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Robert & Patricia Colby Foundation 115319998 at a glance

· Private foundation

Robert & Patricia Colby Foundation 115319998

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.

$129k
Granted FY2024still arriving
5
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$83k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Education$939kArts & Culture$733kEnvironment$193kRecreation & Sports$126kPhilanthropy$31kReligion$24kInternational$16kHealth$8kOther$0
02FY2024 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $6k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $83k
$14,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL$83,296
LAKESIDE SHAKESPEARE THEATER$25,000
SARASOTA OPERA$14,500
LYRIC OPERA CHICAGO$4,500
MULROY FAMILY FOUNDATION$1,246
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:

Its human-services grants (FY19–19, $3k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BUFFALO: $3k → 13%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.

Which US states its grants reach

IL
MI
NY
MA
PA
CA
KY
SC
FL
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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 29 repeat orgs$224k to everyone else

29 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 25 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

29
32

Total granted

$1.9M
$223k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+2%
+35%

Still filing today

69%
53%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationPhilanthropyInternationalRecreation & SportsHealthOther
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

  • EW
    EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL
    6× · 2019–2024 · $394k · revenue +103%
  • NS
    NICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALO
    2× · 2019–2023 · $386k · revenue +32%
  • Sarasota Opera Association Inc
    5× · 2019–2024 · $93k · revenue +99%

Funded once

  • FRACTURED ATLAS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $45k · revenue +43%
  • BS
    BUFFALO SEMINARY
    one grant, 2019 · $42k · revenue +22%
  • SF
    SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA INC
    one grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue +17%
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
Binghamton Philharmonic Inc

The mission of the Binghamton Philharmonic is building community through the power of live music.

Arts & Culture
2
Buffalo Theatre Ensemble Corp
Arts & Culture
3
Niagara University

Niagara university educates its students and enriches their lives through programs in the liberal arts and through career preparation, informed by the catholic and vincentian traditions.

Education
4
The Baruch College Fund

The baruch college fund is an organization engaged in generating, encouraging and promoting the educational welfare of the students of the bernard m. baruch college of the city university of new york.

Education
5
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
6
The Park School of Buffalo

The school engages the student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and…

Education
7
South Buffalo Charter School

South buffalo charter school provides elementary education to students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. we are a professional learning community. our focus on learning is driven by research, data and collaborative reflection to…

Education
8
Artpark & Company Inc

Artpark & company fosters a transformative world of artistic engagement that explores the human experience, cultivates creativity, and encourages curiosity. our work is informed by a long tradition of discovery, an expectation of artistic…

—
9
New York School of Interior Design

New york school of interior design provides the most innovative, immersive, and transformative interior design education in the world, demonstrating the impact of professionally designed interiors on the health, happiness, and well-being…

Education
10
Cleveland Institute of Music

The cleveland institute of music's mission is to empower the world's most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential.

Education
11
New York City Center Inc

The mission of new york city center is to be new york city's leading center for dance and musical theater. dedicated to making the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience, city center seeks to create a welcoming environment and…

Arts & Culture
12
Florentine Opera Company Inc

The florentine opera company is driven to produce the full range of operatic works reflecting the highest musical and theatrical standards, and to support community and education programs that foster the current and next generation of…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Buffalo and Erie County; the most unlike its peers is Mulroy Family Foundation. 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

42 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. 42 of the 63 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
39/42
Grantees still filing
29/42
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL: $394,296 · EducationEMMA WILLARD SCHOOLNICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALO: $386,378 · EducationNICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALOBUFFALO SEMINARY: $42,000 · Education+4 more: $32,500 · EducationSarasota Opera Association Inc: $92,500 · Arts & CultureSarasota Opera Association IncINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $80,000 · Arts & CultureINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTSWESTERN NEW YORK PUBLIC BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION: $70,000 · Arts & CultureWESTERN NEW YORK PUBLIC BROADCA…BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY: $65,000 · Arts & CultureBUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMYIRISH CLASSICAL THEATER CO: $55,000 · Arts & CultureIRISH CLASSICAL THEATER COFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $45,000 · Arts & CultureFRACTURED ATLAS INCBUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA SOCIETY INC: $40,000 · Arts & CultureBUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA …SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA INC: $25,000 · Arts & CultureUJIMA COMPANY INCORPORATED: $20,000 · Arts & CultureBUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY INC: $20,000 · Arts & Culture+9 more: $59,500 · Arts & Culture+9 moreBOTANICAL GARDENS: $190,000 · OtherBOTANICAL GARDENSBUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA: $90,000 · OtherBUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHE…LAKESIDE SHAKESPEARE THEATER: $50,000 · OtherLAKESIDE SHAKESPEARE THEAT…CITRS INC: $30,000 · OtherCITRS INCCITY YEAR INC: $30,000 · OtherCITY YEAR INCWESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $24,000 · Other+23 more: $77,246 · Other+23 moreHITS FOUNDATION INC: $105,000 · Recreation & SportsUNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY: $20,000 · PhilanthropyTHE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $18,000 · PhilanthropySHAW FESTIVAL FOUNDATION: $5,000 · PhilanthropyTHE ROAD LESS TRAVELED INC: $11,000 · InternationalEDUNATIONS INC: $2,000 · InternationalTHE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO FOUNDATION: $4,000 · HealthTHE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BUFFALO: $3,000 · Human Services
Education$855,174Arts & Culture$572,000Other$491,246Recreation & Sports$105,000Philanthropy$43,000International$13,000Health$4,000Human Services$3,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEMMA WILLARD SCHOOL: $394,296 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetNICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALO: $386,378 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetHITS FOUNDATION INC: $105,000 over 5y, 53% of budgetSarasota Opera Association Inc: $92,500 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $80,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWESTERN NEW YORK PUBLIC BROADCASTING ASSOCIATION: $70,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetBUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY: $65,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetIRISH CLASSICAL THEATER CO: $55,000 over 5y, 1.7% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $45,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBUFFALO SEMINARY: $42,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetBUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA SOCIETY INC: $40,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCITRS INC: $30,000 over 3y, 3.7% of budgetCITY YEAR INC: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSPOLETO FESTIVAL USA INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetUJIMA COMPANY INCORPORATED: $20,000 over 3y, 2.1% of budgetUNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY: $20,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetBUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC: $18,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetGREEN VALE SCHOOL: $14,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ROAD LESS TRAVELED INC: $11,000 over 3y, 33% of budgetILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetJUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetKLEINHANS MUSIC HALL MANAGEMENT INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $7,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSHAW FESTIVAL FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetST BONAVENTURE UNIVERSITY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity at Buffalo Foundation Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO FOUNDATION: $4,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFOREST LAWN HERITAGE FOUNDATION INC: $4,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBUFFALO PHILHARMONIC CHORUS INC: $3,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetTHE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF BUFFALO: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetEDUNATIONS INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSHAKESPEARE IN DELAWARE PARK INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetHALLWALLS INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetMULROY FAMILY FOUNDATION: $1,246 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBUFFALO ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Mulroy Family Foundat…The Baird FoundationCommunity Foundation …Cullen FoundationFoundation for Jewish…Cullen Foundation of …Simple Gifts FundThe Western New York …The Margaret L Wendt …First Niagara Foundat…Children's Foundation…The Osc Charitable Fo…
Mulroy Family FoundationNY49.6× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Mulroy Family Foundation · The Baird Foundation · Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · Cullen Foundation · Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc · Cullen Foundation of Western New York Inc · Simple Gifts Fund · The Western New York Foundation · The Margaret L Wendt Foundation · First Niagara Foundation · Children's Foundation of Erie County Inc · The Osc Charitable 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 Robert & Patricia Colby Foundation 115319998 funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Robert & Patricia Colby Foundation 115319998. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%4%15%34%60%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • City Year Inc: 11% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 Robert & Patricia Colby Foundation 115319998?

Find your warmest path to Robert & Patricia Colby Foundation 115319998 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 63 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

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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