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Nick Simons Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Nick Simons Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$16M
Granted FY2024still arriving
21
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$8.5M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Health$47MInternational$24MPhilanthropy$497kArts & Culture$376kEducation$207kEmployment$20kScience & Tech$5kOther$0
02FY2024 · 21 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k6 grants · $29k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $140k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $615k
  • $250k+4 grants · $15M
$25,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$224M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS$8,500,000
NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL$5,260,000
PATAN HOSPITAL$560,213
NYAYA HEALTH NEPAL$500,000
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL$189,150
Individual grant recipient$150,000
BHASKAR-TEJSHREE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION$126,047
AMERICAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION$100,000
HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT$50,000
NEPAL MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY$39,947
PARTNERS ASIA$25,000
IPAS$25,000
AUTISMCARE NEPAL SOCIETY$20,000
Individual grant recipient$20,000
TIM ALVEN'S MEMORIAL FUND$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%PROJECT PRAKASH FOUNDATION: $50k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL INC: $106k → 16%AMERICA NEPAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION: $5k → 17%PARTNERS ASIA: $25k → 10%AMERICAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION: $268k → 10%DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS USA: $100k → 17%FEDERATION OF TAMIL SANGAMS OF NORTH AMERICA (FETNA): $1.0M → 14%AMERICA NEPAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION: $6k → 6%FRIENDS OF PATAN HOSPITAL: $5k → 12%FUTURE GENERATIONS: $50k → 15%HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT: $50k → 9%PROJECT PRAKASH FOUNDATION: $50k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL INC: $104k → 16%PARTNERS ASIA: $25k → 10%AMERICAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION: $258k → 10%DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS USA: $100k → 17%AMERICA NEPAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION: $5k → 6%FRIENDS OF PATAN HOSPITAL: $5k → 12%FUTURE GENERATIONS: $50k → 15%HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT: $50k → 9%PROJECT PRAKASH FOUNDATION: $50k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL INC: $99k → 16%PARTNERS ASIA: $25k → 10%AMERICAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION: $144k → 10%see attachment 15: $16.1M → 17%FRIENDS OF PATAN HOSPITAL: $5k → 12%FUTURE GENERATIONS: $36k → 15%HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT: $50k → 9%MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $189k → 16%PARTNERS ASIA: $25k → 10%AMERICAN HIMALAYAN FOUNDATION: $100k → 10%see attachment 16: $13.8M → 17%FRIENDS OF PATAN HOSPITAL: $5k → 12%HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT: $50k → 9%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $8.5M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $6.5M → 17%NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL: $5.5M → 17%NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL: $5.3M → 17%NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL: $5.0M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $4.9M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $4.9M → 17%NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL: $4.7M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $1.6M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $1.5M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $1.0M → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $375k → 17%GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS: $350k → 17%POSSIBLE: $250k → 17%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

VT
NY
MA
CA
CO
WV
NC
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 40% of Nick Simons Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 88% of the giving stays in NY; by stated purpose, 41%.

Nick Simons Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 32% directed abroad (not shown)
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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$70M · 25 repeat orgs$2.1M to everyone else

25 repeat relationships: 16 still active in FY2024, 9 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
11

Total granted

$70M
$1.8M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+5%
+11%

Still filing today

48%
27%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $360k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’21’22’23’24
InternationalHealthArts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationOther
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

  • NS
    NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL
    4× · 2021–2024 · $20M · revenue +5% · 100% of their budget
  • HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC
    6× · 2017–2024 · $300k · revenue +233%
  • MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC
    3× · 2018–2022 · $300k · revenue +89%

Funded once

  • FO
    Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America
    one grant, 2021 · $1.0M · revenue -10% · 61% of their budget
  • SB
    STONY BROOK FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $250k · revenue +214%
  • BM
    Bhaskar Memorial Foundation
    one grant, 2018 · $247k
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
Annapurna Global Foundation
Philanthropy
2
Southern Asian Public Health Association
Health
3
Aparnas Health Foundation
Philanthropy
4
Cdo Nepal
International
5
Global Health Research Foundation
—
6
Himalaya Currents Inc
Health
7
Satyagraha Foundation
Religion
8
World Health Foundation
—
9
Indo American Development and Health Organization
International
10
Drs Kiran & Pallavi Patel Family Foundation Inc
Philanthropy
11
Samarpan Foundation Usa
—
12
International Health Services Foundation
Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Medecins Sans Frontieres Usa Inc; the most unlike its peers is Nick Simons Foundation International. 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

15 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. 15 of the 40 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
8/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS INC: $37,500,000 · HealthGRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS INC+2 more: $766,000 · HealthNICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL: $20,495,000 · PhilanthropyNICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATI…+1 more: $150,000 · PhilanthropyPATAN HOSPITAL: $3,535,713 · OtherPATAN HOSPITALNYAYA HEALTH NEPAL: $1,750,000 · OtherNYAYA HEALTH NE…AUTISM CARE NEPAL: $1,265,000 · OtherAUTISM CARE NEP…BIRAT NEPAL MEDICAL TRUST: $801,563 · OtherBIRAT NEPAL MED…LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE: $376,660 · Other+21 more: $2,439,120 · Other+21 moreThe American Himalayan Foundation: $1,249,838 · InternationalFederation of Tamil Sangams of North America: $1,000,000 · InternationalHIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC: $300,000 · InternationalMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $300,000 · InternationalIPAS: $150,000 · International+1 more: $25,000 · InternationalSTONY BROOK FOUNDATION INC: $250,000 · EducationPartners Asia: $100,000 · Arts & CultureKATHMANDU VALLEY PRESERVATION TRUST INC: $30,000 · Arts & Culture
Health$38,266,000Philanthropy$20,645,000Other$10,168,056International$3,024,838Education$250,000Arts & Culture$130,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetGRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS INC: $37,500,000 over 6y, 98% of budgetNICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL: $20,495,000 over 4y, 100% of budgetThe American Himalayan Foundation: $1,249,838 over 6y, 6.1% of budgetFederation of Tamil Sangams of North America: $1,000,000 over 1y, 61% of budgetNYAYA HEALTH: $750,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetHIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC: $300,000 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $300,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSTONY BROOK FOUNDATION INC: $250,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPROJECT PRAKASH FOUNDATION INC: $150,000 over 3y, 51% of budgetIPAS: $150,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetFUTURE GENERATIONS INC: $136,000 over 3y, 41% of budgetPartners Asia: $100,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetKATHMANDU VALLEY PRESERVATION TRUST INC: $30,000 over 6y, 8.2% of budgetSave The Children Federation Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICA NEPAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION: $16,000 over 3y, 8.2% 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.

  • Who funds GRADIAN HEALTH SYSTEMS INC ↗
  • Who funds NICK SIMONS FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL ↗
  • Who funds The American Himalayan Foundation ↗
  • Who funds Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America ↗
  • Who funds NYAYA HEALTH ↗
  • Who funds HIMALAYAN CATARACT PROJECT INC ↗
  • Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
  • Who funds STONY BROOK FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds PROJECT PRAKASH FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds IPAS ↗
  • Who funds FUTURE GENERATIONS INC ↗
  • Who funds Partners Asia ↗
  • Who funds KATHMANDU VALLEY PRESERVATION TRUST INC ↗
  • Who funds Save The Children Federation Inc ↗
  • Who funds AMERICA NEPAL MEDICAL FOUNDATION ↗

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.

American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
American Online Giving Foundation IncDE6.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile 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 Nick Simons Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Nick Simons Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    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 Nick Simons Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Nick Simons 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 40 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Nick Simons’ 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