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Mark J Lincoln Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Mark J Lincoln Charitable 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.

$23k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

89% of Mark J Lincoln Charitable Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.

Organizations named directly on the return

3
’20
4
’21
3
’22
2
’23
4
’24
4
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$96kEducation$79kHealth$2kRecreation & Sports$335
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $3k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
$1,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$626k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIDELITY CHARITABLE$20,000
AMERICAN PARKINSON DISEASE ASSOCIATION$1,000
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST LOUIS$1,000
EO ST LOUIS CHAPTER$500
TRAILNET$60
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, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Youthbridge Community Foundation: $5k → 11%PEDAL THE CAUSE: $250 → 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.

48%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$33k · 3 repeat orgs$37k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +55% since the first grant, against +0% for those funded once.

3 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
4

Total granted

$33k
$36k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+55%
+0%

Still filing today

100%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 61% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k 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
EducationHealthRecreation & SportsHuman 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.

Backed again, and grew

  • ES
    EO ST LOUIS CHAPTER
    4× · 2021–2025 · $26k · revenue +95%
  • WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
    6× · 2020–2025 · $7k · revenue +16%
  • TI
    TRAILNET INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $335 · revenue +55%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ST LOUIS
    one grant, 2020 · $25k
  • TJ
    THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL
    one grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +0%
  • American Diabetes Associationgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $500 · revenue +30%
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
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
2
Duke University

To provide a superior liberal education, to prepare future members of learned professions, to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health

Education
3
Park University

Park university's mission is to transform lives through accessible, student-centered, quality higher education.

Education
4
Webster University

Founded in 1915, webster is a private non-profit and global university that is committed to delivering high-quality learning experiences that transform students for global citizenship and individual excellence.

Education
5
DePauw University

Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…

Education
6
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
7
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
8
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
9
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
10
American Academy of Dermatology Association Inc

To represent the interests of dermatologists and their patients. to influence and be a credible resource for public and private entities related to all policies and regulations that have the potential to affect the delivery of dermatologic…

Health
11
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech
12
American Psychiatric Association

The american psychiatric association (apa) was incorporated in 2000 as a 501(c)(6) trade association. its 38,000 u.s. and international physician members specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health and disorders, including…

Community Improvement
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Youthbridge Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is American Diabetes Association. 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 12 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
9/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $90,000 · Community ImprovementFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUNDEO ST LOUIS CHAPTER: $26,000 · EducationEO ST LOUIS CHAPTERPARKWAY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: $10,500 · EducationPARKWAY ALUMNI ASSOCIATIONWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $7,000 · EducationWASHINGTON UNIVERSITYUNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ST LOUIS: $25,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI…THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL: $10,000 · OtherTHOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOO…YOUTHBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5,000 · Human ServicesPEDAL THE CAUSE: $250 · Human ServicesAMERICAN PARKINSON DISEASE ASSOC: $1,000 · HealthAmerican Diabetes Association: $500 · HealthMOUNT DORA COMMUNITY TRUST: $1,000 · PhilanthropyTRAILNET INC: $335 · Recreation & Sports
Community Improvement$90,000Education$43,500Other$35,000Human Services$5,250Health$1,500Philanthropy$1,000Recreation & Sports$335

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 budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $90,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetEO ST LOUIS CHAPTER: $26,000 over 4y, 3.2% of budgetPARKWAY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: $10,500 over 2y, 8.0% of budgetTHOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $7,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetYOUTHBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMOUNT DORA COMMUNITY TRUST: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN PARKINSON DISEASE ASSOC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Diabetes Association: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRAILNET INC: $335 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetPEDAL THE CAUSE: $250 over 1y, 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 …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO6.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Mark J Lincoln Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mark J Lincoln Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    1report 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 12 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 Mark J Lincoln’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