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Speed of Light - the Astro Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Speed of Light - the Astro Foundation

To bring the vision to reality, the foundation will accelerate bold and innovative ideas in radiation therapy.

$344k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$84k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Health$1.5MScience & Tech$459kEducation$243kYouth Development$30k
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k7 grants · $203k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $136k
$34,993
Median grant
7
States reached
$20M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY$83,880
BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HEALTH$52,000
BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE$45,917
TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA$37,312
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO$34,993
UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER$25,799
MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER$24,800
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES$24,545
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR RADIATION ONCOLOGY$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 79% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $50k → 16%TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $37k → 22%THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $25k → 14%MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: $49k → 9%NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: $25k → 17%ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: $24k → 28%UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER AT DALLAS: $38k → 14%MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: $64k → 16%BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HEALTH: $52k → 16%MAYO CLINIC: $33k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA OF BIRMINGHAM: $23k → 16%WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $84k → 11%THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN: $38k → 17%VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: $50k → 14%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $51k → 11%THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $36k → 13%THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $25k → 15%UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS OF CLEVELAND: $52k → 17%THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $56k → 14%OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: $24k → 7%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $131k → 19%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $29k → 16%THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-LOS ANGELES: $25k → 14%MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: $25k → 9%NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: $25k → 17%UNIVERSITY TX SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER DALLAS: $37k → 14%BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: $46k → 16%MAYO CLINIC: $33k → 14%THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN: $38k → 17%THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $36k → 13%THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $25k → 15%UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS OF CLEVELAND: $49k → 17%THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $28k → 14%OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: $24k → 7%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $75k → 19%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $25k → 16%MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: $24k → 9%UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER: $26k → 14%BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: $46k → 16%THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $28k → 14%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $45k → 19%BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $25k → 16%UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: $37k → 16%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: $44k → 19%MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL-RESEARCH FINANCE: $62k → 16%ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $39k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER: $24k → 16%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $25k → 19%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

MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
OH
NJ
CA
VA
MD
TN
NC
AL
TX
FL
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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.2M · 22 repeat orgs$317k to everyone else

22 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 16 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

22
5

Total granted

$2.2M
$181k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
+41%

Still filing today

36%
40%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $136k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthOther
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

  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    6× · 2017–2024 · $344k · revenue +64%
  • University of Chicago
    3× · 2019–2022 · $111k · revenue +25%
  • MM
    MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER
    3× · 2022–2025 · $97k · revenue +29%

Funded once

  • DUKE UNIVERSITYgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $51k · revenue +41%
  • VU
    Vanderbilt University Medical Centergraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $50k · revenue +110%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
    one grant, 2022 · $33k
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 Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
2
University of Minnesota Physicians

University of minnesota physicians serves as the integrated group practice for the university of minnesota medical school full-time faculty to provide the highest quality healthcare to patients and their families.university of minnesota…

Health
3
Rush University Medical Center

The mission of Rush is to improve the health of the individuals and diverse communities we serve through the integration of outstanding patient care, education, research and community partnerships.

Health
4
Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas jefferson university ("tju") is a comprehensive university with preeminence in transdisciplinary, experiential professional education, research and discovery, delivering exceptional value for the 21st century students with…

Education
5
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
6
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
7
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…

Health
8
University of Chicago Medical Center

Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…

Health
9
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
10
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
11
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
12
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred hutch cancer center ("fred hutch") unites innovative research and compassionate care to prevent and eliminate cancer and infectious disease. continued on schedule o

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Chicago; the most unlike its peers is Albert Einstein College of Medicine Inc. 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

13 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. 13 of the 30 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/13
Grantees still filing
11/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UTMD ANDERSON: $243,037 · OtherUTMD ANDERSONMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $158,406 · OtherMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDUNIVERSITY HOSPITALS HEALTH SYSTEM INC: $150,428 · OtherUNIVERSITY HOSPITALS HEALTH SYSTEM INCMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $128,820 · OtherMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTE: $101,013 · OtherTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTEAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR RADIATION ONCOLOGY: $90,000 · OtherAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR RADIATION ONCOLOGYUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO: $84,993 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCOUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $71,557 · OtherMAYO CLINIC: $66,968 · OtherUniversity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center: $52,000 · OtherTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $50,000 · OtherREGENTS UNIV OF CALIFORNIA: $50,000 · Other+7 more: $234,406 · Other+7 moreJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $343,908 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYUniversity of Chicago: $111,111 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoBaylor College of Medicine: $91,834 · EducationBaylor College of MedicineWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $83,880 · EducationWASHINGTON UNIVERSITYNew York University: $81,420 · EducationNew York UniversityTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC: $76,038 · EducationTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INCDUKE UNIVERSITY: $50,971 · EducationDUKE UNIVERSITYICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $50,000 · EducationICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAITRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $37,312 · EducationMONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: $97,135 · HealthVanderbilt University Medical Center: $50,000 · Health
Other$1,481,628Education$926,474Health$147,135

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

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $343,908 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $111,111 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER: $97,135 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBaylor College of Medicine: $91,834 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR RADIATION ONCOLOGY: $90,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $83,880 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNew York University: $81,420 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC: $76,038 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $50,971 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetVanderbilt University Medical Center: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $37,312 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE INC: $23,682 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.

  • Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds University of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds MONTEFIORE MEDICAL CENTER ↗
  • Who funds Baylor College of Medicine ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR RADIATION ONCOLOGY ↗
  • Who funds WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds New York University ↗
  • Who funds THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC ↗
  • Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI ↗
  • Who funds Vanderbilt University Medical Center ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
  • Who funds ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE INC ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get 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 Speed of Light - the Astro Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Speed of Light - the Astro 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 30 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 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 Speed of Light - the Astro’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