Massachusetts · Private foundation
Tern 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.
- $251k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 43
- Grants FY2025
- 30
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 17%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $1,057
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $60,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 18 to 30
- FY2019 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 4
- Total assets, FY2025
- $2.3M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 17% of the organizations Tern Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 34% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $79k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 42 | $251k | 31% |
| FY2024 | 30 | $232k | 17% |
| FY2023 | 26 | $169k | 23% |
| FY2022 | 22 | $216k | 27% |
| FY2021 | 21 | $103k | 29% |
| FY2020 | 18 | $224k | 22% |
| FY2019 | 18 | $87k | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc | $309,000 | 7 | 0% |
| Association to Preserve Cape Cod Inc | $135,000 | 6 | 4% |
| Wellfleet Preservation Hall Inc | $65,136 | 7 | 12% |
| Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Inc | $64,057 | 5 | 4% |
| Heritage Museums and Gardens Inc | $60,000 | 1 | n/a |
| Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation Inc | $55,500 | 7 | 0% |
| Worcester County Horticultural Society | $51,040 | 2 | 0% |
| Provincetown Commons Inc | $39,530 | 3 | 3% |
| Wild Careinc | $38,192 | 7 | 4% |
| Wellfleet Historical Society Inc | $37,505 | 2 | 6% |
Show all 43 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 15 recipients with no EIN on record ($152k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Tern Foundation supplied at peak.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: Mutual Bancorp Foundation Inc Fka Cape Cod 5 Foundation Inc · Cape Cod Foundation Inc · Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank Charitable Foundation Trust · The Alvan G & Carol J Lampke Family Foundation · Edward Bangs Kelley and Elza Kelley Foundation Inc · Boston Foundation Inc · Treved Foundation Inc · Seamens Long Point Charitable Foundation Inc · Bilezikian Family Foundation Inc · Gramercy Park Foundation Inc · Horizon Foundation Inc · Impactassetsinc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Tern Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Tern Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
About Tern Foundation
- How much does Tern Foundation give?
- Tern Foundation reported 43 grants totaling $250,538 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 30 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.
- What does Tern Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (47%), Arts & Culture (28%), Community Improvement (5%).
- Who are Tern Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc ($309k), Association to Preserve Cape Cod Inc ($135k), Wellfleet Preservation Hall Inc ($65k).
- Does Tern Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 17% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Tern Foundation 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 Tern Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Mutual Bancorp Foundation Inc Fka Cape Cod 5 Foundation Inc, Cape Cod Foundation Inc, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank Charitable Foundation Trust.
- Where is Tern Foundation based?
- Tern Foundation is based in MA.
Play a game based on Tern’s filings →