· Private foundation
Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k34 grants · $111k
- $10k–50k29 grants · $612k
- $50k–250k17 grants · $1.8M
- $250k+5 grants · $1.7M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY | $500,000 |
| NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESV | $333,333 |
| PBS FOUNDATION | $333,333 |
| EAST END SEAPORT MUSEUM AND | $295,440 |
| LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY | $250,000 |
| CELEBRATE ST JAMES PAST PRESENT | $211,300 |
| SAG HARBOR HISTORICAL MUSEUM | $200,876 |
| COOPER UNION FOR THE ADV OF SCIENCE | $200,000 |
| NEW YORK UNIVERSITY | $200,000 |
| NORTHPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $177,610 |
| RESEARCH FOUNDATION SUNY GENESEO | $112,080 |
| HISPANIC SOCIETY MUSEUM AND LIBRARY | $100,000 |
| MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC | $98,767 |
| LONG ISLAND MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT | $87,400 |
| GREATER HUDSON HERITAGE NETWORK | $66,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 49% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +25% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.
118 repeat relationships: 56 still active in FY2025, 62 since wound down; 24 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, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $747k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- LILONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY9× · 2017–2025 · $3.3M · revenue +0%
PBS FOUNDATION7× · 2017–2025 · $2.7M · revenue ×12- NYNew York University8× · 2017–2025 · $1.7M · revenue +76%
Funded once
- NTNATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORICone grant, 2023 · $333k
- LMLT MICHAEL MURPHY NAVAL SEAL MUSEUone grant, 2018 · $300k
- CUCOOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENTone grant, 2020 · $254k
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.
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.
Founded in 1881 the Staten Island Museum engages visitors with interdisciplinary exhibitions, public programs, and educational activities for all ages. It is the mission of the Staten Island Museum to spark curiosity and generate…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
The long island museum is dedicated to inspiring people of all ages with an understanding and enjoyment of american art, history and carriages as expressed through the heritage of long island and its diverse communities.
Educate the community on the history of newburgh bay and the highlands
The mission of the Sharon Historical Society is to make all people aware of our history by linking the past with the present in order to inform them of our future. The Sharon Historical Society exists to inspire people's understanding that…
To operate and maintain suny maritime museum
The organization was formed to safeguard and share existing and future collections related to the social, cultural, and economic history of the high peaks adirondack region in and around the township of newcomb in essex county, new york.
Preservation & maintenance collection
Education about and promotion of the alexandria bay and surronding ny areas.
How this is measured
119 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. 119 of the 226 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds PBS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds New York Historical Society ↗
- Who funds New York University ↗
- Who funds MOLLOY UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY ↗
- Who funds THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds IONA UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE GREEN-WOOD HISTORIC FUND INC ↗
- Who funds WEBB INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds MONTAUK HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds THE ROSLYN LANDMARK SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds FIREBOAT FIRE FIGHTER MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds THE HISTORYMAKERS ↗
- Who funds Three Village Historical Society ↗
- Who funds THE FRIENDS OF RAYNHAM HALL INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER HUDSON HERITAGE NETWORK ↗
- Who funds Old Westbury Gardens Inc ↗
- Who funds YAPHANK HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds EAST END SEAPORT MUSEUM AND MARINE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER ↗
- Who funds PRESERVATION LEAGUE OF NEW YORK STATE ↗
- Who funds THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY ↗
- Who funds THE NORTH SHORE LAND ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds OYSTER BAY RAILROAD MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Greater Hudson Heritage Network · The William G Pomeroy Foundation · Preservation League of New York State · The New York Community Trust · The Claire Friedlander Family Foundation · New York Community Bank Foundation · New York Council for the Humanities · Peggy N & Roger G Gerry Charitable · Charles and Helen Reichert Family Foundation Inc · The McGrath Family Charitable Foundation · Frederic R Coudert Foundation · John C Dunphy Private Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- Sea Education Association Inc: 12% of income from government
- Mystic Seaport Museum Inc: 5% of income from government
- Trustees of Boston College: 3% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Robert David Lion Gardiner 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.
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