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Stephen M Ross Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Stephen M Ross Foundation

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.

$396k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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.

Health$31MEnvironment$27MEducation$6.2MArts & Culture$2.0MRecreation & Sports$1.3MHousing & Shelter$25kInternational$1kOther$0
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k6 grants · $146k
  • $250k+1 grant · $250k
$25,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$12M
Total assets

Anchored by a single position: about 93% of reported assets are held in Tory Burch Llc.

Largest grants
RecipientAmount
REDE DE CATADORES DE RESIDUOS SOLIDOS$250,000
THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1$31,603
INST DE LA VIVIENDA DE LA CABA$25,000
Individual grant recipient$25,000
CLIMATE AGENCY OF THE OSLO$25,000
TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND$25,000
THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1$14,811
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%BOSTON ARCHITECTURAL COLLEGE: $10k → 16%CORNELL UNIVERSITY: $3.0M → 16%THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1: $34k → 17%WORLD RESOURCE INSTITUTE: $21.1M → 14%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $10.8M → 14%BOSTON ARCHITECTURAL COLLEGE: $5k → 16%CORNELL UNIVERSITY: $3.0M → 16%THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1: $32k → 17%WORLD RESOURCE INSTITUTE: $5.3M → 14%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $10.8M → 14%BOSTON ARCHITECTURAL COLLEGE: $5k → 16%THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1: $21k → 17%THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1: $19k → 17%THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1: $17k → 17%THRU TORY BURCH LLC K-1: $15k → 17%AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM: $1k → 17%BANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION: $15k → 17%LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $2.0M → 17%THE NEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION: $6.3M → 17%THE NEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION: $2.0M → 17%ROSS INITIATIVE IN SPORTS FOR EQUALITY INC: $1.3M → 17%THE NEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION: $1.0M → 17%JACKIE ROBINSON FOUNDATION: $50k → 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.
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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$63M · 6 repeat orgs$3.7M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +46% since the first grant, against +31% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
5

Total granted

$63M
$3.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+46%
+31%

Still filing today

83%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 12% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $350k 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
InternationalEducationHealthArts & CultureRecreation & SportsEnvironmentOther
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

  • WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE
    2× · 2017–2023 · $26M · revenue +128%
  • UO
    University of Michigan
    2× · 2019–2023 · $22M · revenue +140%
  • Cornell University
    2× · 2020–2023 · $6.0M · revenue +46%

Funded once

  • LC
    LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC
    one grant, 2023 · $2.0M · revenue 0%
  • RI
    Ross Initiative in Sports for Equalitygraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $1.3M · revenue +35% · 30% of their budget
  • JR
    JACKIE ROBINSON FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2018 · $50k · revenue -13%
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
New York School of Interior Design

New york school of interior design provides the most innovative, immersive, and transformative interior design education in the world, demonstrating the impact of professionally designed interiors on the health, happiness, and well-being…

Education
3
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
4
Wilson College

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

Education
5
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.

—
6
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
7
Manhattan University

Manhattan university is an independent catholic instituion of higher learning that embraces qualified men and women of all faiths, cultures, and traditions. the mission of manhattan university is to provide a contemporary, person-centered…

Education
8
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
9
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
10
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
11
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
12
The Rockefeller University

The rockefeller university (the university) is a world renowned center for research and graduate education in the biomedical sciences, chemistry, bioinformatics, and physics. the university's 73 laboratories conduct both clinical and basic…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Bank Street College of Education; the most unlike its peers is University of Michigan. 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

11 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. 11 of the 16 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
8/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE: $26,400,000 · InternationalWORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE+1 more: $1,000 · InternationalUniversity of Michigan: $21,562,690 · OtherUniversity of Michigan+7 more: $532,075 · OtherNEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION INC: $9,350,000 · HealthNEW YORK STEM C…Cornell University: $6,000,000 · EducationCornell Un…+1 more: $15,000 · EducationLINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC: $2,000,000 · Arts & CultureRoss Initiative in Sports for Equality: $1,268,000 · Recreation & SportsTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND: $25,000 · Environment
International$26,401,000Other$22,094,765Health$9,350,000Education$6,015,000Arts & Culture$2,000,000Recreation & Sports$1,268,000Environment$25,000

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 budgetWORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE: $26,400,000 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetNEW YORK STEM CELL FOUNDATION INC: $9,350,000 over 2y, 6.6% of budgetCornell University: $6,000,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC: $2,000,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetRoss Initiative in Sports for Equality: $1,268,000 over 1y, 30% of budgetJACKIE ROBINSON FOUNDATION INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTHE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOSTON ARCHITECTURAL COLLEGE: $20,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM: $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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Stephen M Ross Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Stephen M Ross Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Boston Architectural College: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely 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 16 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

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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