· Private foundation
Sam & Sara Mermelstein Family Foundation
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.
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 · FY2024
- Under $10k9 grants · $24k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $38k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| EZER MITZION | $20,000 |
| MISC ORGANIZED CHARITIES | $18,020 |
| AMERICAN FRIENDS OF DARCHEI NOAM | $4,800 |
| CHICAGO CHESED FUND | $3,800 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,800 |
| CONG ZICHRON AVOS | $2,500 |
| WOMENS LEAGUE FOR COMM SRVCS | $2,500 |
| BROTHERS FOR LIFE | $2,000 |
| AMERICAN FRIENDS OF SHALVA | $2,000 |
| MIFAL CHESED | $1,800 |
| BMBA | $1,800 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $109k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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 +62% since the first grant, against -1% for those funded once.
37 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2024, 29 since wound down; 3 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, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CCCHICAGO CHESED FUND8× · 2017–2024 · $108k · revenue +87%
- LBLEV BEREL INC5× · 2018–2022 · $3k · revenue +21%
- SISHALVA INC3× · 2018–2020 · $2k · revenue +62%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $8k
- AFAM FRIENDS OF PONEVITCH YESHIVAone grant, 2019 · $7k
- NENE EMAN FOUNDATION USAone grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -7%
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.
To promote, benefit, and support Jewish religious, charitable & educational activities in Israel and the USA.
Religious School
To foster jewish religious education and disseminate the teachings of rabbi nachman of breslov through publication and distribution of books and cds, as well as seminars, lectures and study groups.
Friends of Jerusalem's mission is to provide assistance to the needs and indigent living in Jerusalem and all of Israel.
To promote and foster the creation of a zionist intellectual infrastructure for the state of israel, the development of a jewish national culture, and the establishment and promotion of intellectual and economic liberty.
The purpose of Birkat Haaretz is to promote the laws of shmitta accordance to Jewish law.
To further jewish education in israel
Helping individuals and organizations with great needs and little resources and with often few options.
The organization provides financial assistance to victims of acts of terrorism in the state of israel.
Assists thousands of needy individuals, families and multiplecharities in Israel and North America.
How this is measured
14 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. 14 of the 69 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
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.
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: Jewish Communal Fund · Jack Adjmi Family Foundation Inc · The Jmg Foundation · The Ojc Fund · Dennis and Joyce Ruben Foundation · Aj & Sl Stern Family Foundation · Zichron Chaim Charity Fund · Kehillah Jewish Education Fund · Todd a and Raphaela Stern Family Foundation · Bitton Family Foundation Inc · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Sam & Sara Mermelstein Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sam & Sara Mermelstein Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Sam & Sara Mermelstein Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Sam & Sara Mermelstein Family 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.
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