· Private foundation
Simple Gifts Fund
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NUSANTARA ARTS | $6,500 |
| GRASSROOTS GARDENS WNY | $6,000 |
| MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE PROGRAM | $6,000 |
| TUPPER ARTS CENTER | $5,000 |
| PILGRIM ST LUKES CHURCH | $5,000 |
| BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA | $3,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
| OUR CITY BUFFALO | $2,500 |
| ASSEMBLY HOUSE 150 | $2,500 |
| JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF WNY | $2,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
| ADIRONDACK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $2,500 |
| ADIRONDAK SKY CENTER & OBSERVATORY | $2,000 |
| GIRLS EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE | $2,000 |
| BCAT | $1,500 |
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 (FY17–25, $52k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 13% of Simple Gifts Fund’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 98% of the giving stays in NY; by stated purpose, 94%.
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 +50% since the first grant, against +29% for those funded once.
68 repeat relationships: 17 still active in FY2025, 51 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $27k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- YAYOUNG AUDIENCES OF WESTERN NEW YORK INC D/B/A ARTS FOR LEARNING WNY5× · 2017–2021 · $41k · revenue +38%
- MAMassachusetts Avenue Project Inc5× · 2017–2021 · $27k · revenue +90%
PRESERVATION BUFFALO NIAGARA5× · 2017–2023 · $24k · revenue +59%
Funded once
- GGGRASSROOTS GARDEN WNYone grant, 2017 · $8k
- WWEDIone grant, 2017 · $8k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2019 · $7k
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.
The Buffalo Institiute for Contemporary Art (Bica) is a art and educational project for Buffalo, NY. Through Innovative exhibitions, cross-discipplinary skills-based programming, and arts ecology development, bica mission is to break down…
Invest buffalo niagara foundation, inc. is a vehicle to solicit charitable contributions to develop programs, collaborate with, and provide funding to organizations that advance and encourage economic development in western new york.
To acquire, remediate, and steward lands along wny's waterfronts prioritizing public access.
The legal aid bureau of buffalo, inc., a not-for-profit organization, provides legal representation to financially needy men, women and children in western new york. through its skilled staff, the legal aid bureau seeks equal justice for…
The organization was formed for the specific purpose of operating, maintaining and protecting parks and public spaces in the city of buffalo, new york, including but not limited to parks and public spaces owned or operated by the city of…
The buffalo erie niagara land improvement corporation (benlic) seeks to confront and alleviate the problems distressed properties cause to communities by supporting municipal and regional revitalization efforts and strategically acquiring,…
Artpark & company fosters a transformative world of artistic engagement that explores the human experience, cultivates creativity, and encourages curiosity. our work is informed by a long tradition of discovery, an expectation of artistic…
The lipsey architecture center buffalo (the center) explores excellence in architecture and city planning as demonstrated by buffalo's outstanding architectural heritage. located in the richardson olmstead complex, the center will provide…
To attract new employers to the buffalo niagara region through outreach to growing companies around the world. to support business attraction, expansion and entrepreneurship, invest buffalo niagara collaborates with local businesses,…
CNY Arts' mission is to promote, support, and celebrate arts and culture in Central New York.
We envision a community that uses film & digital media to celebrate freedom of expression and to continue a legacy of innovation in media arts through education, exhibitions, and equipment access programs.
To foster a better quality of life in buffalo and the western new york region.
How this is measured
68 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 68 of the 123 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.
- Who funds ADIRONDACK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YOUNG AUDIENCES OF WESTERN NEW YORK INC D/B/A ARTS FOR LEARNING WNY ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Avenue Project Inc ↗
- Who funds PRESERVATION BUFFALO NIAGARA ↗
- Who funds Torn Space Theater Inc ↗
- Who funds NUSANTARA ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds GIRLS EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO ARTS STUDIO ↗
- Who funds VIA VISUALLY IMPAIRED ADVANCEMENT ↗
- Who funds THE PARK SCHOOL OF BUFFALO ↗
- Who funds LOCUST STREET NEIGHBORHOOD ART CLASSES INC ↗
- Who funds JUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds INVESTIGATIVE POST INC ↗
- Who funds ASSEMBLY HOUSE 150 INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds STITCH BUFFALO INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds HALLWALLS INC ↗
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: Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · The Western New York Foundation · The Baird Foundation · The Frank G Raichle Foundation · The John R Oishei Foundation · First Niagara Foundation · James H Cummings Foundation Inc · Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc · Children's Foundation of Erie County Inc · The Richard W Rupp Foundation · The Margaret L Wendt Foundation · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Simple Gifts Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Simple Gifts Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
- Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
- Oxfam-America Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Simple Gifts’ filings →