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Richard and Mary Bard Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Richard and Mary Bard 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.

$66k
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

86% of Richard and Mary Bard Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Bryan Area Foundation Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 11 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Richard and Mary Bard Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 8 organizations, $66k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

11
’23
8
’24
11
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2025.

Philanthropy$510kEducation$105kReligion$62kPublic Benefit$51kHealth$12kEnvironment$380Animals$250
02FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k7 grants · $16k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $50k
$5,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$608k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TUNNELS TO TOWERS FOUNDATION$10,000
TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH$10,000
CONSRVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE$10,000
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION$10,000
THE OHIO STAT UNIVERSITY FOUNDATI$10,000
HILLSDALE COLLEGE$5,000
NORTH NAPLES UNITED METHODIST CHURC$5,000
NORTH ROME BAPTIST CHURCH$2,000
FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST$1,000
SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION$1,000
COMMUNITY HOSPITALS & WELLNESS$1,000
HOPE COLLEGE$1,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY23–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 93% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%TUNNELS TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $10k → 11%CONSRVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE: $10k → 14%NORTH NAPLES UNITED METHODIST CHURC: $10k → 10%TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: $10k → 7%NORTH ROME BAPTIST CHURCH: $5k → 12%HILLSDALE COLLEGE: $10k → 14%MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: $500 → 16%PARKVIEW FOUNDATION INC: $5k → 12%BRYAN AREA FOUNDATION: $500k → 12%SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%TUNNELS TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $10k → 11%CONSRVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE: $10k → 14%NORTH NAPLES UNITED METHODIST CHURC: $5k → 10%TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: $10k → 7%NORTH ROME BAPTIST CHURCH: $2k → 12%HILLSDALE COLLEGE: $10k → 14%PARKVIEW FOUNDATION INC: $100 → 12%BRYAN AREA FOUNDATION: $10k → 12%SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%CONSRVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE: $1k → 14%NORTH NAPLES UNITED METHODIST CHURC: $5k → 10%TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: $10k → 7%NORTH ROME BAPTIST CHURCH: $2k → 12%HILLSDALE COLLEGE: $5k → 14%COMMUNITY HOSPITALS & WELLNESS: $5k → 12%SIGMA CHI FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%NAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN: $145 → 10%LENAWEE HUMANE SOCIETY: $250 → 12%FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST: $1k → 12%THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%CONSERVANCY OF SOUTHWEST FLA: $135 → 10%FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST: $1k → 12%THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%CONSERVENCY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: $100 → 10%COMMUNITY HOSPITALS & WELLNESS: $1k → 12%FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST: $1k → 12%COMMUNITY HOSPITALS & WELLNESS: $1k → 12%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.
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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$204k · 13 repeat orgs$995 to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +33% since the first grant, against +19% for those funded once.

13 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2024, 2 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
2

Total granted

$204k
$395

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
+19%

Still filing today

62%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $600 went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24’25
EducationPublic BenefitHealthAnimalsEnvironmentOther
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

  • THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
    3× · 2023–2025 · $30k · revenue +33%
  • Conservative Partnership Institute
    3× · 2023–2025 · $21k · revenue +77%
  • HC
    HOPE COLLEGE
    3× · 2023–2025 · $11k · revenue +11%

Funded once

  • LH
    Lenawee Humane Society
    one grant, 2023 · $250 · revenue -26%
  • NB
    NAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN INC
    one grant, 2023 · $145 · revenue +19%
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
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
2
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
3
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
4
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
5
Marietta College

Marietta college (mc) provides a strong foundation for a lifetime of leadership, critical thinking, and problem solving. we achieve this mission by offering undergraduates a contemporary liberal arts education and graduate students an…

Education
6
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education
7
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
8
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
9
Saint Anselm College

Saint anselm is a catholic, benedictine college providing all of its students a distinctive liberal arts education that incorporates opportunities for professional and career preparation. it does so in a learning community that encourages…

Education
10
The Carle Foundation Hospital

To be the trusted partner in all healthcare decisions and to improve health by providing highly accessible, world-class care and services.

Health
11
Point Park University

Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…

—
12
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Lenawee Humane Society. 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

12 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. 12 of the 19 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
8/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BRYAN AREA FOUNDATION INC: $510,000 · PhilanthropyBRYAN AREA FOUNDATION INCTHE OHIO STAT UNIVERSITY FOUNDATI: $45,000 · OtherTHE OHIO STAT UNI…TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH: $30,000 · OtherTRINITY LUTHERAN …NORTH NAPLES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: $20,000 · OtherNORTH NAPLES UNIT…NORTH ROME BAPTIST CHURCH: $9,000 · OtherNORTH ROME BAPTIS…PARKVIEW FOUNDATION INC: $5,100 · Other+4 more: $3,835 · OtherHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $25,000 · EducationHILLSDALE CO…Conservative Partnership Institute: $21,000 · EducationConservative…STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $20,000 · EducationSTEPHEN SILL…HOPE COLLEGE: $11,000 · EducationHOPE COLLEGESigma Chi Foundation: $3,000 · EducationTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $30,000 · Public BenefitCOMMUNITY HOSPITALS AND WELLNESS CENTERS: $7,000 · HealthLenawee Humane Society: $250 · AnimalsNAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN INC: $145 · Environment
Philanthropy$510,000Other$112,935Education$80,000Public Benefit$30,000Health$7,000Animals$250Environment$145

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetBRYAN AREA FOUNDATION INC: $510,000 over 2y, 21% of budgetTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $25,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetConservative Partnership Institute: $21,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHOPE COLLEGE: $11,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY HOSPITALS AND WELLNESS CENTERS: $7,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPARKVIEW FOUNDATION INC: $5,100 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSigma Chi Foundation: $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLenawee Humane Society: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CONSERVANCY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: $235 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN INC: $145 over 1y, 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.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 Richard and Mary Bard Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Richard and Mary Bard Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Naples Botanical Garden Inc: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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 Richard and Mary Bard Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Richard and Mary Bard 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.

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 19 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Richard and Mary Bard’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