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Pennsylvania · Private foundation

Shear Family Foundation Inc

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.

$9.0M
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
78
Grants FY2024
69
Organizations funded FY2023
26%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$50,000
Largest grant, FY2024
$951,000
Organizations funded a year
52 to 76
FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
17
Total assets, FY2024
$226M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 26% of the organizations Shear Family Foundation Inc funded were first-time grantees, receiving 13% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.1M went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
Food & NutritionEducationAnimalsHealthHuman ServicesInternationalOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2024still arriving75$8.5M23%
FY202369$8.3M26%
FY202265$8.9M18%
FY202159$7.8M22%
FY202052$6.8M19%
FY201967$6.9M21%
FY201876$7.7M39%
FY201767$7.4Mn/a
99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$15MHealth$13MInternational$11MFood & Nutrition$11MPhilanthropy$4.2MHuman Services$3.2MPublic Safety & Disaster$3.1MRecreation & Sports$1.5MOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
WA
IL
MI
NY
MA
NV
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CA
UT
CO
VA
MD
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
LA
AL
TX
FL

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 125 grantees
All grantees of Shear Family Foundation Inc by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
University of Pittsburgh$10,526,82080%
American Friends of Leket Israel Inc$4,558,00088%
Jewish Family and Children's Service of Pittsburgh$2,325,00085%
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit$1,850,00070%
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation$1,800,00081%
American Friends of Magen David Adom$1,760,80081%
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank$1,552,50070%
Friends of Ir David Inc$1,475,00082%
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Inc$1,369,20081%
Greater Chicago Food Depository$1,156,30070%
One Mind$950,00044%
American Friends of the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled$875,50085%
Three Square$865,00070%
Palm Beach County Food Bank Inc$800,00041%
Intermountain Healthcare Foundation Inc$527,81840%
Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School$519,50042%
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion$500,0002n/a
The Palm Beach Police and Fire Foundation Inc$485,00083%
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah$440,00085%
Secure Community Network Inc$436,00062%
Grow Pittsburgh$430,00047%
Central Fund of Israel$420,00030%
Healthnetwork Foundation Fka Health Net Foundation Inc$415,00081%
Eradicate Hate Global Summit$400,00029%
Alzheimer's Disease Research Foundation$250,00031%
West Palm Beach Center for Arts & Technology Inc$250,000446%
Friends of the Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism$240,000523%
Connecting Champions$226,000315%
Israel Emergency Alliance$225,00031%
Second Harvest Food Bank Greater New Orleans and Acadiana$225,00020%
Congregation Beth Shalom$225,0003n/a
Light of Life Mission Inc$205,0008n/a
Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League of the Palm Beaches Inc$190,00080%
Summit Land Conservancy$175,00041%
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression$140,00020%
Shalva Inc$129,00033%
Soldiers Save Lives Corporation$100,00013%
Huntsman Cancer Foundation$100,00010%
Center for Disaster Philanthropy Inc$100,00011%
Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation$100,00010%
Israel Cancer Research Fund Inc$99,00021%
National Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh Section$95,50053%
Nevada Medical Center Inc$80,000423%
Northern Israel Center for Arts and Technology Ltd$70,00024%
Friendship Circle of Las Vegas Inc$65,00027%
Food Bank of Central & Eastern Nc Inc$50,00010%
Gladiolus Food Pantry Inc$50,00012%
River City Food Bank$50,00011%
Feeding the Gulf Coast$50,0001n/a
California Fire Foundation$50,00010%
University of Washington$50,0001n/a
Opportunity Village Foundation$50,00010%
412 Food Rescue Inc$50,00011%
All Faiths Food Bank Inc$50,00010%
Arkansas Foodbank$50,00010%
Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley$50,00043%
Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research$50,00015%
Lowcountry Food Bank Inc$50,00010%
Maui Food Bank Inc$50,00011%
Neighbors for Neighbors$45,0005n/a
Deer Lakes Touchdown Club$44,0004n/a
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater PA and West Virginia Inc$40,00080%
Butler County Humane Society$40,00051%
Special Olympics Pennsylvania Inc$37,50070%
The Anti-Cruelty Society$36,20080%
The Houston Food Bank$35,00010%
Edunations Inc$35,00041%
Park City Education Foundation$35,00021%
Coastal Bend Food Bank$35,0001n/a
Joeys Paw Inc$32,50074%
The Meadows School$30,00020%
Nami Southern Nevada$28,750212%
Israel Ideas Inc$25,000134%
American Friends of Yahad - in Unum Inc$25,00011%
Talk the New Sex Ed Inc$25,00057%
Americans for Oxford Inc$25,00010%
The Pittsburgh Promise Foundation$22,50030%
American Logistics Aid Network$20,00024%
Pittsburgh Jewish Publication & Education Foundation$20,00022%
Women's Law Project$20,00030%
Amatuer Hockey Assoc Illinois Inc$20,00040%
Planned Parenthood of Western Pa Inc$15,00020%
Travis Mills Foundation$15,00020%
East Union Presbyterian Church$15,0002n/a
Fun and Freedom Basketball Inc$15,00038%
West Deer Tech$13,0003n/a
Connoquenessing Valley Elementary PTO$12,5002n/a
Lancaster County Art Association$10,20026%
All Hands and Hearts Smart Response Inc$10,00010%
Vegas Golden Knights Alumni Association Inc$10,000111%
Orphans of the Storm Inc$10,00020%
Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana Inc$10,00010%
Jamie's Dream Team$10,00021%
Kidsvoice$10,00020%
Feeding the Carolinas$10,00010%
Dickinson College$10,00010%
Houston Humane Society$10,00010%
Caring Hearts Ministry Inc$10,00012%
Brother's Brother Foundation$10,00010%
Mountain Trails Foundation$10,00012%
Remember Me Rose Garden Inc$10,000110%
Central Catholic High School Inc$10,0001n/a
Florida Atlantic University Foundation Inc$9,60020%
Animal Friends Inc$7,50010%
Young Men and Women's Hebrew Association and Irene Kaufmann Cent$7,50010%
Invision Foundation$5,20011%
McKeesport Agape Center$5,00017%
Habitat for Humanity Allegheny Valley$5,00012%
No Dog Left Behind Inc$5,00012%
Paws Across Pittsburgh$5,00012%
Reid Landry Garrant Foundation Inc$5,000113%
Appalachian Work Camp Program Inc$5,00013%
Tzohar Arts$5,0001n/a
Senior Hearts Rescue and Renewal$5,0001n/a
West Deer EMS Inc$5,00010%
Shelters Helpers of Pittsburgh$5,0001n/a
Southern Poverty Law Center Inc$5,00010%
North Hills Community Outreach Inc$5,00010%
The Center for Reproductive Rights Inc$5,00010%
Bark Nation$5,0001n/a
American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches$5,00010%
Big Fluffy Dog Rescue$3,50010%
Ocean Conservancy$2,50010%
Speranza Animal Rescue Inc$2,50010%
Gettysburg College$1,50010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 56 recipients with no EIN on record ($21M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Shear Family Foundation Inc supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 2 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 109 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUniversity of Pittsburgh: $10,526,820 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetAmerican Friends of Leket Israel Inc: $4,558,000 over 8y, 8.3% of budgetJewish Family and Children's Service of Pittsburgh: $2,325,000 over 8y, 4.6% of budgetDuquesne University of the Holy Spirit: $1,850,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetChildren's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation: $1,800,000 over 8y, 0.7% of budgetAmerican Friends of Magen David Adom: $1,760,800 over 8y, 1.0% of budgetGreater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank: $1,552,500 over 7y, 0.4% of budgetFriends of Ir David Inc: $1,475,000 over 8y, 2.0% of budgetFoundation for the Defense of Democracies Inc: $1,369,200 over 8y, 1.1% of budgetGreater Chicago Food Depository: $1,156,300 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetOne Mind: $950,000 over 4y, 4.1% of budgetAmerican Friends of the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled: $875,500 over 8y, 5.5% of budgetThree Square: $865,000 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetPalm Beach County Food Bank Inc: $800,000 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetIntermountain Healthcare Foundation Inc: $527,818 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetBernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School: $519,500 over 4y, 1.6% of budgetThe Palm Beach Police and Fire Foundation Inc: $485,000 over 8y, 2.8% of budgetBig Brothers Big Sisters of Utah: $440,000 over 8y, 5.1% of budgetSecure Community Network Inc: $436,000 over 6y, 2.0% of budgetGrow Pittsburgh: $430,000 over 4y, 6.7% of budgetCentral Fund of Israel: $420,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetHealthnetwork Foundation Fka Health Net Foundation Inc: $415,000 over 8y, 0.8% of budgetEradicate Hate Global Summit: $400,000 over 2y, 9.4% of budgetAlzheimer's Disease Research Foundation: $250,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetWest Palm Beach Center for Arts & Technology Inc: $250,000 over 4y, 46% of budgetFriends of the Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism: $240,000 over 5y, 23% of budgetConnecting Champions: $226,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetIsrael Emergency Alliance: $225,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetSecond Harvest Food Bank Greater New Orleans and Acadiana: $225,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPeggy Adams Animal Rescue League of the Palm Beaches Inc: $190,000 over 8y, 0.3% of budgetSummit Land Conservancy: $175,000 over 4y, 1.0% of budgetNational Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression: $140,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetShalva Inc: $129,000 over 3y, 3.4% of budgetSoldiers Save Lives Corporation: $100,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetHuntsman Cancer Foundation: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCenter for Disaster Philanthropy Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetAlzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation: $100,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetIsrael Cancer Research Fund Inc: $99,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetNational Council of Jewish Women Pittsburgh Section: $95,500 over 5y, 2.6% of budgetNevada Medical Center Inc: $80,000 over 4y, 23% of budgetNorthern Israel Center for Arts and Technology Ltd: $70,000 over 2y, 4.4% of budgetFriendship Circle of Las Vegas Inc: $65,000 over 2y, 7.0% of budgetFood Bank of Central & Eastern Nc Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGladiolus Food Pantry Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetRiver City Food Bank: $50,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetCalifornia Fire Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetOpportunity Village Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budget412 Food Rescue Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 109.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Pittsburgh FoundationPA32.1× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Pittsburgh Foundation · Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh · Richard King Mellon Foundation · The Heinz Endowments · Eqt Foundation · Margaret Raphael Foundation · Hillman Family Foundations · The Grable Foundation · The Cigna Group Foundation · The Fine Foundation · Peter C Dozzi Family Foundation Aka Eugene Dozzi Charitable Foundation · The Burke Family 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.

Compare Shear Family Foundation Inc with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Shear Family Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to Shear Family 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.

About Shear Family Foundation Inc

How much does Shear Family Foundation Inc give?
Shear Family Foundation Inc reported 78 grants totaling $9,042,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 52 and 76 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does Shear Family Foundation Inc fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (23%), Health (19%), International (17%).
Who are Shear Family Foundation Inc's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: University of Pittsburgh ($11M), American Friends of Leket Israel Inc ($4.6M), Jewish Family and Children's Service of Pittsburgh ($2.3M).
Does Shear Family Foundation Inc fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 26% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Shear Family Foundation Inc accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Shear Family Foundation Inc?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Pittsburgh Foundation, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Where is Shear Family Foundation Inc based?
Shear Family Foundation Inc is based in PA.

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 188 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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