Skip to content
Thayer Family Scholarship Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

Thayer Family Scholarship Trust

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$90k
Granted FY2025still arriving
13
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$12k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$721kEnvironment$8k
02FY2025 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k9 grants · $46k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $44k
$8,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$2.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE$12,000
SUNY COBLESKILL$11,000
TUFTS UNIVERSITY$10,500
STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY$10,500
CORNELL UNIVERSITY$9,000
ST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY$8,000
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE$8,000
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE$4,000
KEUKA COLLEGE$4,000
ECKERD COLLEGE$4,000
HOBART WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES$3,000
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON$3,000
SUNY COLLEGE AT GENESEO$3,000
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 (FY22–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%HARTWICK COLLEGE: $6k → 13%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.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
NH
MI
NY
MA
IA
OH
CT
MO
DE
NC
SC
FL
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.

78%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$547k · 19 repeat orgs$157k to everyone else

19 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

19
12

Total granted

$547k
$151k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+11%
+53%

Still filing today

47%
17%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time
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

  • TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY
    4× · 2021–2024 · $76k · revenue +24%
  • Cornell University
    5× · 2021–2025 · $48k · revenue +23%
  • Oberlin College
    3× · 2021–2023 · $47k · revenue +32%

Funded once

  • PS
    PAUL SMITHS COLLEGE
    one grant, 2021 · $26k · revenue +18%
  • JA
    JAMES AND MIAMI UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2021 · $25k
  • LU
    LEEDS UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2024 · $25k
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
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
2
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
3
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
4
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
5
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
6
Roger Williams University

At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…

Education
7
The President and Trustees of Colby College

to provide a rigorous and transformative liberal arts education that prepares students to become thoughtful, engaged citizens.

Education
8
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
9
Dean College

Dean college is a private, residential new england college grounded in a culture and tradition that all students deserve the opportunity to discover and exceed their greatest aspirations. a personal and transformative community since 1865,…

Education
10
Reed Institute

The mission of Reed College is to provide education in the liberal arts and sciences.

Education
11
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
12
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Northeastern University; the most unlike its peers is Hartwick College. 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

13 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. 13 of the 34 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
11/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $75,750 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITYSUNY COBLESKILL: $50,500 · OtherSUNY COBLESKILLBINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY: $47,000 · OtherBINGHAMTON UNIVERSITYSUNY OSWEGO: $42,000 · OtherSUNY OSWEGOUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: $29,250 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINASUNY COLLEGE OF GENESO: $29,250 · OtherSUNY COLLEGE OF GENESOJAMES AND MIAMI UNIVERSITY: $25,250 · OtherLEEDS UNIVERSITY: $24,750 · OtherSTONY BROOK UNIVERSITY: $24,250 · OtherSUNY ESF: $18,250 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MAINE: $17,250 · Other+12 more: $99,750 · Other+12 moreCornell University: $47,500 · EducationCornell UniversityOberlin College: $47,000 · EducationOberlin CollegePAUL SMITHS COLLEGE: $26,000 · EducationPAUL SMITHS COLLEGETrustees of Dartmouth College: $25,000 · EducationTrustees of Dartmouth CollegeTrustees of Tufts College: $24,250 · EducationTrustees of Tufts CollegeHartwick College: $22,750 · EducationHartwick CollegeST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY: $17,250 · EducationST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITYEckerd College: $15,750 · EducationEckerd CollegeNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $9,500 · Education+2 more: $10,750 · Education
Other$483,250Education$245,750

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 budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $75,750 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCornell University: $47,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetOberlin College: $47,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPAUL SMITHS COLLEGE: $26,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $25,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $24,250 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHartwick College: $22,750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY: $17,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetEckerd College: $15,750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $9,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKEUKA COLLEGE: $7,750 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: $7,750 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES: $3,000 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.

  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Cornell University ↗
  • Who funds Oberlin College ↗
  • Who funds PAUL SMITHS COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds Trustees of Dartmouth College ↗
  • Who funds Trustees of Tufts College ↗
  • Who funds Hartwick College ↗
  • Who funds ST LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Eckerd College ↗
  • Who funds NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds KEUKA COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE ↗
  • Who funds HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Thayer Family Scholarship Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Thayer Family Scholarship Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • University of Delaware: 25% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 11% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 4% of income from government
  • Eckerd College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
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 34 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

Play a game based on Thayer Family Scholarship’s filings →

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