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Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family 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.

$575k
Granted FY2025still arriving
41
Grants FY2025still arriving
9
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$1.2MArts & Culture$984kEducation$406kHuman Services$302kCommunity Improvement$135kReligion$68kHealth$65kYouth Development$60kOther$0
02FY2025 · 41 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k31 grants · $93k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $173k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $60k
  • $250k+1 grant · $250k
$3,600
Median grant
9
States reached
$2.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHINGTON$250,000
NATIONAL ARCHIVES FOUNDATION$60,000
NATL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOC OF WASHINGTON DC$47,500
EDLAVITCH JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF WASHINGTON DC$40,000
FEDERAL CITY COUNCIL$25,000
INDEPENDENCE INITIATIVE INC$20,000
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HOUSING & SERVICES$10,000
MEDSTAR HEALTH$10,000
SIBLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA$10,000
OHR KODESH CONGREGATION$9,000
THE WASHINGTON BALLET$6,900
DC POLICY CENTER$5,000
PARK SYNAGOGUE$5,000
CITY KIDS WILDERNESS PROJECT$5,000
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 (FY25–25, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 20%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HOUSING & SERVICES: $10k → 20%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

NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CA
MO
VA
MD
TN
SC
DC
LA
TX
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 37% of Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.8M · 38 repeat orgs$305k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +23% since the first grant, against +10% for those funded once.

38 repeat relationships: 25 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

38
35

Total granted

$1.8M
$236k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+23%
+10%

Still filing today

76%
69%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $69k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthFood & NutritionInternationalPhilanthropyOther
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

  • EJ
    EDLAVITCH JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF WASHINGTON DC INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $283k · revenue +107%
  • NA
    NATIONAL ARCHIVES FOUNDATION
    8× · 2017–2025 · $213k · revenue +20%
  • JF
    JOHN F KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
    7× · 2017–2024 · $188k · revenue +115%

Funded once

  • JC
    JCF - CAMPAIGN FOR JEWISH NEEDS
    one grant, 2020 · $50k
  • JA
    JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GREATER WASHINGTON
    one grant, 2021 · $30k · revenue +10%
  • TM
    The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritagegraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue +37%
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
The Jewish Museum

The mission of the jewish museum is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and jewish culture. see schedule o for more information.

Arts & Culture
2
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
3
Meridian International Center

Meridian international center is a nonpartisan diplomacy institution founded in 1960 to advance american leadership. headquartered on a historic campus in washington dc, our mission is to empower leaders to advance the next era of…

International
4
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
5
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
6
Washington & Jefferson College

To graduate people of uncommon integrity, competence, and maturity, who are effective lifelong learners and responsible citizens, and who are prepared to contribute substantially to the world in which they live.

Education
7
Bar Ilan University in Israel Inc

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

—
8
Us Middle East Project Inc

The organization's mission is to engage in non partisan analysis of u.s. foreign policy in the middle east, with special emphasis on the middle east peace process, and to present policymakers in the united states, in the region and in the…

International
9
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
10
Harvard Club of Washington Dc

To inform and enrich the intellectual lives of 20,000 alumni of harvard university in the washington, dc area and to assist harvard university with respect to applicants and undergraduates from the dc area.

Education
11
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
12
Hillel At the George Washington University Inc

The mission of gw hillel is to provide an open, warm, and pluralistic environment in which students can shape their college experience by connecting socially, culturally, and spiritually to their judaism. hillel aims to foster students'…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greater Washington Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is The Tikvah Fund. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

70 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. 70 of the 90 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)
69/70
Grantees still filing
43/70
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHINGTON INC: $995,000 · PhilanthropyTHE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHI…JEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND: $150,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND+3 more: $28,900 · PhilanthropyEDLAVITCH JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF WASHINGTON DC INC: $282,800 · OtherEDLAVITCH JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF …MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS - PLANET WORLD: $166,667 · OtherMUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS - PLANET WORL…SIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOL: $154,000 · OtherSIDWELL FRIENDS SCHOOLFEDERAL CITY COUNCIL: $115,000 · OtherFEDERAL CITY COUNCILMUSEUM OF LANGUAGE ARTS - PLANET WORD: $50,000 · OtherJCF - CAMPAIGN FOR JEWISH NEEDS: $50,000 · Other+40 more: $322,600 · Other+40 moreNATIONAL ARCHIVES FOUNDATION: $213,019 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL ARCHIVES FOUND…JOHN F KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $188,389 · Arts & CultureJOHN F KENNEDY CENTER F…NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCH ASSN OF WASHINGTON DC: $94,096 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCH …The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $72,188 · Arts & CultureThe United States Holoc…Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum: $50,000 · Arts & CultureDallas Holocaust and Hu…Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum: $44,414 · Arts & CultureLillian and Albert Smal…+9 more: $59,222 · Arts & Culture+9 moreTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $110,000 · EducationKENYON COLLEGE: $75,000 · EducationThe George Washington University: $31,000 · Education+11 more: $45,466 · EducationMEDSTAR HEALTH INC: $30,000 · HealthSIBLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10,000 · HealthST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $3,600 · HealthBETHESDA-CHEVY CHASE RESCUE SQUAD INC: $3,000 · HealthJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GREATER WASHINGTON: $30,000 · InternationalSEEDS OF PEACE INC: $5,400 · InternationalISRAEL POLICY FORUM INC: $5,000 · InternationalMARTHA'S TABLE INC: $30,700 · Food & Nutrition+2 more: $1,500 · Food & Nutrition
Philanthropy$1,173,900Other$1,141,067Arts & Culture$721,328Education$261,466Health$46,600International$40,400Food & Nutrition$32,200

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER WASHINGTON INC: $995,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetEDLAVITCH JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF WASHINGTON DC INC: $282,800 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetNATIONAL ARCHIVES FOUNDATION: $213,019 over 8y, 0.6% of budgetJOHN F KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $188,389 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND: $150,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFEDERAL CITY COUNCIL: $115,000 over 4y, 1.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $110,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCH ASSN OF WASHINGTON DC: $94,096 over 2y, 16% of budgetKENYON COLLEGE: $75,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $72,188 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetDallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum: $50,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetLillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum: $44,414 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetThe George Washington University: $31,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetMARTHA'S TABLE INC: $30,700 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF GREATER WASHINGTON: $30,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMEDSTAR HEALTH INC: $30,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WASHINGTON BALLET: $20,720 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetCity Kids to Wilderness Project Inc: $20,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetJEWBELONG INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE WASHINGTON HOUSING CONSERVANCY INC: $17,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage: $15,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE ULI FOUNDATION: $11,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION INC: $11,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSIBLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MIRIAM WEINER ROUTES TO ROOTS FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetAT THE WELL PROJECT INC: $10,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetBROOKLYN COMMUNITY HOUSING AND SERVICES: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMary's Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc: $10,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFJC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOUNDATION: $8,800 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE SEED FOUNDATION: $7,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetN STREET VILLAGE INC: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSAVE A CHILD'S HEART FOUNDATION US INC: $7,200 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetYESHIVA OF GREATER WASHINGTON INC: $7,200 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetEDENS COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT FOUNDATION: $5,600 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetWILLIAM WENDT CENTER FOR LOSS AND HEALING: $5,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetSEEDS OF PEACE INC: $5,400 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetGREATER WASHINGTON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5,400 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S MEDIA FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWASHINGTON ADVENTIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetISRAEL POLICY FORUM INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Ciesla Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetBROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWOLF TRAP FOUNDATION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $3,600 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.

Greater Washington Co…The Morris and Gwendo…The Jewish Federation…Galena-Yorktown Found…Clark Charitable Foun…Clark-Winchcole Found…The Julius and Doroth…The Nussdorf Family F…James and Susan Ratne…S Kann Sons Foundatio…Duber Family Foundati…Leo M Bernstein Famil…
Greater Washington Community FoundationDC30.5× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Washington Community Foundation · The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington Inc · Galena-Yorktown Foundation · Clark Charitable Foundation Inc Dba a James & Alice B Clark Foundation · Clark-Winchcole Foundation · The Julius and Dorothy Lazarus Foundation Inc · The Nussdorf Family Foundation Inc · James and Susan Ratner Family Foundation · S Kann Sons Foundation Inc · Duber Family Foundation · Leo M Bernstein Family 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 Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family 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%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Medstar Health Inc: 23% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • All Faiths Food Bank Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Yeshiva of Greater Washington Inc: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get 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 · 0–30%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family Foundation 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.

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 90 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 Michael and Deborah Ratner Salzberg Family’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