· Private foundation
Play 2 Dream Charitable Foundation Fka Kathy's Playground 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k4 grants · $3k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $35k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $573k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ZOO NEW ENGLAND | $215,086 |
| WISH PROJECT | $174,542 |
| NEWTON WELLESLEY HOSPITAL | $83,333 |
| SHAMROCK FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS | $50,000 |
| HATTERAS ISLAND CANCER FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CURTIS ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE | $10,000 |
| DORRANCE DANCE | $1,000 |
| KITTY HAWK BAPTIST CHURCH | $1,000 |
| PAN MASS CHALLENGE | $750 |
| HATTERAS ISLAND RESCUE | $500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 69% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +24% since the first grant, against +13% for those funded once.
18 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $61k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CZCOMMONWEALTH ZOOLOGICAL CORPORATION D/B/A ZOO NEW ENGLAND7× · 2017–2025 · $317k · revenue +85%
- BCBOSTON CELTICS SHAMROCK FOUNDATION INC3× · 2021–2023 · $185k · revenue +106%
- CHCAMP HARBOR VIEW FOUNDATION INC6× · 2017–2022 · $179k · revenue +229%
Funded once
- NCNORTH CAROLINA VETERINARY MEDICAL FOUNDATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $148k · revenue +74%
- TETHE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $109k · revenue +128%
- RCRAM'S CLUB OF UNCone grant, 2019 · $58k
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.
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.
Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
The Foundation provides surgical services primarily to patients at Boston Children's Hospital and at satellite locations. The Foundation carries on and promotes basic and applied medical research and education in the field of surgery by…
To operate exclusively for the benefit of The Children's Hospital Corporation and its affiliated organizations in the conduct of their charitable, educational and scientific functions.
Mcphs university prepares students for careers in health care through teaching, scholarship, research, professional service and community engagement.
Emerson health systems is the parent organization of four subsidiaries - emerson hospital, emerson occupational health services, emerson property development and emerson health care foundation. emerson health systems provides its…
The Foundation provides cardiology services primarily to patients at Boston Children's Hospital and at satellite locations. The Foundation carries on and promotes basic and applied medical research and education in the field of cardiology…
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.
BCNSP supports the following three pillars of Boston Children's Hospital's four-part mission: (1) providing care to individuals in the community, (2) improving clinical care to its patients, and (3) educating and training clinicians. In…
North shore health system medical faculty group practice (the corporation) functions as an extension of the northwell health hospitals by bringing medical care to community settings, providing care to medicare, medicaid, and other…
D-HH operates to establish, manage, govern, and fundraise for an integrated healthcare delivery System. To that end, D-HH is particularly focused to: - Manage the healthcare System to provide services to the public in the most…
The Foundation provides neurosurgical services primarily to patients at Boston Children's Hospital and at satellite locations. The Foundation carries on and promotes basic and applied medical research and education in the field of…
How this is measured
27 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. 27 of the 55 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 COMMONWEALTH ZOOLOGICAL CORPORATION D/B/A ZOO NEW ENGLAND ↗
- Who funds THE WISH PROJECT ↗
- Who funds BOSTON CELTICS SHAMROCK FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP HARBOR VIEW FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA VETERINARY MEDICAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds JOSLIN DIABETES CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HATTERAS ISLAND CANCER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Cathedral High School Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds HOUSE OF HOPE INC ↗
- Who funds DORRANCE DANCE INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds INNER CITY SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
- Who funds CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SCHOLAR ATHLETES INC ↗
- Who funds HEADING HOME INC ↗
- Who funds Children's Hospital Corporation ↗
- Who funds BENJAMIN FRANKLIN CUMMINGS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ↗
- Who funds COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC ↗
- Who funds HEALTHCARE NEPAL INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE NORMAN FOSTER FOUNDATION C/O RUCHELMAN LLP ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · Arbella Insurance Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · The US Charitable Gift Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · Verizon Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Play 2 Dream Charitable Foundation Fka Kathy's Playground Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Play 2 Dream Charitable Foundation Fka Kathy's Playground Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Postpartum Support International: 43% of income from government
- Joslin Diabetes Center Inc: 35% of income from government
- Boston Medical Center Corporation: 23% of income from government
- Heading Home Inc: 17% of income from government
- Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
- Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology: 5% of income from government
- Commonwealth Zoological Corporation D/B/a Zoo New England: 2% of income from government
- Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation Inc: 1% of income from government
- Camp Harbor View Foundation Inc: 1% of income from government
- House of Hope Inc: 1% of income from government
- Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Play 2 Dream Charitable Foundation Fka Kathy's Playground Charitable Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Play 2 Dream Charitable Foundation Fka Kathy's Playground 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.
Play a game based on Play 2 Dream Charitable Foundation Fka Kathy's Playground’s filings →