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· Public charity

Stepping Stones Museum for Children Inc

The mission of stepping stones museum for children is to broaden and enrich the educational opportunities for children ages ten and under and enhance their understanding of the world.

$33k
Granted FY2018
1
Grants FY2018
1
States reached
$33k
Largest
01What you fund
01

What you funded, over time

By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 50% of STEPPING STONES MUSEUM FOR CHILDREN INC’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.

02FY2018 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$33,207
Median grant
1
States reached
$15M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NORWALK ACTS INC$33,207
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

None of your grants could be placed against low income need for this view.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 50% of Stepping Stones Museum for Children Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

Stepping Stones Museum for Children Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Norwalk Community Health Center

To provide quality, innovative care that enriches the lives of our patients.

Health
2
South Shore Charter School

The mission of south shore charter school is to cultivate students the tenacity, integrity, and curiosity needed to become innovative and socially responsible leaders, ready to face and solve the ever-changing challenges facing our…

Education
3
Norwalk Harbor Keeper
4
Norwalk Aquatic Club Inc

The mission of NAC is to support and promote youth swimming in both the City of Norwalk and Fairfield County. We focus on expanding learn-to-swim opportunities, team diversity, inclusion and participation in competitions and team…

5
Cold Spring School Inc

Cold spring school challenges children to become self-reliant, curious and resourceful problem solvers with the academic and social skills to engage constructively and ethically in our diverse, changing world.

Education
6
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
7
Stamford Charter School for Excellence

The stamford charter school for excellence prepares young people in stamford, connecticut to compete for admission to and succeed in top public, private and parochial high schools by cultivating their intellectual, artistic, social,…

Education
8
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
9
The New Canaan Community Young Men's Christian Association Inc

The new canaan community ymca's mission is to enrich all people in spirit, mind and body. we are committed to providing programs and services that promote youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility among our members and…

10
Norwalk Seaport Association Inc

The norwalk seaport association, inc. offers a cultural, environmental, and historical journey to the norwalk islands. the sheffield island lighthouse and the light keeper's cottage provide a unique historical and educational venue which…

Arts & Culture
11
South Kent School Corporation

South kent school is an independent, college-preparatory school for boys. since its founding, south kent has maintained ties with the episcopal church. three principles define the school: simplicity of life, self-reliance, and directness…

Education
12
Side By Side Charter School Inc

Side by side charter school is a charter school that was created to reduce racial isolation by providing a multiracial learning environment for urban and suburban children and their families.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Norwalk Acts Inc and the most unlike its peers is Horizons at Ct State Norwalk Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, 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; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/11
Grantees still filing
7/11
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT — $40,310 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUTNORWALK PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $15,000 · OtherNORWALK PUBLIC SCHOOLSACHIEVE ENRICHMENT PROGRAM LLC — $5,000 · OtherACHIEVE ENRICHMENT PROGRAM LLCSOUTH NORWALK COMMUNITY CENTER INC — $5,000 · OtherSOUTH NORWALK COMMUNITY CENTER INCMATH AND READING ADVANCEMENT LLC — $5,000 · OtherMATH AND READING ADVANCEMENT LLCGIBSON EDUCATIONAL CONSULTING LLC — $5,000 · OtherGIBSON EDUCATIONAL CONSULTING LLC+1 more — $2,500 · OtherNORWALK ACTS INC — $33,207 · Community ImprovementNORWALK ACTS INCSTEPPING STONES MUSEUM FOR CHILDREN INC — $10,000 · Arts & CultureSTEPPING S…THE MARITIME AQUARIUM AT NORWALK INC — $5,000 · Arts & CultureTHE MARITI…NORWALK RIVER ROWING ASSOCIATION — $5,000 · Recreation & SportsNORWALKSTAMFORD GRASSROOTS TENNIS & EDUCATION INC — $5,000 · Recreation & SportsTHE NEW CANAAN COUNTRY SCHOOL INCORPORATED — $5,000 · EducationHorizons at CT State Norwalk Inc — $5,000 · EducationFAMILY & CHILDREN'S AGENCY INC — $5,000 · Human ServicesSave The Children Federation Inc — $4,556 · International
Other$77,810Community Improvement$33,207Arts & Culture$15,000Recreation & Sports$10,000Education$10,000Human Services$5,000International$4,556

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetSTEPPING STONES MUSEUM FOR CHILDREN INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NEW CANAAN COUNTRY SCHOOL INCORPORATED — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHorizons at CT State Norwalk Inc — $5,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetTHE MARITIME AQUARIUM AT NORWALK INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORWALKSTAMFORD GRASSROOTS TENNIS & EDUCATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetFAMILY & CHILDREN'S AGENCY INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSave The Children Federation Inc — $4,556 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE RIVERBROOK REGIONAL YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Fairfield County's Community Foundation IncCT17.5× affinity6 shared granteesties to 10 of 10Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fairfield County's Community Foundation Inc · Ritter Family Foundation · The per and Astrid Heidenreich Family Foundation · The Bauer Family Foundation Inc · The Scripps Family Fund for Education and the Arts · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Stepping Stones Museum for Children Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 6%
  • Family & Children's Agency Inc47% of income from government
  • Save the Children Federation Inc30% of income from government
  • Norwalk Acts Inc6% of income from government
  • The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Inc5% of income from government
  • Stepping Stones Museum for Children Inc1% of income from government
  • The Riverbrook Regional Young Men's Christian Association Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
2report 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, FY2025

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 16 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2018, released 2018. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2018, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

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