· Public charity
Ridgefield Thrift Shop Inc
To support other local 501(c)(3) organizations through recycling, re-purposing, and reselling generously donated goods.
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.
The 47 grants below total $691,120 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $824,141 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $133,021 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k13 grants · $94k
- $10k–50k33 grants · $539k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $59k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TOWN OF RIDGEFIELD | $58,500 |
| RIDGEFIELD VOLUNTEER NURSES ASSOC | $45,000 |
| RIDGEFIELD VETERANS MEMORIAL COMMUNITY CENTER | $35,000 |
| FOUNDER'S HALL | $25,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB | $25,000 |
| RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE | $20,000 |
| ROCK N' RESCUE | $20,000 |
| CENTER FOR EMPOWERMENT | $20,000 |
| PET ANIMAL WELFARE SOCIETY OF CT | $20,000 |
| PROSPECT OPPPORTUNITY AND ENRICHMENT INC (THE PROSPECTOR) | $20,000 |
| RIDGEFIELD VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT | $17,000 |
| REGIONAL HOSPICE OF WESTERN CT | $16,000 |
| ANNS PLACE | $15,600 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS OF RIDGEFIELD | $15,000 |
| ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY MUSEUM | $15,000 |
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 (FY21–25, $389k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 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 +27% since the first grant, against +21% for the ones you funded once.
76 repeat relationships — 31 still active in FY2025, 45 since wound down; 14 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, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $203k 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
- TCThe Center For Empowerment And Education Inc4× · 2021–2025 · $239k · revenue +33%
- RVRIDGEFIELD VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPT3× · 2022–2025 · $113k · revenue +50% · 28% of their budget
- BGBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF RIDGEFIELD4× · 2021–2025 · $80k · revenue +27%
Funded once
- VOVARIOUS ORGANIZATIONSone grant, 2018 · $117k
- BABOYS AND GIRLS CLUBone grant, 2020 · $25k
- RHREGIONAL HOSPICE OF NEW YORKone grant, 2020 · $20k
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.
Support civic activities in the town of ridgefield, ct
The mission of ridgefield chamber of commerce is to promote the economic vitality of the town of ridgefield ct through member engagement, hospitality.
To provide preschool education for children ages 2-5.
Ridgefield Main Street is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of downtown Ridgefield, while advocating advocating for its future through economic development, community events, public and private…
The ridgefield conservatory of dance is dedicated to the use of a well-structured syllabus for all dance techniques. an age appropriate syllabus that takes into consideration both physical and mental development ensures the best and safest…
WPKN's mission is to strengthen and enrich the community by broadcasting independent, listener-supported, and commercial-free programming.
Volunteer fire fighting and rescue services for local community.
Riverbrook residence is composed of people dedicated to the continuation of the uniquely nurturing community of women with developmental disabilities by creating innovative and genuine opportunities for full and meaningful community…
To provide fire, medical and other emergency services
The purpose of the "Society" is to collect, preserve, and interpret Wethersfield's past for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Catholic Charities of Fairfield County Inc and the most unlike its peers is Ridgefield Fathers Club 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 37 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% 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.
44 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. 44 of the 152 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 The Center For Empowerment And Education Inc ↗
- Who funds RIDGEFIELD VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPT ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF RIDGEFIELD ↗
- Who funds Founders Hall Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds THE RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE FOR MOVIES AND THE PERFORMING ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds REGIONAL HOSPICE AND HOME CARE OF WESTERN CONNECTICUT INC ↗
- Who funds KIDS IN CRISIS INC ↗
- Who funds Daily Bread An Ecumenical Food Pantry Inc ↗
- Who funds SPHERE INC ↗
- Who funds ANNS PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds ACT OF CONNECTICUT ↗
- Who funds KEELER TAVERN ↗
- Who funds THE ALDRICH CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds PROSPECTS OPPORTUNITY AND ENRICHMENT INC ↗
- Who funds Ridgefield Library Association Inc ↗
- Who funds RIDGEFIELD WORKSHOP FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds RIDGEFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS OF RIDGEFIELD INC ↗
- Who funds ROCK N RESCUE ↗
- Who funds DOROTHY DAY HOSPITALITY HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds RIDGEFIELD VETERANS' MEMORIAL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra 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: The Goldstone Family Foundation · Fairfield County's Community Foundation Inc · Union Savings Bank Foundation Inc · Taylor-Zemo Foundation Inc · Synchrony Foundation · Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation Inc C/O Joel E Sammet & Co LLP · Savings Bank of Danbury Foundation Inc · Patrick Foundation · The Barker Welfare Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Pf & Rj Morganti Foundation · Albert and Helen Meserve Mem Fund
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 Ridgefield Thrift Shop 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.
- Global Peht Corp Partnership to End Human Trafficking — 52% of income from government
- Kids in Crisis Inc — 49% of income from government
- Rides for Ridgefield Inc — 39% of income from government
- Family and Children's Aid Inc — 36% of income from government
- Ridgefield Youth Service Bureau Inc — 31% of income from government
- Ridgefield Independent Film Festival — 24% of income from government
- Regional Hospice and Home Care of Western Connecticut Inc — 17% of income from government
- The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Inc — 9% of income from government
- Ridgefield Historical Society Inc — 7% of income from government
- Association of Religious Communities Inc — 6% of income from government
- The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Inc — 2% of income from government
- Act of Connecticut — 1% of income from government
- The Ridgefield Playhouse for Movies and the Performing Arts 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Ridgefield Thrift Shop Inc?
Find your warmest path to Ridgefield Thrift Shop 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.