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Simple Paradox Union at a glance

· Private foundation

Simple Paradox Union

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.

$144k
Granted FY2025still arriving
17
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$117k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

81% of Simple Paradox Union’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 16 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.

Organizations named directly on the return

4
’22
17
’23
15
’24
16
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2025.

Philanthropy$269kArts & Culture$47kFood & Nutrition$13kInternational$10kRecreation & Sports$9kCommunity Improvement$8kEducation$6kPublic Safety & Disaster$6kOther$0
02FY2025 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k15 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $13k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $117k
$1,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$2.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND$117,000
GOGGLE WORKS$13,000
NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION$4,000
HELPING HARVEST FRESH FOOD BANK$3,000
WESTERN BERKS AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION$1,000
MONTALVO ASSOCIATION$1,000
CONSUMER REPORTS INC$1,000
WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC$1,000
WYOMISSING PUBLIC LIBRARY$1,000
HOLLISTON PANTRY SHELF INC$500
SECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY$500
FRIENDS OF THE SARATOGA LIBRARIES$500
CLOUD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY$200
NATIONAL ORPHAN TRAIN COMPLEX INC$200
ST ANDREWS EPISCOPAL CHURCH$200
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:

Its human-services grants (FY23–23, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%THE COMMUNITY HOSPICE INC: $200 → 14%AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS: $1k → 14%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.

Which US states its grants reach

NY
MA
OH
PA
CA
VA
MD
KS
DC
LA
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 9% of Simple Paradox Union’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Simple Paradox Unionlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 3.7% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

64%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$68k · 12 repeat orgs$39k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +14% since the first grant, against +8% for those funded once.

12 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
14

Total granted

$68k
$33k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
+8%

Still filing today

83%
71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationInternationalHealthHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterOther
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

  • HH
    HELPING HARVEST FRESH FOOD BANK
    3× · 2023–2025 · $8k · revenue +194%
  • WF
    WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $4k · revenue +14%
  • WP
    WYOMISSING PUBLIC LIBRARY
    3× · 2023–2025 · $3k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $8k
  • WR
    WEST READING COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2024 · $8k · revenue 0%
  • CR
    CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
    one grant, 2022 · $4k
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
The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations

The mission of the new york public library is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.

Education
2
The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia

The rosenbach museum & library is a community that engages with and celebrates the art of the written word using our collection of rare books and manuscripts.

Arts & Culture
3
Monterey Museum of Art

The monterey museum of art cultivates curiosity in the visual arts and engages community with the diversity of california art - past, present, and future.

Arts & Culture
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
Public Library of Science

Please see schedule o for complete description of the organization's mission.

Science & Tech
6
Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston

The Boston Public Library provides educational and cultural enrichment free to all by engaging the public through programming and active spaces, restoring and preserving our history, providing access to borrow from our vast collection of…

Education
7
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
8
National Public Radio Inc

National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…

Arts & Culture
9
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank

Our mission is to solve hunger in central pennsylvania by ensuring that everyone struggling with hunger has access to enough wholesome food every day. we will achieve this bold goal with the help of our generous donors, volunteers and…

Food & Nutrition
10
Western Allegheny Community Library

The mission of the western allegheny community library is to provide a safe, inclusive and accessible community-centered library that is free to the public and empowers its residents personal, educational and professional growth through…

—
11
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech
12
The Trustees of the New York Society Library

The new york society library was founded in 1754 by the new york society, a civic-minded group formed in the belief that the availability of books would help the city of new york to prosper.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank; the most unlike its peers is San Jose Museum of Art Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

27 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. 27 of the 33 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)
27/27
Grantees still filing
13/27
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $269,000 · Community ImprovementFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND+1 more: $7,500 · Community ImprovementGOGGLE WORKS: $39,000 · Arts & CultureGOGGLE WORKSMONTALVO ASSOCIATION: $4,500 · Arts & CultureMONTALVO ASSO…+3 more: $1,400 · Arts & CultureHELPING HARVEST FRESH FOOD BANK: $7,500 · OtherHELPING HAR…Individual grant recipient: $7,500 · OtherIndividual …CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: $4,000 · OtherCATHOLIC RE…MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC - DOCTORS WITHOUT: $4,000 · OtherMEDECINS SA…NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION: $4,000 · OtherNATIONAL PA…WYOMISSING PUBLIC LIBRARY: $2,500 · OtherWYOMISSING …FRIENDS OF THE SARATOGA LIBRARIES: $2,000 · OtherST ANDREWS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $1,500 · OtherCONSUMER REPORTS INC: $1,500 · Other+10 more: $5,000 · Other+10 moreINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: $4,000 · InternationalOperation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation: $1,000 · InternationalSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $4,500 · Food & NutritionWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC: $4,000 · EducationMORRIS JEFF COMMUNITY SCHOOL: $250 · EducationAMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS ASSN: $1,000 · HealthSYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY FOUNDATION: $1,000 · Health
Community Improvement$276,500Arts & Culture$44,900Other$39,500International$5,000Food & Nutrition$4,500Education$4,250Health$2,000

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 budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $269,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGOGGLE WORKS: $39,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetHELPING HARVEST FRESH FOOD BANK: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWEST READING COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION FOUNDATION: $7,500 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetMONTALVO ASSOCIATION: $4,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $4,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC: $4,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWYOMISSING PUBLIC LIBRARY: $2,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE SARATOGA LIBRARIES: $2,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetCONSUMER REPORTS INC: $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetOperation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS ASSN: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART ASSOCIATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSYRIAN AMERICAN MEDICAL SOCIETY FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOLLISTON PANTRY SHELFINC: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPENNSYLVANIA PARKS AND FORESTS FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMORRIS JEFF COMMUNITY SCHOOL: $250 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCLOUD COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $200 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMORAVIAN VILLAGE OF BETHLEHEM: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE COMMUNITY HOSPICE INC: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL ORPHAN TRAIN COMPLEX INC: $200 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCHILDREN'S ALOPECIA PROJECT: $200 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMuhlenberg Community Library: $200 over 2y, 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.

Berks County Communit…The Wyomissing Founda…Ge Aerospace Foundati…Verizon FoundationThe Bank of America C…The Pfizer Foundation…The Blackbaud Giving …Vanguard Charitable E…American Endowment Fo…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Network for Good
Berks County Community Foundation IncPA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Berks County Community Foundation Inc · The Wyomissing Foundation Inc · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Verizon Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Network for Good

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 Simple Paradox Union funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Simple Paradox Union. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    12report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    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 Simple Paradox Union?

    Find your warmest path to Simple Paradox Union 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 33 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 Simple Paradox Union’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