
’20’21’22’23’24
- Samaritans Inc — 31% of income from government
- Ellie Fund Inc — 15% of income from government
- Metrowest Legal Services Inc — 10% of income from government
- Shelter Music Boston Inc — 4% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. 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.
05Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: SHELTER MUSIC BOSTON.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
low risk
~9 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 8 filed years.
Track record & reputation
low risk
8 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 274269849 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on SHELTER MUSIC BOSTON, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 9 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 12% of their budget — diversified.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Margaret S Lindsay Foundation of 1989?
Find your warmest path to Margaret S Lindsay Foundation of 1989 through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines