· Private foundation
Richard King Mellon Foundation
Its FY2024 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 FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k34 grants · $592k
- $50k–250k119 grants · $16M
- $250k+140 grants · $100M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH | $10,000,000 |
| CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY | $7,500,000 |
| CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY | $7,000,000 |
| CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY | $5,500,000 |
| AMERICAN PRAIRIE FOUNDATION | $4,500,000 |
| CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION | $2,100,000 |
| PHOEBE FOUNDATION INC | $2,000,000 |
| THE CITIZEN SCIENCE LAB | $2,000,000 |
| AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER | $1,550,000 |
| THREE RIVERS COMMUNITIES INC | $1,250,000 |
| RODALE INSTITUTE | $1,029,000 |
| PITTSBURGH GLASS CENTER INC | $1,000,000 |
| VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER | $1,000,000 |
| MUTUAL AID AMBULANCE SERVICE INC | $1,000,000 |
| MAX MCGRAW WILDLIFE FOUNDATION | $1,000,000 |
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 (FY19–24, $37.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 80% 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 Richard King Mellon 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. Read by recipient address, 89% of the giving stays in PA; read by stated purpose it is 84% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.
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 +31% since the first grant, against +20% for the ones you funded once.
304 repeat relationships — 162 still active in FY2024, 142 since wound down; 67 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, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $18M 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
- CMCarnegie Mellon University6× · 2019–2024 · $80M · revenue +52%
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH6× · 2019–2024 · $65M · revenue +28%- MRMAGEE-WOMENS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND FOUNDATION4× · 2019–2023 · $16M · revenue +13%
Funded once
- SCSTEELERS CHARITIESgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $10M · revenue +373%
- TITRWIB INCone grant, 2023 · $3.0M · revenue -2%
Appalachian Mountain Clubone grant, 2023 · $2.0M · revenue -5%
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 provide a means for sharing resources and information among members, engage in joint projects, and offer a common voice on educational matters.
Pidc plans and implements economic development initiatives (see schedule o) which enhance the competitive environment, generate jobs and produce higher tax ratables throughout philadelphia.
Visit philadelphia is our name and our mission. as the region's official tourism marketing agency, we build greater philadelphia's image, drive visitation and boost the economy.
To support education and research at college, university, and research libraries.
Pidc dmc administers and coordinates various development projects for the city and other not-for-profit entities.
To create a vibrant, responsible, and sustainable film and digital media sector in southwestern pennsylvania.
See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…
The pittsburgh venture capital association was founded in 1982 to catalyze venture investment and entrepreneurialism in western pennsylvania. since then it has become the leading voice of private equity investors in the region.through a…
Tourism development organization dedicated to expanding the tourism economy across allegheny county.
The Allegheny County Conservation District is an urban conservation district that engages and leads through partnerships, innovation, and implementation to conserve, promote, and improve Allegheny Countys natural resources.
The world affairs council of pittsburgh's mission is to convene and connect people around global issues to build a competitive, thriving, and inclusive pittsburgh.
Membership organization formed to help tech companies succeed through a proven platform of business development, talent retention, government relations, and visibility services. companies at all growth stages use the pittsburgh technology…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh and the most unlike its peers is Minority Outdoor Alliance. 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 31 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.4% lost their exemption, against 9% 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.
536 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. 536 of the 611 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 Carnegie Mellon University ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ↗
- Who funds MAGEE-WOMENS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CARNEGIE INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds STEELERS CHARITIES ↗
- Who funds PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST ↗
- Who funds WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY INC ↗
- Who funds THE PROGRESS FUND ↗
- Who funds THE PITTSBURGH PROMISE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ECONOMIC GROWTH CONNECTION OF WESTMORELAND ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN PRAIRIE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HOMEWOOD CHIDREN'S VILLAGE ↗
- Who funds THE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds MANCHESTER BIDWELL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER ↗
- Who funds POISE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GREATER PITTSBURGH COMMUNITY FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER JOHNSTOWN ↗
- Who funds LIGHT OF LIFE MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds ALLEGHENY COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds BETHLEN HOME OF THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED FEDERATION OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds THRILL MILL INC ↗
- Who funds ALLEGHENY CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds RIDC OF SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA GROWTH FUND ↗
- Who funds THE CITIZEN SCIENCE LAB ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds PITTSBURGH BALLET THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds PITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds TRWIB INC ↗
- Who funds PITTSBURGH OPERA INC ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
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: Hillman Family Foundations · The Grable Foundation · The Heinz Endowments · Eden Hall Foundation · The Pittsburgh Foundation · The United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania · The Buhl Foundation · McCune Foundation Pnc Bank Na · The Jack Buncher Foundation · Allegheny Foundation · Staunton Farm Foundation 540-054 Dba Staunton Farm Foundation · Eqt 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 Richard King Mellon 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Education Development Center Inc — 65% of income from government
- Tall Timbers Research Inc — 10% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College — 7% of income from government
- Nantucket Conservation Foundation Inc — 4% of income from government
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc — 2% of income from government
- Appalachian Mountain Club — 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Richard King Mellon Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Richard King Mellon 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.