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Smilow Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Smilow Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$7.4M
Granted FY2024still arriving
18
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$3.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0196% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Environment$6.0MEducation$3.3MHealth$2.5MArts & Culture$339kYouth Development$322kHousing & Shelter$108kReligion$80kHuman Services$69kOther$0
02FY2024 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k7 grants · $35k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $88k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $237k
  • $250k+3 grants · $7.0M
$12,500
Median grant
8
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE COBBS CREEK RESTORATION & COMMUNITY$3,000,000
YALE UNIVERSITY$2,020,000
NORWALK HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC$2,000,000
BRIDGEPORT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC$100,000
WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE$76,800
WETA$60,000
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA$35,000
FREDERICK GUNN SCHOOL$20,000
ASPEN INSTITUTE$12,500
THE EAST LAKE FOUNDATION$10,000
BROWN UNIVERSITY$10,000
EARTHPLACE$7,500
TEMPLE ISRAEL$7,000
JACKSON HOLE ONE FLY FOUNDATION$5,000
AMERICA'S VETDOGS$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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–18, $120k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 16% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Bridgeport Rescue Mission: $75k → 9%Bridgeport Rescue Mission: $25k → 9%Hidden Harvest: $1k → 11%Fairfield County Hospice House: $500 → 9%JOIN Israel: $18k → 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.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
MN
IL
NY
MA
WY
IA
PA
CT
RI
CA
MO
KY
VA
MD
TN
NC
DC
HI
GA
TX
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.

24%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.1M · 39 repeat orgs$9.6M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +43% since the first grant, against +36% for those funded once.

39 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2024, 31 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

39
60

Total granted

$3.1M
$4.6M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+43%
+36%

Still filing today

67%
70%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 31% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5.0M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureHealthYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesEnvironmentOther
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

  • BH
    BRIDGEPORT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2020–2024 · $175k · revenue +43%
  • BR
    BRIDGEPORT RESCUE MISSION INC
    2× · 2017–2018 · $100k · revenue +66%
  • SMILE TRAIN INC
    3× · 2017–2019 · $75k · revenue +19%

Funded once

  • TC
    THE COBBS CREEK RESTORATION AND
    one grant, 2022 · $3.0M
  • GREAT OAKS CHARTER SCHOOL - BRIDGEPORTgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $1.0M · revenue +74%
  • MS
    Madison Square Boys & Girls Clubgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $250k · revenue +31%
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
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
2
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
3
Stony Brook Urology University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
4
Neurology Associates of Stony Brook University Faculty Practice Corp

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
5
Stony Brook Surgical Associates University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
6
Stony Brook Internists University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
7
Stony Brook Ophthalmology University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
8
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
9
Boston Architectural College

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

—
10
Stony Brook Orthopedic Associates University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
11
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
12
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Frederick Gunn School Inc; the most unlike its peers is Orpheum Theatre Preservation Projectltd. 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

77 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. 77 of the 110 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)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
77/77
Grantees still filing
61/77
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE COBBS CREEK RESTORATION & COMMUNITY: $3,000,000 · OtherTHE COBBS CREEK RESTORATION & COMMUNITYTHE COBBS CREEK RESTORATION AND: $3,000,000 · OtherTHE COBBS CREEK RESTORATION ANDYALE UNIVERSITY: $2,021,000 · OtherYALE UNIVERSITY+59 more: $651,445 · Other+59 moreNorwalk Hospital Foundation: $2,000,000 · HealthNorwalk Hospital Fo…BRIDGEPORT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $175,000 · HealthBRIDGEPORT HOSPITAL…+9 more: $21,000 · HealthGREAT OAKS CHARTER SCHOOL - BRIDGEPORT: $1,000,000 · EducationGREAT OAKS…TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $65,000 · EducationTRUSTEES O…THE FREDERICK GUNN SCHOOL INC: $45,000 · Education+11 more: $82,800 · Education+11 moreMadison Square Boys & Girls Club: $250,000 · Youth DevelopmentBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE LOWER NAUGATUCK VALLEY: $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF COACHELLA VALLEY: $13,000 · Youth Development+2 more: $2,000 · Youth DevelopmentWESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE INC: $96,800 · Arts & CultureGREATER WASHINGTON EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION INC: $70,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: $50,000 · Arts & CultureTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $27,500 · Arts & CultureTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $12,500 · Arts & Culture+7 more: $15,500 · Arts & CultureBRIDGEPORT RESCUE MISSION INC: $100,000 · Human ServicesJOIN ISRAEL INC: $18,000 · Human ServicesHomes With Hope Inc: $6,000 · Human Services+2 more: $1,500 · Human ServicesBROWN UNIVERSITY: $20,000 · Community Improvement
Other$8,672,445Health$2,196,000Education$1,192,800Youth Development$315,000Arts & Culture$272,300Human Services$125,500Community Improvement$20,000

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 budgetNorwalk Hospital Foundation: $2,000,000 over 1y, 15% of budgetGREAT OAKS CHARTER SCHOOL - BRIDGEPORT: $1,000,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetMadison Square Boys & Girls Club: $250,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetBRIDGEPORT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC: $175,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetBRIDGEPORT RESCUE MISSION INC: $100,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetWESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE INC: $96,800 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetSMILE TRAIN INC: $75,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER WASHINGTON EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION INC: $70,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $65,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE LOWER NAUGATUCK VALLEY: $50,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetTHE FREDERICK GUNN SCHOOL INC: $45,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $27,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: $25,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJOIN ISRAEL INC: $18,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetEisenhower Medical Center: $15,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetEAST LAKE FOUNDATIONINC: $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetFairfield University: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF COACHELLA VALLEY: $13,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $12,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $12,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICA'S VETDOGS THE VETERANS K-9 CORPS INC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLake Forest College: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $8,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MAD FOUNDATION INC: $8,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetEARTHPLACE INC: $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetINSTRUCTION PARTNERS: $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHomes With Hope Inc: $6,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetBUCKLEY INSTITUTE INC: $5,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetASPETUCK LAND TRUST: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetJACKSON HOLE ONE FLY FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetHOMES WITH HOPE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPALM SPRINGS FRIENDS OF PHILHARMONIC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetASSOCIATION OF THE GRADUATES OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY: $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetAFRICAN PARKS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDESERT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $2,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $2,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS INC: $2,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Yellow Tulip Project: $2,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetTHE OPEN DOOR SHELTER INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $2,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC: $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetA BETTER CHANCE OF WESTPORT INC: $1,500 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetMETROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL DANCE INSTITUTE: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM: $1,000 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.

Fairfield County's Co…Newman's Own Foundati…The Stewart & Constan…The James & Mary Elle…The Bessemer Giving F…Fox Family Charitable…Howard & Katherine Ai…FjcJewish Communal FundIbm International Fou…The Lundberg Family F…The Gendell Family Fo…
Fairfield County's Community Foundation IncCT26.5× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fairfield County's Community Foundation Inc · Newman's Own Foundation · The Stewart & Constance Greenfield Foundation · The James & Mary Ellen Marpe Family Foundation · The Bessemer Giving Fund · Fox Family Charitable Foundation Inc · Howard & Katherine Aibel Foundation · Fjc · Jewish Communal Fund · Ibm International Foundation · The Lundberg Family Foundation · The Gendell Family Foundation Inc

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 90%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 15%
  • Great Oaks Charter School - Bridgeport: 93% of income from government
  • Special Olympics Connecticut Inc: 42% of income from government
  • Homes With Hope: 28% of income from government
  • Aspetuck Land Trust: 28% of income from government
  • Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley: 19% of income from government
  • Doc Wayne Inc: 15% of income from government
  • The Open Door Shelter Inc: 14% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • Connecticut Foodshare Inc: 5% of income from government
  • Westport Country Playhouse Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Fairfield University: 1% of income from government
  • Greenwich Hospital: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
9get no government money at all
13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
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 Smilow Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Smilow 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 110 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

Play a game based on Smilow’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