Massachusetts · Private foundation
Merck Family Fund
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $3.2M
- Granted FY2024(still arriving)
- 87
- Grants FY2024
- 79
- Organizations funded FY2023
- 14%
- First-time grantees FY2023
- Median grant, FY2024
- $35,000
- Largest grant, FY2024
- $130,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 79 to 98
- FY2019 to FY2023
- States reached, FY2024
- 15
- Total assets, FY2024
- $64M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2023, 14% of the organizations Merck Family Fund funded were first-time grantees, receiving 10% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $315k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024still arriving | 74 | $3.0M | 14% |
| FY2023 | 79 | $3.0M | 14% |
| FY2022 | 91 | $3.3M | 12% |
| FY2021 | 91 | $3.1M | 26% |
| FY2020 | 98 | $3.5M | 42% |
| FY2019 | 84 | $2.7M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Environmental Law Center | $750,000 | 6 | 0% |
| Southern Alliance for Clean Energy | $550,000 | 6 | 4% |
| Acadia Center | $475,667 | 5 | 6% |
| Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships | $406,734 | 6 | 2% |
| Conservation Law Foundation Inc | $396,156 | 6 | 1% |
| American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy | $391,558 | 6 | 1% |
| Ceres Inc | $375,000 | 5 | 0% |
| New York Lawyers for the Public Interest Inc | $350,000 | 4 | 2% |
| The Public Interest Law Center | $305,000 | 5 | 4% |
| United Community Centers Inc | $300,000 | 6 | 2% |
Show all 130 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 51 recipients with no EIN on record ($3.1M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Merck Family Fund supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 125 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: United States Energy Foundation · Barr Foundation · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · The Energy Foundation · Freedom Together Foundation · Natural Resources Defense Council Inc · New Venture Fund · Patagoniaorg · The John Merck Fund · Clif Family Foundation · Tides Foundation · Windward Fund
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Merck Family Fund?
Find your warmest path to Merck Family Fund 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 Merck Family Fund
- How much does Merck Family Fund give?
- Merck Family Fund reported 87 grants totaling $3,204,836 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 79 and 98 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2023.
- What does Merck Family Fund fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (48%), Food & Nutrition (12%), Public Benefit (8%).
- Who are Merck Family Fund's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2019 to FY2024: Southern Environmental Law Center ($750k), Southern Alliance for Clean Energy ($550k), Acadia Center ($476k).
- Does Merck Family Fund fund new organizations?
- In FY2023, 14% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Merck Family Fund accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Merck Family Fund?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include United States Energy Foundation, Barr Foundation, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc.
- Where is Merck Family Fund based?
- Merck Family Fund is based in MA.
Play a game based on Merck Family’s filings →