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Washington, D.C. · Private foundation

McNamara Foundation 3

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.

$123k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
23
Grants FY2025
21
Organizations funded FY2024
10%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$4,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$20,000
Organizations funded a year
19 to 26
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
7
Total assets, FY2025
$1.4M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 10% of the organizations McNamara Foundation 3 funded were first-time grantees, receiving 20% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $20k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentFood & NutritionEducationInternationalArts & CultureHuman 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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving22$118k23%
FY202421$101k10%
FY202319$65k16%
FY202221$76k14%
FY202126$135k19%
FY202023$77k13%
FY201926$89k38%
FY201819$55k32%
98% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Environment$256kEducation$136kPublic Benefit$73kFood & Nutrition$68kArts & Culture$50kAnimals$37kHealth$36kPublic Safety & Disaster$26kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

MI
NY
MA
PA
CT
CA
CO
VA
NM
NC
DC

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 34 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 21 recipients with no EIN on record ($213k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget McNamara Foundation 3 supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMargaret McNamara Education Grants: $105,500 over 8y, 7.6% of budgetEarth Island Institute Inc: $46,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetThe Trust for Public Land: $39,500 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetCenter for Land-Based Learning: $37,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetWilderness Workshop: $29,000 over 8y, 0.5% of budgetWorld Central Kitchen Inc: $26,259 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCapital Area Food Bank Inc: $25,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetMisty Meadows Equine Learning Center Inc: $25,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetMartha's Table Inc: $22,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetClean Air Task Force Inc: $19,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEnvironmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital: $18,500 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetIsland Grown Initiative Ltd: $17,000 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetReading Is Fundamental Inc: $13,500 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetHuts for Vets: $13,000 over 8y, 2.1% of budgetFriends of Georgetown Waterfront Pa: $12,522 over 6y, 14% of budgetWashington School for Girls: $12,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBiodiversityworks Inc: $12,000 over 9y, 1.1% of budgetCity Wildlife Inc: $12,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetAccelerate Change Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUnity Health Care Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBeloved Asheville: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCenter for Carbon Removal: $9,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy Inc: $8,000 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetForest Trends Association: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRefugees International Inc: $4,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCitizens Climate Education Corp: $3,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetVineyard Conservation Society Inc: $3,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetChatham University: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRoaring Fork Conservancy: $2,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetFriends of the National Arboretum: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAspen Center for Environmental Studies: $1,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRios to Rivers: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 32.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Ayco Charitable FoundationNY15.9× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · South Mountain Company Foundation · Arches Foundation · Tower Family Fund Inc · Martha's Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation Inc · Aspen Community Foundation · Impactassetsinc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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.

Compare McNamara Foundation 3 with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to McNamara Foundation 3?

Find your warmest path to McNamara Foundation 3 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.

About McNamara Foundation 3

How much does McNamara Foundation 3 give?
McNamara Foundation 3 reported 23 grants totaling $122,759 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 19 and 26 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does McNamara Foundation 3 fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (32%), Education (17%), Public Benefit (9%).
Who are McNamara Foundation 3's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Margaret McNamara Education Grants ($106k), Earth Island Institute Inc ($46k), The Trust for Public Land ($40k).
Does McNamara Foundation 3 fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 10% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does McNamara Foundation 3 accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as McNamara Foundation 3?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Ayco Charitable Foundation, Greater Washington Community Foundation, South Mountain Company Foundation.
Where is McNamara Foundation 3 based?
McNamara Foundation 3 is based in DC.

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 57 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

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