· Private foundation
Polaris Foundation Inc
Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2021.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k11 grants · $45k
- $10k–50k14 grants · $265k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNICEF USA | $40,000 |
| FOOD FOR THE POOR | $30,000 |
| GUARDIANS OF RESCUE | $25,000 |
| ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE | $25,000 |
| HEIFER INTERNATIONAL | $25,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BOARDERS | $20,000 |
| FEED THE CHILDREN | $20,000 |
| LAST CHANCE FOR ANIMALS | $20,000 |
| RED CROSS | $10,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY | $10,000 |
| ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| PAWS WITH A CAUSE | $10,000 |
| THE CARTER CENTER | $10,000 |
| ELEVENTH HOUR RESCUE | $5,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY21–21, $20k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
6 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2021, 4 since wound down; 23 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (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 FY2021, 8% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $285k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- OSOPERATION SMILE INC3× · 2019–2021 · $5k · revenue +26%
- MHMONADNOCK HUMANE SOCIETY INC2× · 2019–2020 · $200 · revenue +89%
- TNTHE NEW ENGLAND CENTER FOR CHILDREN INC2× · 2019–2020 · $100 · revenue +23%
Funded once
- SMS Maine Community Collegeone grant, 2019 · $4k
THE HOWARD UNIVERSITYgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $4k · revenue +40%- SMSOUTHER MAINE COMMUNITY COLLEGEone grant, 2020 · $2k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The aspca's mission, as stated by founder henry bergh in 1866, is "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the united states." the aspca was founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and…
HUMANE WORLD FOR ANIMALS INTERNATIONAL, FKA HUMANE SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL (HSI), works around the globe to promote the human-animal bond, rescue and protect dogs and cats, improve farm animal welfare, protect wildlife, promote animal-free…
To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. enacting good laws depends upon electing good lawmakers, and we remind voters which candidates care about and support animal issues.
Humane World for Animals, Inc., formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States (The Organization), seeks to tackle the root causes of animal cruelty and suffering. CONTINUED ON SCHEDULE O
Supporting and assisting with rescue, sheltering, spay/neuter, and rehoming of cats and dogs in needy developing countries. Our current exclusive focus is on Egypt and the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals.
At Hope for China Dogs, we are committed to combating the cruel and inhumane practice of the dog meat trade in China. We believe that every dog deserves to live a life free from pain and suffering, and we are dedicated to rescuing and…
The animal rescue league of boston's vision is to confront animal cruelty and neglect at its root causes. through programs, services, and facilities focused on accessible animal care, public advocacy, and sustained anti-cruelty efforts...…
All about animals rescue's mission is no more homeless pets.
To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.
To pass animal protection laws, educate the public, and support humane candidates for office.
Korean k9 rescue inc is a non-profit no-kill 501c3 dog rescue organization that saves dogs from the mea trade puppy mills and high-kill shelters in south korea. due to the stigma associated with mixed breed and dog meat farm dogs most dogs…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Project K9 Hero and the most unlike its peers is Shelter From the Storm. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 40 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
28 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. 28 of the 39 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 UNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF ↗
- Who funds FOOD FOR THE POOR INC ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds GUARDIANS OF RESCUE INC ↗
- Who funds Last Chance for Animals ↗
- Who funds FEED THE CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds THE CARTER CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Paws With A Cause ↗
- Who funds OPERATION SMILE INC ↗
- Who funds Mercy Ships International ↗
- Who funds SMILE TRAIN INC ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL HAVEN INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH SHORE ANIMAL LEAGUE AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds HUMANE FARMING ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds THE 11TH HOUR ANIMAL RESCUE INC T/A ELEVENTH HOUR ANIMAL RESCUE ↗
- Who funds THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MONADNOCK HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds Kinnelon Volunteer Animal Shelter ↗
- Who funds THE NEW ENGLAND CENTER FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds TURNING POINTE DONKEY RESCUE INC ↗
- Who funds PAWS FOR PURPLE HEARTS ↗
- Who funds SHELTER FROM THE STORM ↗
- Who funds PROJECT K9 HERO ↗
- Who funds WOUNDED PAW PROJECT ↗
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.
Open a dossier: The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Network for Good · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · 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 Polaris Foundation Inc 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.
- The New England Center for Children Inc — 3% of income from government
- Feed the Children Inc — 1% of income from government
- The 11TH Hour Animal Rescue Inc T/a Eleventh Hour Animal Rescue — 0% of income from government
- Food for the Poor Inc — 0% of income from government
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.