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Plinth

· Private foundation

Max Wendell & Bertha Tilton Scholarship Fund

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.

$11k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0198% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.

Education$73kScience & Tech$6kHealth$3kArts & Culture$2kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$2,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$257k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HARVARD UNIVERSITY$2,500
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN$2,500
STANFORD UNIVERSITY$2,000
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-AMHERST$2,000
BOSTON UNIVERSITY$2,000
02The need
03

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 (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 59% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%UMASS LOWELL: $2k → 8%MERRIMACK COLLEGE: $2k → 10%COLLEGE FO THE HOLY CROSS: $3k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF MASS-AMHERST: $4k → 12%NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $3k → 16%THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS: $2k → 22%STANFORD UNIVERSITY: $2k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: $2k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: $2k → 14%FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: $2k → 28%CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: $2k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $3k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT: $1k → 11%QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY: $2k → 12%CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: $2k → 17%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $2k → 19%SAINT ANSELM COLLEGE: $2k → 7%UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: $1k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND: $1k → 9%UMASS LOWELL: $2k → 8%ENDICOTT COLLEGE: $2k → 10%WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE: $2k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF MASS-AMHERST: $2k → 12%NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $2k → 16%UMASS LOWELL: $1k → 8%GORDON COLLEGE: $2k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF MASS-AMHERST: $2k → 12%NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $2k → 16%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $2k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-AMHERST: $2k → 12%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $2k → 16%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $3k → 8%UMASS AMHERST: $1k → 12%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $2k → 16%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $2k → 8%SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY: $2k → 16%BENTLEY UNIVERISTY: $2k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

ME
NH
MI
NY
MA
OH
PA
CT
RI
CA
MD
SC

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 — 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.

32%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$24k · 4 repeat orgs$50k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +63% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.

4 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
29

Total granted

$24k
$46k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+16%

Still filing today

50%
48%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 31% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

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

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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MASS-AMHERST
    3× · 2022–2024 · $8k
  • NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2020–2022 · $7k · revenue +63%
  • UL
    UMASS LOWELL
    3× · 2020–2024 · $5k

Funded once

  • CF
    COLLEGE FO THE HOLY CROSS
    one grant, 2020 · $3k
  • SAINT ANSELM COLLEGEgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $2k · revenue +32%
  • MERRIMACK COLLEGE
    one grant, 2023 · $2k · revenue +11%

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
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
2
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
3
University of Miami

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

Education
4
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
5
Dickinson College

Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship

Education
6
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
7
Fairleigh Dickinson University

Fairleigh dickinson university is a center of academic excellence dedicated to the preparation of world citizens through global education. the university strives to provide students with the multi-disciplinary, intercultural, and ethical…

Education
8
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
9
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
10
Trustees of Boston College

Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…

Education
11
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
12
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

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Northeastern University and the most unlike its peers is University of Michigan. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 84 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr20%0%10–20yr19%15%20–35yr14%5%35–55yr14%80%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr20%0%10–20yr19%20%20–35yr14%5%35–55yr14%75%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/20
the rest of the field
11%
4,714/42,338

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

20 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 20 of the 38 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
20/20
Grantees still filing
18/20
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF MASS-AMHERST — $8,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MASS-AMHERSTUMASS LOWELL — $5,200 · OtherUMASS LOWELLTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $4,200 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITYCOLLEGE FO THE HOLY CROSS — $2,500 · OtherCOLLEGE FO THE HOLY CROSSUniversity of Michigan — $2,500 · OtherUniversity of MichiganUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-AMHERST — $2,000 · OtherWORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE — $2,000 · OtherJOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · OtherCLEMSON UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · Other+12 more — $12,000 · Other+12 moreNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY — $6,700 · EducationNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITYPresident and Fellows of Harvard College — $4,500 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard CollegeSAINT ANSELM COLLEGE — $2,200 · EducationSAINT ANSELM COLLEGEUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — $2,200 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAMERRIMACK COLLEGE — $2,000 · EducationBENTLEY UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS — $2,000 · EducationQUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · EducationCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · EducationFordham University — $2,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER — $2,000 · EducationSUFFOLK UNIVERSITY — $2,000 · EducationENDICOTT COLLEGE — $2,000 · EducationTrustees of Tufts College — $2,000 · EducationGORDON COLLEGE — $2,000 · Education+1 more — $1,000 · Education
Other$42,400Education$40,600

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY — $6,700 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College — $4,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $4,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Michigan — $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSAINT ANSELM COLLEGE — $2,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — $2,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMERRIMACK COLLEGE — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBENTLEY UNIVERSITY — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetQUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFordham University — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSUFFOLK UNIVERSITY — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetENDICOTT COLLEGE — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGORDON COLLEGE — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of New England — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Max Wendell & Bertha Tilton Scholarship Fund 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.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College — 11% of income from government
  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute — 6% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College — 5% of income from government
  • Northeastern University — 4% of income from government
  • Merrimack College — 2% of income from government
  • Suffolk University — 1% of income from government
  • Quinnipiac University — 0% of income from government
  • Gordon College — 0% of income from government
  • Endicott College — 0% of income from government
  • Bentley University — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 38 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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