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Selavy Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Selavy Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$153k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$136k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0183% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

International$1.0MScience & Tech$110kEducation$93kHealth$40kEnvironment$12kHousing & Shelter$9kReligion$6kFood & Nutrition$5kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $17k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $136k
$5,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS$136,000
CASCO PUBLIC LIBRARY$5,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
STANFORD UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT$5,000
LOON ECHO LAND TRUST$2,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 87% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%Worcester Polytechnic Insitute: $5k → 11%Shelter Network: $5k → 7%Ecumenical Hunger Program: $5k → 8%Stanford Medicine: $5k → 10%Little Light Foundation: $25k → 17%Do2Learn Resources Inc: $5k → 8%Computer Science Dept UNC-Chapel: $35k → 13%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%Worcester Polytechnic Insitute: $5k → 11%Temple Beth Jacob: $6k → 7%Foothill De Anza College Foundation: $5k → 8%STANFORD UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT: $5k → 10%Doctors Without Borders: $125k → 17%Computer Science Dept UNC-Chapel: $35k → 13%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%Stanford Medicine: $10k → 8%Stanford Medicine: $5k → 10%Doctors Without Borders: $120k → 17%Computer Science Dept UNC-Chapel: $35k → 13%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%Stanford Medicine: $10k → 8%Stanford Medicine: $5k → 10%Doctors Without Borders: $100k → 17%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Stanford Medicine: $5k → 8%Doctors Without Borders: $90k → 17%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%Doctors Without Borders: $32k → 17%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%CASCO FIRE & RESCUE: $5k → 7%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%CASCO PUBLIC LIBRARY: $5k → 7%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%Casco Public Library: $5k → 7%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Casco Fire & Rescue: $5k → 7%Loon Echo Land Trust: $2k → 7%LOON ECHO LAND TRUST: $2k → 7%Loon Echo Land Trust: $2k → 7%Loon Echo Land Trust: $2k → 7%Loon Echo Land Trust: $2k → 7%Loon Echo Land Trust: $2k → 7%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.
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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 6 repeat orgs$62k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +98% since the first grant, against +60% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
8

Total granted

$1.2M
$57k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+98%
+60%

Still filing today

50%
38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationInternationalFood & NutritionEnvironmentOther
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

  • MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +98%
  • Loon Echo Land Trust Inc
    6× · 2020–2025 · $12k · revenue +311%
  • WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
    2× · 2017–2018 · $10k · revenue +63%

Funded once

  • TL
    THE LITTLE LIGHT FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $25k · 100% of their budget
  • TB
    Temple Beth Jacob
    one grant, 2017 · $6k
  • EH
    ECUMENICAL HUNGER PROGRAMgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +60%
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
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
4
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
5
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
6
Loma Linda University

Loma linda university, a seventh-day adventist christian health sciences institution, seeks to further the healing and teaching ministry of jesus christ "to make man whole" by: - educating ethical and proficient christian health…

Education
7
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
8
Bar Ilan University in Israel Inc

Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.

—
9
California Lutheran University

The mission of the university is to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice.

Education
10
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
11
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Philanthropy
12
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trustees of Tufts College; the most unlike its peers is The Little Light 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

8 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. 8 of the 16 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/8
Grantees still filing
7/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $1,000,000 · InternationalMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INCComputer Science Dept UNC-Chapel: $105,000 · OtherComputer Science Dept…Individual grant recipient: $45,000 · OtherIndividual grant reci…Casco Public Library: $45,000 · OtherCasco Public LibraryTHE LITTLE LIGHT FOUNDATION: $25,000 · OtherTHE LITTLE LIGHT FOUN…WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE: $10,000 · Other+5 more: $26,000 · Other+5 moreTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationCALIFORNIA FAMILY FOUNDATION: $3,500 · EducationTrustees of Tufts College: $2,500 · EducationLoon Echo Land Trust Inc: $12,000 · EnvironmentECUMENICAL HUNGER PROGRAM: $5,000 · Food & Nutrition
International$1,000,000Other$256,000Education$46,000Environment$12,000Food & Nutrition$5,000

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 budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $1,000,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LITTLE LIGHT FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 100% of budgetLoon Echo Land Trust Inc: $12,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetWORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetECUMENICAL HUNGER PROGRAM: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
  • Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE LITTLE LIGHT FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Loon Echo Land Trust Inc ↗
  • Who funds WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds ECUMENICAL HUNGER PROGRAM ↗
  • Who funds CALIFORNIA FAMILY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Trustees of Tufts College ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Selavy Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Selavy Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 13%
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute: 8% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
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.

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 16 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 2025, released 2025. 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