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Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust

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.

$29k
Granted FY2023
11
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

78% of Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust’s FY2024 grant dollars went to President And Fellows Of Harvard College, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $29k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

6
’17
4
’18
5
’19
11
’20
12
’21
5
’22
6
’23
0
’24

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

01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Youth Development$163kScience & Tech$116kArts & Culture$67kEducation$32kHealth$30kPhilanthropy$17kFood & Nutrition$3kHuman Services$2kOther$0
02FY2023 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k10 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$2,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$99k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NEW BEDFORD LIGHT$10,000
DANA FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE$5,000
ACE MENTOR PROGRAM GREATER BOSTON$2,500
THE JOEY FUND$2,500
HARVARD UNIVERSITY$2,500
COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES$2,000
WBUR$1,500
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$1,000
BOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS$1,000
CONN AUDUBON SOCIETY$1,000
DARTMOUTH CULTURAL CENTER$300
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 (FY17–23, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%BOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS: $1k → 16%BOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS: $500 → 16%COMMUNITY SERVINGS INC: $1k → 16%COMMUNITY SERVINGS INC: $1k → 16%COMMUNITY SERVINGS INC: $500 → 16%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
NY
MA
WY
CT
RI
MD
DC
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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$302k · 20 repeat orgs$19k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +49% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.

20 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2023, 14 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

20
19

Total granted

$302k
$14k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+49%
+18%

Still filing today

55%
68%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k 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
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesHealthCivil RightsRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • HUNTINGTON THEATRE CO INC
    5× · 2017–2022 · $38k · revenue +139%
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc
    4× · 2017–2023 · $16k · revenue +162%
  • NB
    NEW BEDFORD LIGHT
    2× · 2021–2023 · $15k · revenue +99%

Funded once

  • BF
    BANKS FUND BW HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2021 · $2k
  • NH
    NE HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIET
    one grant, 2019 · $1k
  • NH
    NICHOLS HOUSE MUSEUM INC
    one grant, 2021 · $1k · revenue +18%
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
Boston Architectural College

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

—
2
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
3
New England Lawboston

New england law/boston dedicates itself to preparing students to be successful lawyers and leaders in the public and private sectors through integrated practical, theoretical and ethical education of the highest caliber and to contributing…

Education
4
Wheaton College

Wheaton college provides a transformative liberal arts education, combining theory and practice, for intellectually curious students within a collaborative and vibrant extended community and network that values and strives to create an…

Education
5
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

—
6
Trustees of Boston College

Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…

Education
7
Buckingham Browne & Nichols School

Bb&n, an all gender day school in cambridge, massachusetts, was established in 1974 by the merger of two independent schools, the buckingham school and the browne & nichols school, founded respectively in 1889 and 1883. located on multiple…

Education
8
Boston Public Library Fund Inc

The boston public library fund provides financial support to the boston public library (bpl), ensuring that it remains viable, engaging, accessible, and free to all. the library fund fulfills this mission by working in partnership with…

Education
9
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
10
Dean College

Dean college is a private, residential new england college grounded in a culture and tradition that all students deserve the opportunity to discover and exceed their greatest aspirations. a personal and transformative community since 1865,…

Education
11
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is West End House Inc; the most unlike its peers is Rocky Mountain Aid Foundation. 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

28 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. 28 of the 45 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
28/28
Grantees still filing
20/28
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BOYS GIRLS CLUB: $155,000 · OtherBOYS GIRLS CLUBTHE JOEY FUND: $15,000 · OtherTHE JOEY FUNDBRIMMER MAY SCHOOL: $10,000 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $9,000 · Other+20 more: $39,825 · Other+20 morePresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $116,100 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard …THE WHEELER SCHOOL: $7,000 · EducationTHE WHEELER SCHOOL+6 more: $6,300 · EducationHUNTINGTON THEATRE CO INC: $38,000 · Arts & CultureHUNTINGTON THE…NEW BEDFORD LIGHT: $15,000 · Arts & CultureNEW BEDFORD LI…+5 more: $3,300 · Arts & Culture+5 moreDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $16,000 · HealthCOMMUNITY SERVINGS INC: $2,500 · Human ServicesBOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS PROGRAM INC: $1,500 · Human ServicesCombined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc: $2,000 · PhilanthropyPREPARATORY FOUNDATION INC: $500 · PhilanthropyBEACON HILL CIVIC ASSOCIATION INC: $1,350 · Community Improvement
Other$228,825Education$129,400Arts & Culture$56,300Health$16,000Human Services$4,000Philanthropy$2,500Community Improvement$1,350

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $116,100 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetHUNTINGTON THEATRE CO INC: $38,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $16,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNEW BEDFORD LIGHT: $15,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $9,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WHEELER SCHOOL: $7,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY SERVINGS INC: $2,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE AUTHORS GUILD FOUNDATION INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCombined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBROOKLINE EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetOUR SISTERS SCHOOL: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS PROGRAM INC: $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBEACON HILL CIVIC ASSOCIATION INC: $1,350 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetNICHOLS HOUSE MUSEUM INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN AID FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetGeorge Stevens Academy: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUSS CONSTITUTION MUSEUM INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROJECT CITIZENSHIP INC: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWEST END HOUSE INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPREPARATORY FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE LOBKOWICZ COLLECTIONS INC: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLATHAM CENTERS INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALMA DEL MAR FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEMERSON COLLEGE: $300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDARTMOUTH CULTURAL CENTER INC: $300 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBUZZARDS BAY COALITION: $300 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.

Highland Street Conne…Boston Foundation IncCombined Jewish Phila…Fidelity FoundationEastern Bank Foundati…Grayson Family Founda…The Cabot Family Char…The Bank of America C…Vanguard Charitable E…National Philanthropi…The Pfizer Foundation…American Endowment Fo…
Highland Street Connection and SubsidiariesMA23.9× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Highland Street Connection and Subsidiaries · Boston Foundation Inc · Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · Fidelity Foundation · Eastern Bank Foundation · Grayson Family Foundation · The Cabot Family Charitable Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation

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 Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 70%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Latham Centers Inc: 39% of income from government
  • Buzzards Bay Coalition: 37% of income from government
  • Uss Constitution Museum Inc: 17% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Community Servings Inc: 12% of income from government
  • Project Citizenship Inc: 10% of income from government
  • Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Inc: 8% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Huntington Theatre Co Inc: 4% of income from government
  • West End House Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Boston Book Festival Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Our Sisters School: 0% of income from government
  • Emerson College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
3report 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 Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust?

Find your warmest path to Spooner John and Susan Charitable Trust 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 45 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Spooner John and Susan’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