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· Private foundation

Shirley Charitable 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.

$14k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$9k
Largest
01What it funds
0178% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Human Services$11kPublic Benefit$4kEducation$3kInternational$2kRecreation & Sports$2kArts & Culture$1kCommunity Improvement$750Food & Nutrition$250Other$0
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$875
Median grant
1
States reached
$246k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$9,200
FRIENDS OF HAZEN LIBRARY$1,600
SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE$1,000
SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING$875
Individual grant recipient$500
Individual grant recipient$475
ASRHS DRAMA CLUB$100
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 6%GARDNERS EXCHANGE - AMANDA SLOAN: $225 → 7%AYER ROTARY CLUB: $2k → 8%ASRHS DRAMA CLUB: $100 → 8%SUMMER IN SHIRLEY: $9k → 8%SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING: $4k → 8%SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING SHIRLEY SENIOR CENTER: $3k → 8%SHIRLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT: $2k → 8%SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT): $2k → 8%TOWN OF SHIRLEY (VETERAN'S GRANT): $2k → 8%FRIENDS OF HAZEN LIBRARY: $2k → 8%SHIRLEY HAZEN LIBRARY: $2k → 8%TOWN OF SHIRLEY: $1k → 8%SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE: $1k → 8%SHIRLEY ARTS: $900 → 8%SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING: $875 → 8%SHIRLEY FAB FIVE VENTURE PROGRAM: $750 → 8%HOLDENWOOD TRAIL RUN: $500 → 8%HOLDENWOOD TRAIL RUN GRANT: $500 → 8%TOWN OF SHIRLEY (VETERAN'S GRANT): $500 → 8%SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT): $500 → 8%HOLDENWOOD TRAIL RUN GRANT: $500 → 8%HOLDENWOOD TRAIL RUN GRANT: $500 → 8%SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT): $500 → 8%SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT): $500 → 8%SHIRLEY GARDNERS EXCHANGE: $475 → 8%SHIRLEY GARDENERS EXCHANGE: $250 → 8%GARDNERS EXCHANGE - CLAUDIA THOMPSON: $475 → 8%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.

32%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$12k · 4 repeat orgs$25k to everyone else

4 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
10

Total granted

$12k
$12k

Still filing today

0%
20%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 6% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $13k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time
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

  • SC
    SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING
    2× · 2023–2024 · $4k
  • SM
    SHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT)
    4× · 2020–2023 · $4k
  • TO
    TOWN OF SHIRLEY (VETERAN'S GRANT)
    2× · 2021–2022 · $2k

Funded once

  • SC
    SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING SHIRLEY SENIOR CENTER
    one grant, 2021 · $3k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2022 · $2k
  • RI
    ROTARY INTERNATIONAL AYER ROTARY CLUB Igraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $2k · revenue +169%
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
04the grantee network

2 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2020–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2020 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 2 of the 20 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
2/2
Grantees still filing
1/2
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Individual grant recipient: $9,200 · OtherIndividual grant recipientSHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING: $4,375 · OtherSHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGINGSHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT): $3,579 · OtherSHIRLEY MEETINGHOUSE (VESPER GRANT)SHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING SHIRLEY SENIOR CENTER: $2,500 · OtherSHIRLEY COUNCIL ON AGING SHIRLEY SENIOR CENTERTOWN OF SHIRLEY (VETERAN'S GRANT): $2,300 · OtherTOWN OF SHIRLEY (VETERAN'S GRANT)Individual grant recipient: $2,200 · OtherIndividual grant recipientROTARY INTERNATIONAL AYER ROTARY CLUB I: $2,000 · OtherROTARY INTERNATIONAL AYER ROTARY CLUB IFRIENDS OF HAZEN LIBRARY: $1,600 · OtherSHIRLEY HAZEN LIBRARY: $1,550 · OtherHOLDENWOOD TRAIL RUN GRANT: $1,500 · OtherTOWN OF SHIRLEY: $1,265 · Other+8 more: $3,775 · Other+8 moreSHIRLEY ARTS INC: $900 · Arts & Culture
Other$35,844Arts & Culture$900

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

25%50%75%100%grantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetROTARY INTERNATIONAL AYER ROTARY CLUB I: $2,000 over 1y, 8.4% of budgetSHIRLEY ARTS INC: $900 over 1y, 2.8% 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 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL AYER ROTARY CLUB I ↗
  • Who funds SHIRLEY ARTS INC ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 Shirley Charitable Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Shirley Charitable 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 20 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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