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· Private foundation

Nelson Charitable 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.

$1.3M
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$1.3M
Largest
01What you fund
0193% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Philanthropy$1.4MArts & Culture$255kHuman Services$116kHealth$105kYouth Development$71kRecreation & Sports$52kEducation$46kEmployment$16kOther$0
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$1,317,084
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
A CHILD WAITS FOUNDATION$1,317,084
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:

Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $129k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 10% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%WELLSPRING HOUSE: $10k → 10%WELLSPRING HOUSE: $5k → 10%WELLSPRING HOUSE: $1k → 10%DOVE GIVINGS FOUNDATION: $100k → 9%HEARTS OF THE FATHER OUTREACH: $5k → 12%HEART OF THE FATHER OUTREACH: $5k → 12%HEART OF THE FATHER OUTREACH: $3k → 12%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

NH
ID
NY
MA
WY
CA
NE
MD

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.9M · 21 repeat orgs$184k to everyone else

21 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
13

Total granted

$1.9M
$184k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+50%

Still filing today

62%
46%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
EducationHuman ServicesHealthArts & CulturePhilanthropyReligionOther

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

  • BL
    BRONX LACROSSE INC CO OTA
    6× · 2018–2024 · $121k · revenue ×16
  • BS
    BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY INC
    4× · 2017–2021 · $100k · revenue +20%
  • HS
    Hancock Shaker Village Inc
    3× · 2017–2019 · $70k · revenue +167%

Funded once

  • DG
    DOVE GIVINGS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue -6% · 31% of their budget
  • MT
    MAC-HAYDN THEATER
    one grant, 2024 · $20k
  • SL
    ST LUKE'S WOOD RIVER HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2024 · $20k

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
Bristol Riverside Theatre Co Inc

To engage audiences and artists alike with exceptional performances, inspired writing and superior productions that motivate us to think harder, to feel more deeply, to laugh more fully and to reflect on ourselves and the world in which we…

Arts & Culture
2
Massachusetts Outdoor Heritage Foundation Inc Attn Susan Sacco
3
Wakefield Historical Society
Arts & Culture
4
Berkshire Foundation
Philanthropy
5
Boston Architectural College

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

6
Kestrel Land Trust

Kestrel land trust conserves and cares for forests, farms, and riverways in the connecticut river valley of western massachusetts while nurturing an enduring love of the land

Environment
7
Williamstown Rural Lands Foundation

To preserve the rural new england character of williamstown, ma and surrounding areas for future generations; enable working landscapes including farms and forests; promote land stewardship.

Environment
8
The Waldorf School Inc

The waldorf school of lexington nurtures each child's curiosity, ingenuity, and love of learning so that they can meet the future with wonder, confidence, and resilience.

Education
9
Winchester Historical Society
10
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
11
Bow Street Theatre Trust
12
Amherst College Trustees

Amherst college educates students of exceptional potential from all backgrounds so that they may seek value and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence. amherst brings together the most…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Beverly Bootstraps Community Services I and the most unlike its peers is A Child Waits Foundation. 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 31 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number19%0%<5yr14%10%5–10yr20%15%10–20yr19%40%20–35yr13%25%35–55yr16%10%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value19%0%<5yr14%6%5–10yr20%0%10–20yr19%86%20–35yr13%6%35–55yr16%2%55yr+

The field is 19% 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 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/21
the rest of the field
10%
11,858/120,739

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

19 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 19 of the 34 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
19/19
Grantees still filing
14/19
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

A CHILD WAITS FOUNDATION — $1,397,084 · PhilanthropyA CHILD WAITS FOUNDATIONHancock Shaker Village Inc — $70,000 · OtherHancock Shak…Individual grant recipient — $50,000 · OtherIndividual g…BEVERLY HOSPITAL — $40,000 · OtherBEVERLY HOSP…MAC-HAYDN THEATER — $20,000 · OtherMAC-HAYDN TH…ST LUKE'S WOOD RIVER HOSPITAL — $20,000 · OtherST LUKE'S WO…MACHAYDEN THEATER — $10,000 · OtherRICHMOND LAND TRUST — $10,000 · Other+14 more — $23,490 · Other+14 moreBARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY INC — $100,000 · EducationLANDMARK SCHOOL INC — $20,000 · EducationKISMET ROCK FOUNDATION — $15,000 · EducationENDICOTT COLLEGE — $10,000 · EducationDOVE GIVINGS FOUNDATION — $100,000 · Human ServicesWELLSPRING HOUSE INC — $16,000 · Human ServicesHEARTS OF THE FATHER OUTREACH INC — $12,500 · Human ServicesBRONX LACROSSE INC CO OTA — $121,000 · Recreation & SportsMAC-HAYDN THEATRE INC — $50,000 · Arts & Culture+1 more — $1,000 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF KAREN INC — $25,000 · HealthST LUKE'S WOOD RIVER FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 · Health
Philanthropy$1,397,084Other$243,490Education$145,000Human Services$128,500Recreation & Sports$121,000Arts & Culture$51,000Health$45,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetA CHILD WAITS FOUNDATION — $1,397,084 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetBRONX LACROSSE INC CO OTA — $121,000 over 6y, 4.2% of budgetBARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY INC — $100,000 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetDOVE GIVINGS FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 31% of budgetMAC-HAYDN THEATRE INC — $50,000 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetFRIENDS OF KAREN INC — $25,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetST LUKE'S WOOD RIVER FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLANDMARK SCHOOL INC — $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWELLSPRING HOUSE INC — $16,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetKISMET ROCK FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetHEARTS OF THE FATHER OUTREACH INC — $12,500 over 3y, 3.0% of budgetRICHMOND LAND TRUST — $10,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetENDICOTT COLLEGE — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBEVERLY BOOTSTRAPS COMMUNITY SERVICES I — $3,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSUN VALLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT — $2,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetAmerican Battlefield Trust — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRICHMOND VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT INC — $1,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetTHE JEDEDIAH SMITH SOCIETY — $500 over 1y, 11% 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.

  • Who funds A CHILD WAITS FOUNDATION
  • Who funds BRONX LACROSSE INC CO OTA
  • Who funds BARRINGTON STAGE COMPANY INC
  • Who funds DOVE GIVINGS FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Hancock Shaker Village Inc
  • Who funds MAC-HAYDN THEATRE INC
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF KAREN INC
  • Who funds ST LUKE'S WOOD RIVER FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds LANDMARK SCHOOL INC
  • Who funds WELLSPRING HOUSE INC
  • Who funds KISMET ROCK FOUNDATION
  • Who funds HEARTS OF THE FATHER OUTREACH INC
  • Who funds RICHMOND LAND TRUST
  • Who funds ENDICOTT COLLEGE
  • Who funds BEVERLY BOOTSTRAPS COMMUNITY SERVICES I
  • Who funds SUN VALLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT
  • Who funds American Battlefield Trust
  • Who funds RICHMOND VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT INC
  • Who funds THE JEDEDIAH SMITH SOCIETY

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Ge Aerospace FoundationCT14.3× affinity6 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Ge Aerospace Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Nelson Charitable Foundation 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 40%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 1%
  • Wellspring House Inc9% of income from government
  • Hancock Shaker Village Inc1% of income from government
  • Endicott College1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Nelson Charitable Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Nelson Charitable 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 34 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