Skip to content
Phyllis & Bennett Cerf Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Phyllis & Bennett Cerf Foundation Inc

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.

$38k
Granted FY2025still arriving
13
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$18k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0188% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$61kFood & Nutrition$22kEducation$20kCrime & Legal$8kHealth$6kCivil Rights$4kPhilanthropy$2kScience & Tech$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k11 grants · $11k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $28k
$1,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$191k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
National Book Foundation$17,500
First Book$10,000
Citymeals on Wheels$1,500
Innocence Project$1,500
City Harvest$1,500
Planned Parenthood$1,500
ACLU Foundation$1,500
Presidents and Fellows of Harvard$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
WNYC$500
Carnegie Hall Corporation$500
Hearts of Gold$250
ThirteenWNET$100
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 (FY21–25, $8k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, 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%INNOCENCE PROJECT: $2k → 17%INNOCENCE PROJECT: $2k → 17%Innocence Project: $2k → 17%Innocence Project: $1k → 17%Innocence Project: $1k → 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
IL
NY
MA
OH
NJ
AR
TX
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$124k · 21 repeat orgs$6k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +3% since the first grant, against +0% for those funded once.

21 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
7

Total granted

$124k
$5k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+3%
+0%

Still filing today

71%
29%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationInternationalPhilanthropyFood & NutritionHuman ServicesOther
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

  • TM
    THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC
    2× · 2023–2024 · $15k · revenue +22%
  • CITY HARVEST INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $11k · revenue +3%
  • WW
    Words Without Borders Inc
    3× · 2021–2023 · $8k · revenue +33%

Funded once

  • SH
    SUGAR HILL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ART AND STORYTELLING
    one grant, 2021 · $3k · revenue +0%
  • DL
    Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation
    one grant, 2022 · $875 · revenue -77%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $500
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
Museum of the City of New York

The museum of the city of new york fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world's most influential metropolis. it engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city's past, present, and…

Arts & Culture
2
Columbia University Press

Enhance Columbia University's education mission by acquiring and publishing outstanding original works by scholars and others that contribute to an understanding of global human concerns. Columbia University Press became part of the…

Arts & Culture
3
The Neue Galerie New York
Arts & Culture
4
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
5
National September 11 Memorial and Museum At the World Trade Center

The national september 11 memorial & museum at the world trade center bears solemn witness to the terrorist attacks of september 11, 2001, and february 26, 1993. located at a site made sacred through loss, the memorial & museum remembers…

Arts & Culture
6
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

See schedule osfmoma believes the art of our time is vital and shares it with passion and purpose, and that art and the creative process can open minds and help build a better world. for that reason, we assemble unparalleled collections,…

Arts & Culture
7
Archipelago Books Inc

Archipelago books is a not-for-profit press devoted to publishing outstanding translations of vital works of classic and contemporary world literature. in our twenty-one years, we have brought out more than two hundred twenty-five books…

Arts & Culture
8
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
9
Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation

Committed to innovation, the solomon r. guggenheim foundation (the "foundation") collects, (continued on schedule o)

Arts & Culture
10
New York Historical Society

The founding mission of the new-york historical society ("the new york historical "tnyh") is to collect, preserve, and interpret, for the broadest possible public, material relevant to the history of the united states in general and of new…

Arts & Culture
11
Mint Museum of Art Inc

The mint museum welcomes all to be inspired and transformed through the power of art and creativity.

Arts & Culture
12
The Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association

For over 150 years, the 92nd street y, new york has been serving its communities and the larger world by bringing people together (continued on schedule o)and providing exceptional, groundbreaking programs in the performing and visual…

Religion
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Mercantile Library Association of the City of New York Inc; the most unlike its peers is Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

18 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. 18 of the 30 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
10/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION INC: $19,430 · OtherNATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION INCTHE DISQUIET INTN'L LITERARY PROGRAM: $7,000 · OtherTHE DISQUIET INTN'L LITERARY PROGRAMPLANNED PARENTHOOD: $6,000 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOODIndividual grant recipient: $4,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientNEW ART PUBLICATIONS INC: $3,640 · OtherNEW ART PUBLICATIONS INCTHIRTEENWNET: $1,700 · Other+11 more: $5,402 · Other+11 moreFIRST BOOK: $20,000 · EducationFIRST BOOKTHE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC: $15,000 · EducationTHE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIAT…+1 more: $1,000 · EducationCITY HARVEST INC: $10,850 · Food & NutritionCITY HARVEST INCCITYMEALS-ON-WHEELS: $10,850 · Food & NutritionCITYMEALS-ON-WHEEL…Words Without Borders Inc: $7,500 · InternationalDayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation: $875 · InternationalTHE INNOCENCE PROJECT INC: $7,500 · Human ServicesSUGAR HILL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ART AND STORYTELLING: $2,500 · Arts & CultureTHE CARNEGIE HALL CORPORATION: $2,500 · Arts & CultureNEW YORK PUBLIC RADIO: $1,600 · Arts & CultureMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $450 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $3,500 · Civil Rights
Other$47,172Education$36,000Food & Nutrition$21,700International$8,375Human Services$7,500Arts & Culture$7,050Civil Rights$3,500

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 budgetFIRST BOOK: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION INC: $19,430 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetTHE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK INC: $15,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCITY HARVEST INC: $10,850 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetCITYMEALS-ON-WHEELS: $10,850 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE INNOCENCE PROJECT INC: $7,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetWords Without Borders Inc: $7,500 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetNEW ART PUBLICATIONS INC: $3,640 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $3,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSUGAR HILL CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ART AND STORYTELLING: $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE CARNEGIE HALL CORPORATION: $2,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK PUBLIC RADIO: $1,600 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation: $875 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCRAFT EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND INC: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHEARTS OF GOLD INC: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $450 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC: $200 over 2y, 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.

The Andrew W Mellon F…Brooklyn Community Fo…Raymond James Charita…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Andrew W Mellon FoundationNY15.5× affinity5 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Brooklyn Community Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Phyllis & Bennett Cerf Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Phyllis & Bennett Cerf Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get 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 · 0–20%
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 Phyllis & Bennett Cerf Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to Phyllis & Bennett Cerf Foundation Inc 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 30 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 Phyllis & Bennett Cerf’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