· Private foundation
TBDB Foundation Inc
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
83% of TBDB Foundation Inc’s FY2020 grant dollars went to Schwab Charitable Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2020.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2020
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $160k
- $250k+1 grant · $810k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Schwab Charitable Fund | $809,695 |
| Noble and Greenough School | $100,000 |
| Williams College | $60,000 |
| The Wharton School - University of Pennsylvania | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +87% since the first grant, against +70% for those funded once.
4 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2020, 1 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2020, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
NOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL4× · 2017–2020 · $291k · revenue +29%
Williams College3× · 2017–2020 · $120k · revenue +87%- AFAmherst Football Program2× · 2018–2019 · $50k
Funded once
- SGST GEORGE'S SCHOOLgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +36%
- SSSquash Smarts - The Clifton G Wright Memorial Scholarshipone grant, 2017 · $6k
TRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGEgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $4k · revenue +70%
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.
5 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. 5 of the 8 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 TBDB Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from TBDB Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- Trustees of Boston College: 3% of income from government
- Williams College: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on TBDB’s filings →