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Marla & Joseph Shafran Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Marla & Joseph Shafran 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.

$71k
Granted FY2025still arriving
74
Grants FY2025still arriving
13
States reached
$24k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Religion$141kEducation$81kHuman Services$52kInternational$38kArts & Culture$10kFood & Nutrition$6kHealth$5kPhilanthropy$4kOther$0
02FY2025 · 74 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k72 grants · $29k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $41k
$118
Median grant
13
States reached
$397k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOLS$24,290
GREEN ROAD SYNAGOGUE$17,200
DENVER ACADEMY OF TORAH$8,000
BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND$4,000
PARDES INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES NORTH AMERICA INC$1,500
JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF CLEVELAND$1,350
THE NEGEV FOUNDATION$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
PARK SYNAGOGUE$1,000
CLEVELAND JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER$1,000
UNIVERSITY CIRCLE INC$1,000
OHEB ZEDEK-CEDAR SINAI SYNAGOGUE$550
CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY$500
BEACHWOOD KEHILLA$495
JEWISH SACRED SOCIETY OF CLEVELAND$360
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 (FY19–25, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%EXTENDED HOUSING: $108 → 9%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $4k → 17%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $1k → 17%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $800 → 17%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $594 → 17%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $400 → 17%HOSPICE OF THE WESTERN RESERVE: $100 → 17%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $2k → 17%BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $808 → 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
MI
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CA
CO
VA
KS
DC
FL
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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$411k · 105 repeat orgs$16k to everyone else

105 repeat relationships: 59 still active in FY2025, 46 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

105
69

Total granted

$411k
$14k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+18%
+28%

Still filing today

41%
38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureInternationalEducationReligionHealthEnvironmentOther
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

  • FM
    FUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOLS
    5× · 2021–2025 · $99k · revenue +31%
  • DA
    DENVER ACADEMY OF TORAH
    5× · 2021–2025 · $20k · revenue +10%
  • BC
    BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND
    7× · 2019–2025 · $9k · revenue +139%

Funded once

  • MO
    MOED-MIKVAH OF EAST DENVER
    one grant, 2020 · $1k
  • YI
    YOUNG ISRAEL OF CLEVELAND
    one grant, 2020 · $1k
  • YC
    YOUNG CHILDREN OF ISRAEL
    one grant, 2022 · $1k
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
Yeshiva University

The university is composed of several colleges and schools providing undergraduate, graduate, professional and post-doctoral education and training and research and clinical programs.

Education
2
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary

To prepare students for the rabbinate and to issue the traditional certificate of ordination in connection therewith. the seminary is authorized to confer the degree of master of hebrew literature (m.h.l.), doctor of hebrew literature…

Education
3
Eastern European Jewish Heritage Foundation
Philanthropy
4
Mesorah Heritage Foundation

The foundation's mission is to research, locate, translate, and create jewish religious, literary, biblical, and talmudic works for religious, scholarly and cultural purposes for the general public.

Arts & Culture
5
University of Judaism Foundation
—
6
Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

The weitzman national museum of american jewish history, on independence mall in philadelphia, presents educational programs and experiences that preserve, explore, and celebrate the history of jews in america. its purpose is to connect…

Arts & Culture
7
Sherit Isroel
—
8
Bar Ilan University in Israel Inc

Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.

—
9
Museum of Jewish Heritage a Living Memorial to the Holocaust

The museum of jewish heritage - a living memorial to the holocaust is new york's contribution to the global responsibility to never forget. see schedule o for additional information.

Arts & Culture
10
Yivo Institute for Jewish Research Inc

Yivo's mission is to study the thousand-year history of jewish life in eastern europe and russia in all its aspects: language, history, religion, folkways and material culture. yivo's archive and library preserves a significant collection…

Religion
11
Shalom School

Shalom school's mission is to provide each child with an outstanding education in a nurturing environment that is academically excellent, inclusive, innovative, and inspired by jewish values and traditions.

—
12
The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati
Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies North America Inc; the most unlike its peers is Fraternal Order of Police Greater Cuyahoga Lodge 124. 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

83 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. 83 of the 193 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)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
80/83
Grantees still filing
60/83
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOLS: $98,985 · OtherFUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOLSGREEN ROAD SYNAGOGUE: $87,622 · OtherGREEN ROAD SYNAGOGUEIndividual grant recipient: $31,230 · OtherIndividual grant recipientKOLLEL YAD CHAIM MORDECHAI: $22,580 · OtherKOLLEL YAD CHAIM MORDECHAI+140 more: $95,912 · Other+140 morePARDES INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES NORTH AMERICA INC: $26,001 · InternationalPARDES INS…THE NEGEV FOUNDATION: $6,000 · InternationalTHE NEGEV …AMIT CHILDREN INC: $1,745 · InternationalAMERICAN FRIENDS OF BNEI AKIVA YESHIVOT IN ISRAEL INC: $1,500 · International+8 more: $3,710 · International+8 moreDENVER ACADEMY OF TORAH: $20,400 · EducationTHE KEHILLAH SCHOOL: $2,238 · Education+8 more: $1,829 · EducationBIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $9,402 · Human Services+2 more: $208 · Human ServicesMIKVAH USA INC: $3,600 · ReligionJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF CLEVELAND OHIO: $2,550 · ReligionCHABAD ON CAMPUS INTERNATIONAL INC: $1,000 · ReligionGATEWAYS ORGANIZATION INC: $1,000 · Religion+5 more: $996 · ReligionCLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: $2,036 · Arts & CultureCLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART: $1,000 · Arts & CultureThe Musical Arts Association: $950 · Arts & CultureTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $875 · Arts & CultureSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $375 · Arts & CultureThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $300 · Arts & CultureThe Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: $289 · Arts & CultureTHE PLANETARY SOCIETY: $250 · Arts & Culture+6 more: $455 · Arts & CultureAmerican Friends of Migdal OHR: $4,800 · Youth Development
Other$336,329International$38,956Education$24,467Human Services$9,610Religion$9,146Arts & Culture$6,530Youth Development$4,800

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 budgetFUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOLS: $98,985 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetPARDES INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES NORTH AMERICA INC: $26,001 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetDENVER ACADEMY OF TORAH: $20,400 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetBIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND: $9,402 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetTHE NEGEV FOUNDATION: $6,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetAmerican Friends of Migdal OHR: $4,800 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY CIRCLE INCORPORATED: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMIKVAH USA INC: $3,600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF CLEVELAND OHIO: $2,550 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHEBREW ACADEMY OF CLEVELAND: $2,300 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTHE KEHILLAH SCHOOL: $2,238 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: $2,036 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetAMIT CHILDREN INC: $1,745 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF BNEI AKIVA YESHIVOT IN ISRAEL INC: $1,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN: $1,200 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMIDDLE EAST FORUM: $1,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF AMSHINOVER YESHIVA JERUSALEM INC: $1,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART: $1,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTORAH COMMUNITY FUND INC: $1,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCHABAD ON CAMPUS INTERNATIONAL INC: $1,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetGATEWAYS ORGANIZATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Musical Arts Association: $950 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $875 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMatan BSayser of Cleveland Inc: $872 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetVALUES-IN-ACTION FOUNDATION: $750 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH: $600 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMacular Degeneration Association: $500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF YAD SARAH INC: $500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSCORE Foundation: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGMILUTH CHASODIM (THE HEBREW FREE LOAN ASSOCIATION): $500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetUSO FOUNDATION: $500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSHAKER LAKES REGIONAL NATURE CENTER DBA NATURE CENTER AT SHAKER LAKES: $400 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $375 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMICHIGAN B'NAI B'RITH HILLEL FOUNDATION INC: $354 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $300 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCHABAD OF BARBADOS INC: $300 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetRAILS TO TRAILS CONSERVANCY: $300 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSHAKER SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $300 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: $289 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $280 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PLANETARY SOCIETY: $250 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: $230 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH EDUCATION CENTER OF CLEVELAND: $216 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF SHALVA ISRAEL INC: $200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChabad Lubavitch of Maine Inc: $200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSPECIAL OLYMPICS INC: $195 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSTELLA MARIS INC: $180 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: $180 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.

  • Who funds FUCHS MIZRACHI SCHOOLS ↗
  • Who funds PARDES INSTITUTE OF JEWISH STUDIES NORTH AMERICA INC ↗
  • Who funds DENVER ACADEMY OF TORAH ↗
  • Who funds BIKUR CHOLIM OF CLEVELAND ↗
  • Who funds THE NEGEV FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds American Friends of Migdal OHR ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY CIRCLE INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds MIKVAH USA INC ↗
  • Who funds JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE ASSOCIATION OF CLEVELAND OHIO ↗
  • Who funds HEBREW ACADEMY OF CLEVELAND ↗
  • Who funds THE KEHILLAH SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
  • Who funds AMIT CHILDREN INC ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF BNEI AKIVA YESHIVOT IN ISRAEL INC ↗
  • Who funds CLEVELAND BOTANICAL GARDEN ↗
  • Who funds MIDDLE EAST FORUM ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF AMSHINOVER YESHIVA JERUSALEM INC ↗
  • Who funds CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART ↗

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.

Jewish Federation of …The Albert B & Audrey…The Cleveland Foundat…Richard Horvitz and E…Abr Family Foundation…Samuel H & Maria Mill…James and Susan Ratne…Shlieberan Family Fou…The Horowitz Ratner F…Irving I Stone Founda…John P Murphy Foundat…Jack Joseph & Morton …
Jewish Federation of ClevelandOH51.5× affinity24 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Federation of Cleveland · The Albert B & Audrey G Ratner Family Foundation · The Cleveland Foundation · Richard Horvitz and Erica Hartman-Horvitz Foundation · Abr Family Foundation No 1 · Samuel H & Maria Miller Foundation · James and Susan Ratner Family Foundation · Shlieberan Family Foundation · The Horowitz Ratner Family Foundation · Irving I Stone Foundation · John P Murphy Foundation · Jack Joseph & Morton Mandel 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 Marla & Joseph Shafran Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Marla & Joseph Shafran Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    3get no government money at all
    23report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
    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 193 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 Marla & Joseph Shafran’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