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Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research Foundation

Pva research foundation inc., a non-profit organization founded in washington, dc in 1976, is controlled by the paralyzed veterans of america ("pva"), a national organization chartered by the u.s.

$1.1M
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$200k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01

What you funded, over time

By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 46% of PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA SPINAL CORD RESEARCH FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.

02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 5 grants below total $860,171 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,060,171 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $200,000 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

$199,797
Median grant
4
States reached
$4.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS$200,000
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER$200,000
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI$199,797
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO$150,000
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$110,374
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 64% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%SPAULDING REHAB HOSPITALHARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: $150k → 10%CHILDRENS HOSPITAL AT BOSTON: $150k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN: $150k → 13%REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $200k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $150k → 11%DREXEL UNIVERSITY: $150k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $100k → 14%WINIFRED MASTERSON BURKE MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $150k → 9%RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE: $100k → 11%CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: $150k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER: $200k → 14%FOUNDATION FOR ADVANCING VETERANS' HEALTH RESEARCH: $200k → 16%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $249k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM: $250k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL RES: $150k → 16%YALE UNIVERSITY: $100k → 12%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $149k → 11%EMORY UNIVERSITY: $150k → 14%CRAIG HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $150k → 8%UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER: $200k → 10%CLEVELAND VA MEDICAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION: $200k → 17%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $110k → 14%THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: $200k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI: $150k → 18%HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL-SPAULDING REHABILITATION HOSPITAL: $100k → 10%TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $150k → 16%REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $150k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $148k → 11%THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY: $150k → 22%SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH & EDUCATION: $148k → 14%UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER: $150k → 14%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $150k → 22%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $100k → 14%REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: $150k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $100k → 11%TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: $145k → 22%CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: $150k → 11%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

MN
IL
NY
MA
OH
PA
CT
CA
CO
NE
KY
KS
NC
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region — $200k on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 1 region. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

North America (Canada and Mexico)$200k · 100% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: RESEARCH

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.

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.

24%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.6M · 5 repeat orgs$4.8M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +33% since the first grant, against +23% for the ones you funded once.

5 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
27

Total granted

$1.6M
$4.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
+23%

Still filing today

60%
74%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 13% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $750k 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
EducationHealthRecreation & SportsOther

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

  • TM
    THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC
    2× · 2022–2023 · $300k · revenue +9%
  • UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
    2× · 2017–2021 · $250k · revenue +44%
  • Northwestern University
    2× · 2018–2025 · $210k · revenue +33%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
    one grant, 2023 · $250k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
    one grant, 2024 · $200k
  • TU
    THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTE
    one grant, 2024 · $200k

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
Rush University Medical Center

The mission of Rush is to improve the health of the individuals and diverse communities we serve through the integration of outstanding patient care, education, research and community partnerships.

Health
2
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
3
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
4
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
5
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
6
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
7
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
8
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
9
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
10
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania

The trustees of the university of pennsylvania (the "university") sees itself as having a public service mission. in such regard, the university aims to provide a rich and diverse educational environment for its students; to pioneer…

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
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Northwestern University and the most unlike its peers is Winifred Masterson Burke Medical Research. 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 44 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%4%5–10yr19%7%10–20yr16%22%20–35yr13%26%35–55yr16%41%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%6%5–10yr19%9%10–20yr16%21%20–35yr13%23%35–55yr16%41%55yr+

The field is 22% 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 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/37
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,528

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

24 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 24 of the 37 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
24/24
Grantees still filing
19/24
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY — $544,820 · OtherTEXAS A&M UNIVERSITYMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED — $250,000 · OtherMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDUNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM — $250,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAMREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO — $200,000 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADOUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA — $200,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTATHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS — $200,000 · OtherTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOISTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTE — $200,000 · OtherTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTEUNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI — $199,797 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATITRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $150,000 · OtherBOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA — $150,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO — $150,000 · OtherCarnegie Mellon University — $150,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI — $149,997 · OtherYALE UNIVERSITY — $100,000 · OtherREGENTS UNIV OF CALIFORNIA — $100,000 · OtherTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC — $300,000 · EducationTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN…UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH — $249,913 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGHEmory University — $150,000 · EducationEmory UniversityDREXEL UNIVERSITY — $150,000 · EducationDREXEL UNIVERSITYResearch Foundation of the City University of New York — $150,000 · EducationResearch Foundation of the City …THOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY — $150,000 · EducationTHOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITYDUKE UNIVERSITY — $148,899 · EducationDUKE UNIVERSITYThe University of British Columbia — $147,503 · EducationThe University of British Columb…Yale University — $100,000 · EducationYale UniversityUniversity of Miami — $100,000 · EducationUniversity of MiamiUniversity of Louisville Research Foundation — $100,000 · EducationUniversity of Louisville Researc…Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — $100,000 · EducationRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteCLEVELAND VA MEDICAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $199,861 · HealthCLEVELAND VA MEDICAL RESE…FOUNDATION FOR ADVANCING VETERANS' HEALTH RESEARCH — $199,605 · HealthFOUNDATION FOR ADVANCING …UT SOUTHWESTERN HEALTH SYSTEMS — $150,000 · HealthUT SOUTHWESTERN HEALTH SY…Children's Hospital Corporation — $150,000 · HealthChildren's Hospital Corpo…Craig Hospital — $150,000 · HealthCraig HospitalUNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE — $150,000 · HealthUNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDI…Winifred Masterson Burke Medical Research — $150,000 · HealthWinifred Masterson Burke …UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION PC — $149,988 · HealthUNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA HEA…Southern California Institute for Research & Education — $148,390 · HealthSouthern California Insti…Northwestern University — $210,374 · Recreation & Sports
Other$2,994,614Education$1,846,315Health$1,447,844Recreation & Sports$210,374

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC — $300,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH — $249,913 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University — $210,374 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCLEVELAND VA MEDICAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $199,861 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR ADVANCING VETERANS' HEALTH RESEARCH — $199,605 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUT SOUTHWESTERN HEALTH SYSTEMS — $150,000 over 1y, 6.6% of budgetEmory University — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChildren's Hospital Corporation — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCraig Hospital — $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDREXEL UNIVERSITY — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE — $150,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWinifred Masterson Burke Medical Research — $150,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetTHOMAS JEFFERSON UNIVERSITY — $150,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION PC — $149,988 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY — $148,899 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern California Institute for Research & Education — $148,390 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetYale University — $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Miami — $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Louisville Research Foundation — $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRensselaer Polytechnic Institute — $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

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.

Beth Israel Deaconess…Cornell UniversityAmerican Cancer Socie…American Heart Associ…
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center IncMA13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc · Cornell University · American Cancer Society Inc · American Heart Association Inc

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 Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
  • Yale University — 12% of income from government
  • Children's Hospital Corporation — 10% of income from government
  • University of Miami — 5% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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 Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research 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 37 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 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

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines