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Stephen A & Nina B Schafer Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Stephen A & Nina B Schafer Foundation

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.

$12k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
8
States reached
$4k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0188% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Religion$36kArts & Culture$30kInternational$9kEducation$6kEnvironment$1kPublic Benefit$1kCivil Rights$425Health$336Other$0
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000
Median grant
8
States reached
$395k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Congregation Beth Am$3,800
Free Library of Phila$1,500
Impact 100$1,250
St Thomas Hebrew Congregation$1,200
Friends of the Frost Place$1,000
Congregation Beth Emeth$1,000
HIAS$1,000
WHYY$500
National Resource Defense Council$100
Connecticut College$100
Individual grant recipient$100
Norwich Public Library$100
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 (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 17% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Congregation Beth Emeth: $2k → 10%Union of Concerned Scientists: $100 → 12%Theatre Ariel: $500 → 7%WHYY: $500 → 9%Ceasefire PA Education Fund: $500 → 22%Common Cause Education Fund: $1k → 14%Southern Poverty Law Center: $200 → 18%Connecticut College: $100 → 9%Virgilio Haiku Association: $100 → 12%Norwich Public Library: $100 → 9%Singerly Fire Co: $100 → 10%Congregation Beth Emeth: $1k → 10%Congregation Beth Or: $100 → 7%ArtWell: $500 → 22%Environmental Working Group: $1k → 14%Connecticut College: $100 → 9%Virgilio Haiku Association: $100 → 12%Singerly Fire Co: $100 → 10%The Frost Place: $7k → 10%Congregation Beth Emeth: $1k → 10%Impact 100: $2k → 7%ArtWell: $500 → 22%Academy of American Poets: $100 → 17%National Resource Defense Council: $100 → 14%The Frost Place: $6k → 10%Congregation Beth Emeth: $1k → 10%Impact 100: $1k → 7%ArtWell: $500 → 22%Joint Distribution Committee: $500 → 17%The Frost Place: $6k → 10%Congregation Beth Emeth: $1k → 10%Congregation Beth Am: $5k → 7%ArtWell: $500 → 22%ACLU Foundation: $200 → 17%Friends of the Frost Place: $1k → 10%Impact 100: $1k → 7%WHYY: $200 → 22%Congregation Beth Am: $5k → 7%Impact 100: $1k → 7%Free Library of Philadelphia: $3k → 22%Congregation Beth Am: $4k → 7%Free Library of Phila: $2k → 22%Impact 100: $1k → 7%Congregation Beth Am: $4k → 7%Impact 100: $1k → 7%Congregation Beth Am: $3k → 7%WHYY: $220 → 22%Congregation Beth Am: $1k → 7%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

VT
NH
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CT
CA
MD
DE
DC
AL
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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$84k · 18 repeat orgs$9k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +65% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.

18 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

18
21

Total granted

$84k
$8k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+65%
+14%

Still filing today

44%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthInternationalEnvironmentCivil RightsOther
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

  • AC
    Artwell Collaborative Inc
    4× · 2020–2024 · $2k · revenue +103%
  • WHYY INC
    3× · 2020–2025 · $920 · revenue +36%
  • CC
    CONNECTICUT COLLEGE
    6× · 2020–2025 · $600 · revenue +22%

Funded once

  • FL
    FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $3k · revenue +11%
  • EW
    ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
    one grant, 2024 · $1k · revenue -25%
  • CC
    COMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUNDgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $1k · revenue +100%
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
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
2
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
3
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
4
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
5
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
6
American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Founded in 1780, the american academy of arts and sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together "to…

Social Science
7
Boston Architectural College

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

—
8
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education
9
American Jewish Committee

AJC's mission is to enhance the wellbeing of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. In pursuit of this mission, AJC advances democratic principles, fights…

Civil Rights
10
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
11
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
12
Sarah Lawrence College

At sarah lawrence college, our mission is to graduate citizens of the world who are diverse in every definition of the word, who take intellectual and creative risks, and who are able to focus exceptional intellectual discipline (continued…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Theatre Ariel. 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

25 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. 25 of the 44 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)
25/25
Grantees still filing
20/25
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Congregation Beth Am: $21,706 · OtherCongregation Beth AmThe Frost Place: $18,500 · OtherThe Frost PlaceImpact 100: $8,250 · OtherImpact 100St Thomas Hebrew Congregation: $7,254 · OtherSt Thomas Hebrew CongregationCONGREGATION BETH EMETH: $6,312 · OtherCONGREGATION BETH EMETHFree Library of Phila: $6,000 · OtherFree Library of PhilaFREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: $3,000 · Other+19 more: $4,412 · Other+19 moreHIAS INC: $8,500 · InternationalHIAS INCThe American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc: $500 · InternationalThe America…+1 more: $100 · InternationalArtwell Collaborative Inc: $2,000 · EducationCONNECTICUT COLLEGE: $600 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $150 · EducationMIGHTY WRITERS: $100 · Education+1 more: $36 · EducationFriends of the Frost Place Inc: $1,000 · Arts & CultureWHYY INC: $920 · Arts & CultureTheatre Ariel: $500 · Arts & CultureTHE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS INC: $200 · Arts & CultureTINY DYNAMITE INC: $150 · Arts & Culture+1 more: $18 · Arts & CultureENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP: $1,000 · EnvironmentENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $175 · EnvironmentCOMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUND: $1,000 · Public BenefitAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $225 · Civil Rights
Other$75,434International$9,100Education$2,886Arts & Culture$2,788Environment$1,175Public Benefit$1,000Civil Rights$225

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 budgetHIAS INC: $8,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetFREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetArtwell Collaborative Inc: $2,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUND: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWHYY INC: $920 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCONNECTICUT COLLEGE: $600 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $225 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS INC: $200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $175 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $150 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTINY DYNAMITE INC: $150 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLANKENAU MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMIGHTY WRITERS: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCORPORATION OF HAVERFORD COLLEGE: $36 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLSB LEAKEY FDTN FOR RESEARCH RELATED TO HUMAN ORIGINS BEHAVIOR AND SURVIVAL: $36 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Association for Cancer Research Inc: $18 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMain Line Art Center: $18 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOLORECTAL CANCER ALLIANCE: $18 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.

Vanguard Charitable E…National Philanthropi…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Vanguard Charitable Endowment ProgramPA8.5× affinity6 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Stephen A & Nina B Schafer Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Stephen A & Nina B Schafer Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 88%
  • Hias Inc: 88% of income from government
  • Connecticut College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
2report 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.

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 44 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 Stephen A & Nina B Schafer’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