· Private foundation
Ralph C Sheldon Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k31 grants · $49k
- $10k–50k21 grants · $594k
- $50k–250k13 grants · $1.4M
- $250k+1 grant · $268k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHAUT LAKE & WATERSHED MGMT ALLIANCE | $268,166 |
| CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION | $215,750 |
| UNITED WAY OF SOUTHERN CHAUT CO | $155,300 |
| YWCA | $125,900 |
| MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN CHAUT CO | $125,500 |
| YMCA | $102,000 |
| NATIONAL COMEDY CENTER | $102,000 |
| REG LENNA CENTER FOR THE ARTS | $101,500 |
| JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY LEARNING COUNCIL | $100,500 |
| JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $100,000 |
| CHAUTAUQUA STRIDERS | $71,000 |
| INFINITY PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM INC | $65,250 |
| PREVENTION WORKS | $50,750 |
| JAMESTOWN RENAISSANCE CORP | $50,000 |
| SAINT SUSAN CENTER | $47,250 |
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 (FY17–25, $401k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +33% since the first grant, against +13% for the ones you funded once.
106 repeat relationships — 61 still active in FY2025, 45 since wound down; 4 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, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $85k 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
REG LENNA CENTER FOR THE ARTS INC9× · 2017–2025 · $2.2M · revenue +6% · 42% of their budget- CICHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION9× · 2017–2025 · $1.3M · revenue +83%
- CSCHAUTAUQUA STRIDERS INC9× · 2017–2025 · $686k · revenue +45%
Funded once
- CCCHAUTAUQUA CO LAND BANK CORPone grant, 2021 · $301k
- UWUNITED WAY OF SOUTHERN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $161k · revenue +25%
- YWYOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF JAMESTOWNone grant, 2017 · $74k · revenue +19%
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.
To create a business environment in the region where our members can thrive.
To improve the quality of housing stock and appearance of communities of chautauqua county and to improve the living conditions of the county's low-income residents.
The alliance was formed for the purpose of working in collaboration with lake and watershed-related organizations, municipalities, and other stakeholders in chautauqua county, ny, to promote and facilitate implementation of recommendations…
To provide quality health care services by operating diagnostic and treatment facilities pursuant to article 28 of the public health law of new york state. the center operates clinics in dunkirk, new york, jamestown, new york, gowanda, new…
The mental health association in chautauqua county commits to radical acceptance, empowerment, and advocacy for our community members who struggle with mental health and substance use.
The ridgway chautauqua is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit community-based organization focused on offering and supporting programs that promote lifelong learning, the arts, culture and community and that embody the chautauqua tradition. our…
To reverse the trend of further deterioration of the County of Chautauqua's housing and commercial stock; control and modestly improve promising properties so that reputable buyers can be attracted.
To provide economic opportunity.
Provide various educational, cultural, and museum programs and services to area residents and tourists in order to promote an appreciation of ontario county, ny.
To promote the adoption of animals, prevent all forms of animal cruelty and neglect and shelter
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Chautauqua Lake Triathlon Coalition Inc. 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 41 years old; the field is 27. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 16% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 5% 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.
81 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. 81 of the 163 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 REG LENNA CENTER FOR THE ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION ↗
- Who funds CHAUTAUQUA STRIDERS INC ↗
- Who funds JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY LEARNING COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL COMEDY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds JAMESTOWN RENAISSANCE CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds JAMES PRENDERGAST LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds JAMESTOWN CENTER CITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds AUDUBON COMMUNITY NATURE CENTER ↗
- Who funds FENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JAMESTOWN NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds THE RELIEF ZONE INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF SOUTHERN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds CHAUTAUQUA HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE ↗
- Who funds ROGER TORY PETERSON INSTITUTE OF NA ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY HELPING HANDS INC ↗
- Who funds ROBERT H JACKSON CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Junior Achievement of Western New York ↗
- Who funds HOUSING OPTIONS MADE EASY ↗
- Who funds CHAUTAUQUA LAKE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF JAMESTOWN ↗
- Who funds ALLEGHENY HIGHLANDS COUNCIL 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: Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Inc · Reginald a & Elizabeth S Lenna Fdn Inc Dba Lenna Foundation · Carnahan-Jackson Foundation · Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · Hultquist Foundation Inc · Ttee Uw Jessie Smith Darrah-Charita · United Way of Southern Chautauqua County Inc · Holmberg Foundation Inc · The Western New York Foundation · Northern Chautauqua Community Found · Chautauqua Region Economic Development Corporation · The Snow Family 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 Ralph C Sheldon 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Ralph C Sheldon Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Ralph C Sheldon 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.