· Private foundation
S Elizabeth O'Brien Trust
Its FY2020 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 FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2020
- Under $10k2 grants · $15k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $107k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $262k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS | $56,756 |
| DANA FARBER CANCER | $54,896 |
| PERKINS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND | $50,000 |
| CARROLL CENTER FOR THE | $50,000 |
| MAB COMMUNITY SERVICES | $50,000 |
| BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER INC | $45,000 |
| THE GUILD FOR HUMAN SERVICES INC | $25,000 |
| SOUTHCOAST VISITING NURSE ASSOC | $15,000 |
| LOWELL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND | $11,500 |
| LUCYS LOVE BUS CHARITABLE TRUST | $10,000 |
| HEALTH RESOURCES IN ACTION INC | $9,731 |
| YWCA OF SOUTHEASTERN MASS | $5,000 |
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 (FY20–20, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 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 +88% since the first grant, against +53% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2020, 1 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (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 FY2020, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $183k 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
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc2× · 2017–2020 · $183k · revenue +132%
BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION3× · 2017–2020 · $171k · revenue +88%- MCMAB COMMUNITY SERVICES INC3× · 2017–2020 · $80k · revenue +149%
Funded once
- MGMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $103k · revenue +44%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $80k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF MARYLANDone grant, 2018 · $80k
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.
Mass general brigham incorporated is developing an integrated health care delivery system throughout the region that offers patients a continuum of coordinated, high-quality care.
To provide the highest quality specialty medical care to patients with diabetes and diabetes related conditions and to search for a cure.
The mission of winchester hospital is "to care. to heal. to excel." this ethos provides each and every staff member with clear expectations, promoting teamwork and respect while ensuring safety, quality and empathy for patients. winchester…
The mission of the beth israel deaconess hospital-milton, inc. (bid-milton or hospital) is to provide safe, high-quality, community-based health care and access to tertiary care in close collaboration with its sister hospital, beth israel…
Beth israel lahey health inc.'s mission is to support its affiliates and their healthcare missions, to improve the health of patients, their families and the communities served and as a network its purpose is to create healthier…
The mission of the beth israel deaconess hospital-plymouth, inc. (bid-plymouth or hospital) is to improve the health and well-being of its patients and communities by providing a full continuum of healthcare services with excellence and…
Centering on a concept and continuum of care that embraces the health, well-being and dignity of each patient, regardless of their ability to pay, northeast hospital corporation (nhc) has four facilities, beverly hospital, addison gilbert…
Beth israel lahey health primary care (bilhpc) is a network of community based physicians affiliated with the beth israel lahey health (bilh) network and serving the patients and communities served by the lahey clinic hospital (lahey…
The mission of northeast behavioral health corporation d/b/a beth israel lahey health behavioral services' (bilhbs) is to provide personal, compassionate, state-of-the-art, integrated behavioral healthcare that makes a difference in the…
Tertiary care academic medical center
Lahey clinic (lc) provides the highest quality interdisciplinary and coordinated patient care leading to the best possible outcomes and experiences for every patient, advancing medicine through research and educating tomorrow's health care…
The lahey clinic foundation, inc. (lcf) serves as the sole member and supports the lahey clinic (lc) and lahey clinic hospital d/b/a lahey hospital & medical center (lhmc), enabling lhmc and lc to provide superior health care leading to…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Carroll Center for the Blind Inc and the most unlike its peers is Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 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. 12 of the 18 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 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds JOSLIN DIABETES CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds MAB COMMUNITY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds PERKINS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND ↗
- Who funds THE GUILD FOR HUMAN SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTHCOAST VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds LOWELL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND INC ↗
- Who funds LUCY'S LOVE BUS CHARITABLE TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds HEALTH RESOURCES IN ACTION INC ↗
- Who funds THE CARROLL CENTER FOR THE BLIND 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: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 S Elizabeth O'Brien Trust 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.
- Mab Community Services Inc — 69% of income from government
- Lowell Association for the Blind Inc — 49% of income from government
- The Guild for Human Services Inc — 44% of income from government
- Health Resources in Action Inc — 39% of income from government
- Joslin Diabetes Center Inc — 35% of income from government
- Boston Medical Center Corporation — 23% of income from government
- Perkins School for the Blind — 7% of income from government
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc — 7% of income from government
- Southcoast Visiting Nurse Association Inc — 7% of income from government
- The Carroll Center for the Blind Inc — 3% 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.