· Private foundation
Popplestone 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $50k–250k1 grant · $150k
- $250k+23 grants · $51M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT | $10,000,000 |
| WILLIAM J BRENNAN JR CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC | $10,000,000 |
| STATES UNITED DEMOCRACY CENTER INC | $5,000,000 |
| CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER | $3,250,000 |
| YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY | $3,000,000 |
| PARENTCORPS | $3,000,000 |
| THE READING LEAGUE INC | $2,500,000 |
| PRO PUBLICA | $2,500,000 |
| SD FOUNDATION FBO VOTING RIGHTS LAB | $2,500,000 |
| HARMONY PROGRAM | $2,000,000 |
| TIDES FOUNDATION FBO MOVEMENT VOTER FUND | $1,500,000 |
| AMERICAN JOURNALISM PROJECT | $825,000 |
| FAIR ELECTIONS CENTER | $650,000 |
| NEW VENTURE FUND FBO MEDIA DEMOCRACY FUND | $600,000 |
| EDVESTORS INC | $550,000 |
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 (FY22–23, $5.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 27%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 7% of Popplestone Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.
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 foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +12% since the first grant, against -5% for the ones you funded once.
27 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $32M 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
WILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC3× · 2022–2024 · $21M · revenue +64%- PSProject STEP Inc2× · 2022–2023 · $5.5M · revenue +117% · 76% of their budget
- NPNATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION3× · 2019–2022 · $2.9M · revenue +288%
Funded once
- CMCOMMUNITY MUSIC WORKS PROJECTone grant, 2023 · $11M
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INCgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $10M · revenue +132% · 34% of their budget- TVTHE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $10M · revenue +155% · 44% of their budget
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 bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…
See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…
National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…
The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.
The organization's mission is to leverage web-technologies to improve civic engagement and voter education.
The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…
Npr international operations, inc. ("nprio") supports the international newsgathering activities of national public radio, inc. through bureaus and offices established locally in foreign countries.
See schedule okqed serves the people of northern california with a community-supported alternative to commercial media, providing the knowledge needed to make informed decisions; convening community dialogue; bringing the arts to everyone;…
Help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.
The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…
The center for american progress (cap) is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. our aim is…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Generation Citizen Inc and the most unlike its peers is International Rescue Committee Inc. 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 32 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.
59 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. 59 of the 84 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 WILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC ↗
- Who funds NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC ↗
- Who funds PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC ↗
- Who funds THE CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds THE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
- Who funds BOSTON YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS INC ↗
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds Project STEP Inc ↗
- Who funds ROOM TO GROW NATIONAL INC ↗
- Who funds STATES UNITED DEMOCRACY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds ALL OUR KIN INC ↗
- Who funds THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ICIVICS INC ↗
- Who funds UNITING VOICES ↗
- Who funds ATLANTA MUSIC PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC INC ↗
- Who funds TIDES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER OF BOSTON INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN JOURNALISM PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds THE READING LEAGUE INC ↗
- Who funds PRO PUBLICA INC ↗
- Who funds PARENTCHILD INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Fair Elections Center ↗
- Who funds FLORIDA RIGHTS RESTORATION COALITION ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBORHOOD MUSIC SCHOOL INC ↗
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: Boston Foundation Inc · The Klarman Family Foundation · Liberty Mutual Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · Linde Family Foundation · William E Schrafft and Bertha E Schrafft Charitable Trust · D'Addario Foundation Inc · Barr Foundation · Ramsey McCluskey Family Foundation · Ploughshares Foundation · The Cabot Family Charitable Trust · The Hamilton Company Charitable 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 Popplestone 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology — 35% of income from government
- Save the Children Federation Inc — 30% of income from government
- Greater Boston Food Bank Inc — 22% of income from government
- Icivics Inc — 13% of income from government
- Food Link Inc — 9% of income from government
- Women's Lunch Place Inc — 8% of income from government
- Boston Debate League Incorporated — 7% of income from government
- Boston City Singers Inc — 5% of income from government
- Emmanuel Music Inc — 5% of income from government
- Zumix Inc — 5% of income from government
- Neighborhood Music School Inc — 4% of income from government
- Food for Free Committee Inc — 3% of income from government
- Handel and Haydn Society — 2% of income from government
- Boston Children's Chorus Inc — 2% of income from government
- New England Conservatory of Music — 1% of income from government
- Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras Inc — 1% of income from government
- All Our Kin Inc — 1% of income from government
- Edvestors Inc — 1% of income from government
- Community Music Center of Boston Inc — 1% 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.