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Rhode Island · Private foundation

Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson

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.

$87k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
10
Grants FY2025
9
Organizations funded FY2024
56%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$8,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$15,000
Organizations funded a year
2 to 9
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$1.7M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 56% of the organizations Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson funded were first-time grantees, receiving 52% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 48% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $48k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthHuman ServicesOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving10$87k50%
FY20249$91k56%
FY20234$38k50%
FY20222$14k100%
FY20212$85k0%
FY20205$80k40%
FY20193$60k33%
FY20183$64kn/a
97% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Religion$253kHuman Services$83kEducation$66kHealth$59kFood & Nutrition$18kYouth Development$15kArts & Culture$15kAnimals$3kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2018 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
San Miguel Education Center$60,00051%
Angel in Action Ri$28,0003n/a
McAuley Corporation$20,00011%
North Kingstown Food Pantry Inc$17,50031%
Bradley Hospital Foundation$10,00010%
The Jonnycake Center of Westerly Inc$7,50010%
Tri-County Community Action Agency$7,50010%
Moms of Marieville$7,50019%
Clothes to Kids Ri Inc$7,50011%
Sojourner House Inc$5,00010%
Show all 11 grantees
All grantees of Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
San Miguel Education Center$60,00051%
Angel in Action Ri$28,0003n/a
McAuley Corporation$20,00011%
North Kingstown Food Pantry Inc$17,50031%
Bradley Hospital Foundation$10,00010%
The Jonnycake Center of Westerly Inc$7,50010%
Tri-County Community Action Agency$7,50010%
Moms of Marieville$7,50019%
Clothes to Kids Ri Inc$7,50011%
Sojourner House Inc$5,00010%
Yellow Horse$3,00021%

Plus 9 recipients with no EIN on record ($342k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSan Miguel Education Center: $60,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetMcAuley Corporation: $20,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetNorth Kingstown Food Pantry Inc: $17,500 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetBradley Hospital Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetThe Jonnycake Center of Westerly Inc: $7,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTri-County Community Action Agency: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMoms of Marieville: $7,500 over 1y, 9.2% of budgetClothes to Kids Ri Inc: $7,500 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetSojourner House Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYellow Horse: $3,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 10.

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.

The Rhode Island Community FoundationRI19.4× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Rhode Island Community Foundation · Centreville Savings Bank Charitable Foundation · Washington Trust Co Charitable Fdn · The Champlin Foundation · United Way of Rhode Island Inc · Citizens Charitable Foundation · Amica Companies Foundation · Uw Urania C Sherburne · Rhode Island Community Food Bank Association · The Mr & Mrs Robert N Chapman Son Robert B Chapman Charitable Trust · Citizens Community Foundation · Ida Ballou Littlefield Memorial Trust

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.

Compare Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson with peer funders

About Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson

How much does Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson give?
Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson reported 10 grants totaling $86,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 2 and 9 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson fund?
By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2025, its largest causes are Religion (49%), Human Services (16%), Education (13%).
Who are Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2018 to FY2025: San Miguel Education Center ($60k), Angel in Action Ri ($28k), McAuley Corporation ($20k).
Does Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 56% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Rhode Island Community Foundation, Centreville Savings Bank Charitable Foundation, Washington Trust Co Charitable Fdn.
Where is Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson based?
Stephen W & Merle Dresner Charitable Foundation C/O John Marginson is based in RI.

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 20 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

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