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Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$130k
Granted FY2025still arriving
2
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$125k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0191% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$785kPhilanthropy$130kEducation$52kEnvironment$38kInternational$30kCrime & Legal$30kAnimals$15kReligion$15kOther$0
02FY2025 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $125k
$125,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$5.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM$125,000
THE LOCAL JOURNALISM PROJECT$5,000
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 18%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 88% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 14%THE FINE ARTS WORK CENTER: $25k → 8%PARTNERS IN HEALTH: $25k → 16%THE NEW UNIVERSITY IN EXILE: $5k → 17%BROOKLYN MUSEUM: $500k → 20%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $5k → 28%EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $10k → 18%HEART TO HEART INTERNATIONAL: $5k → 5%BROWN UNIVERSITY: $24k → 14%PAAM: $15k → 8%THE NEW UNIVERSITY IN EXILE CONSORTIUM: $5k → 17%THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM: $125k → 20%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $5k → 28%EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $10k → 18%PROVINCETOWN ARTS ASSOCIATION AND MUSEUM: $10k → 8%SAVING OUR MOTHERS: $5k → 17%BROOKLYN 100 CAMPAIGN: $100k → 20%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $3k → 28%EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $10k → 18%PROVINCETOWN CENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES: $10k → 8%PUBLIC ART FUND: $3k → 17%BROOKLYN MUSEUM: $35k → 20%WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $3k → 28%PROVINCETOWN CENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES: $10k → 8%PUBLIC ART FUND: $3k → 17%BROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $25k → 20%PROVINCETOWN CENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES: $10k → 8%NEW YORK CARES COAT DRIVE: $3k → 17%BROOKLYN MUSEUM: $25k → 20%PROVINCETOWN CENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES: $5k → 8%PUBLIC ART FUND: $3k → 17%BROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $5k → 20%THE FINE ARTS WORK CENTER: $5k → 8%HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMIES: $10k → 17%ST ANN'S WORKSHOP: $5k → 20%THE FINE ARTS WORK CENTER: $5k → 8%HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMY: $5k → 17%ST ANN'S WORKSHOP: $10k → 20%THE LOCAL JOURNALISM PROJECT: $5k → 8%TWENTY SUMMERS: $5k → 8%THE PUBLIC THEATER OF NEW YORK: $10k → 17%NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP: $10k → 17%THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH: $10k → 17%NEW YORK THEATER WORKSHOP: $10k → 17%THE PUBLIC THEATER OF NEW YORK: $5k → 17%GEMS: $10k → 17%GEMS: $5k → 17%GIRLS EDUCATIONAL AND MENTORING SERVICES: $5k → 17%GEMS: $5k → 17%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.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$890k · 11 repeat orgs$213k to everyone else

11 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
17

Total granted

$890k
$208k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+68%
+151%

Still filing today

64%
41%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’22’25
Arts & CultureEnvironmentEducationHealthAnimalsInternationalOther
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

  • TB
    THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
    4× · 2017–2025 · $685k · revenue +86%
  • CF
    CENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES INC
    4× · 2017–2020 · $35k · revenue +370%
  • FA
    FINE ARTS WORK CENTER IN PROVINCETOWN INC
    3× · 2017–2019 · $35k · revenue +24%

Funded once

  • B1
    BROOKLYN 100 CAMPAIGN
    one grant, 2019 · $100k
  • PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +33%
  • P
    PAAM
    one grant, 2018 · $15k
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
Boston Architectural College

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

—
2
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
3
Berggruen Institute
Education
4
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
5
New Museum of Contemporary Art

A center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists since 1977, which continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

Arts & Culture
6
The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.

Education
7
Ie New York College

(see schedule o)

Education
8
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
9
The Paris Review Foundation Inc

The mission of the organization is to foster the development of creative individuals as writers and artists and to promote public appreciation of excellence in the literary and graphic arts by publishing a magazine containing fiction,…

Education
10
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
11
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
12
New York Studio School

The new york studio school is committed to giving a significant education to the aspiring artist, a preamble to a lifetime's engagement in drawing, painting, and sculpture. (see schedule o for continuation)

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Public Art Fund Inc; the most unlike its peers is Wildlife Conservation Society. 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

17 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. 17 of the 31 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
16/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: $685,000 · Arts & CultureTHE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCESFINE ARTS WORK CENTER IN PROVINCETOWN INC: $35,000 · Arts & Culture+3 more: $35,000 · Arts & CultureBROOKLYN 100 CAMPAIGN: $100,000 · OtherBROOKLYN 100 CAMPAIGNGEMS: $20,000 · OtherGEMSTHE PUBLIC THEATER OF NEW YORK: $15,000 · OtherTHE PUBLIC THEATER OF NE…PAAM: $15,000 · OtherPAAMST ANN'S WORKSHOP: $15,000 · OtherST ANN'S WORKSHOPHARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMIES: $12,500 · OtherTHE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH: $10,000 · OtherWildlife Conservation Society: $15,000 · OtherWildlife Conservation So…+11 more: $47,500 · Other+11 moreCENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES INC: $35,000 · EnvironmentENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $2,500 · EnvironmentEQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $30,000 · Civil RightsBROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $30,000 · PhilanthropyPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $25,000 · HealthGIRLS EDUCATIONAL AND MENTORING SERVICES INC: $5,000 · HealthBROWN UNIVERSITY: $24,000 · Community Improvement
Arts & Culture$755,000Other$250,000Environment$37,500Civil Rights$30,000Philanthropy$30,000Health$30,000Community Improvement$24,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: $685,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetCENTER FOR COASTAL STUDIES INC: $35,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetFINE ARTS WORK CENTER IN PROVINCETOWN INC: $35,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetEQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $30,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBROOKLYN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $24,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWildlife Conservation Society: $15,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPROVINCETOWN ART ASSOCIATION AND MUSEUM INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetPUBLIC ART FUND INC: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGIRLS EDUCATIONAL AND MENTORING SERVICES INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetHEART TO HEART INTERNATIONAL INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget20 Summers Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 7.8% of budgetHARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMIES CHARTER SCHOOLS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $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.

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.

Boston Foundation IncImpactassetsincNational Philanthropi…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Boston Foundation IncMA13× affinity4 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Impactassetsinc · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 26%
  • Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Inc: 27% of income from government
  • Center for Coastal Studies Inc: 26% of income from government
  • 20 Summers Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer 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.

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 31 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

Play a game based on Sharon E Fay & Maxine Schaffer Family’s filings →

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