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The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Bern Schwartz Family 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.

$514k
Granted FY2025still arriving
13
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$123k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Education$7.0MArts & Culture$6.1MPhilanthropy$5.3MHealth$5.2MInternational$400kPublic Benefit$300kSocial Science$5k
02FY2025 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $8k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $90k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $416k
$25,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$4.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION$123,000
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION$117,500
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY$62,500
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY$62,500
JERUSALEM FOUNDATION INC$50,000
TATE AMERICAS FOUNDATION$30,000
INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY$25,000
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION$20,000
DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING$15,000
JEWISH MUSEUM$4,380
CENTURY ASSOCIATION ARCHIVES FOUNDATION$2,658
THE PHILADELPHIA PHOTO REVIEW$1,000
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION$384
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.

US giving: 81% of grant dollars ($20M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 19% that went abroad ($4.6M) is mapped below.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY18–23, $1.8M) land where the poverty rate runs at 6%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%MARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $1.5M → 6%MARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $100k → 6%MARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $75k → 6%MARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $50k → 6%MARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $50k → 6%MARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $50k → 6%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

NY
PA
CT
RI
CA
MD
NM
DC
TX

Beyond the US: 19% of all-years giving ($4.6M)

1 country, by the recipient’s country on the filing.

grant dollars sentlessmore
United Kingdom$4.6M · 6 grants
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. International giving is mapped by the recipient’s country from the same 990 filings; comparable need data isn’t available at that grain.
04

Where the work is directed

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

About 24% of The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Bern Schwartz Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 37% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
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 funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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.
$15M · 21 repeat orgs$4.2M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +34% since the first grant, against +0% for those funded once.

21 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
10

Total granted

$15M
$3.9M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%
+0%

Still filing today

81%
80%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 40% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $298k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthInternationalPhilanthropyHuman 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.

Backed again, and grew

  • TB
    THE BASIC FUND
    5× · 2018–2023 · $2.3M · revenue +41%
  • AF
    AMERICAN FEDERATION FOR CHILDREN GROWTH FUND INC
    5× · 2018–2023 · $900k · revenue +10%
  • VA
    VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2024 · $619k · revenue +128%

Funded once

  • TB
    THE BASIC FUND SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $1.5M
  • AG
    AMERICAN GASTROENTEROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE
    one grant, 2023 · $1.4M · revenue +0%
  • AF
    AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
    one grant, 2018 · $688k
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
Boston Architectural College

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

—
2
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
3
The Pierpont Morgan Library

The Morgan Library & Museum celebrates and shares the history and process of human creativity from antiquity to the present day through the preservation, study, and interpretation of a dynamic and growing collection.

Education
4
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
5
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

See schedule o for the organization's mission statement.please see description for part i, line 1, above.

Arts & Culture
6
Berggruen Institute
Education
7
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
8
The Uc Davis Foundation

The mission of the uc davis foundation is to secure, steward and manage private gifts for uc davis.

Education
9
President and Fellows of Harvard College

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

Education
10
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
11
American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Founded in 1780, the american academy of arts and sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together "to…

Social Science
12
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Basic Fund; the most unlike its peers is Ximed Digestive Disease Research Center. 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

34 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 34 of the 39 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/34
Grantees still filing
21/34
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM: $5,100,000 · PhilanthropyVANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PR…THE BASIC FUND SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION: $1,500,000 · PhilanthropyTHE BASIC FUND SCHOLARSHIP FOUND…Pacific Research Institute For Public Policy: $300,000 · Philanthropy+2 more: $225,000 · PhilanthropyCHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY: $4,562,597 · OtherCHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCH…AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM: $687,500 · OtherAMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE VI…VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION: $260,884 · Other+5 more: $310,000 · OtherTHE BASIC FUND: $2,330,000 · EducationTHE BASIC FUNDAMERICAN FEDERATION FOR CHILDREN GROWTH FUND INC: $900,000 · EducationAMERICAN FEDERATION…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $496,667 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIF…THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $250,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTE…+5 more: $324,937 · Education+5 moreAMERICAN GASTROENTEROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE: $1,388,750 · HealthAMERICAN GAS…PANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC: $1,275,000 · HealthPANCREATIC C…+2 more: $115,000 · HealthINTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: $1,150,000 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (LONDON) FOUNDATION INC: $375,000 · Arts & CultureMAGNUM CULTURAL FOUNDATION: $100,000 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL DANCE INSTITUTE: $100,000 · Arts & CultureSAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART: $75,000 · Arts & Culture+5 more: $37,480 · Arts & CultureMARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $1,825,000 · Human ServicesVICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION: $619,000 · InternationalJERUSALEM FOUNDATION INC: $450,000 · International
Philanthropy$7,125,000Other$5,820,981Education$4,301,604Health$2,778,750Arts & Culture$1,837,480Human Services$1,825,000International$1,069,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetVANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM: $5,100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE BASIC FUND: $2,330,000 over 5y, 20% of budgetMARC LUSTGARTEN PANCREATIC CANCER FOUNDATION: $1,825,000 over 5y, 8.7% of budgetAMERICAN GASTROENTEROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE: $1,388,750 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetPANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC: $1,275,000 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetINTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: $1,150,000 over 7y, 2.8% of budgetAMERICAN FEDERATION FOR CHILDREN GROWTH FUND INC: $900,000 over 5y, 4.2% of budgetVICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM AMERICAS FOUNDATION: $619,000 over 5y, 17% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $496,667 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJERUSALEM FOUNDATION INC: $450,000 over 7y, 1.4% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (LONDON) FOUNDATION INC: $375,000 over 4y, 8.7% of budgetPacific Research Institute For Public Policy: $300,000 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $250,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS: $155,000 over 5y, 2.5% of budgetMARIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $150,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBRYN MAWR COLLEGE: $125,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMAGNUM CULTURAL FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 7.6% of budgetNATIONAL DANCE INSTITUTE: $100,000 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetSCRIPPS HEALTH: $90,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ARMAND HAMMER UNITED WORLD COLLEGE OF THE AMER: $90,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $75,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART: $75,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetPOMFRET SCHOOL INCORPORATED: $57,279 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetXIMED DIGESTIVE DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER: $50,000 over 1y, 100% of budgetAMERICANS FOR OXFORD INC: $50,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTATE AMERICAS FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE JEWISH MUSEUM: $4,380 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENTURY ASSOCIATION ARCHIVES FOUNDATION: $2,658 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetTHE PHILADELPHIA PHOTO REVIEW: $2,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetMONUMENTS MEN AND WOMEN FOUNDATION: $600 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPHOTO LEGACY FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.7% 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.

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.

Marin Community Found…Jewish Community Fede…Gs Donor Advised Phil…Jewish Communal FundAmerican Endowment Fo…National Philanthropi…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …American Online Givin…Amazonsmile Foundation
Marin Community FoundationCA14.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 10 of 10Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Marin Community Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Jewish Communal Fund · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • American Gastroenterological Association Institute: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get 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 · 0–20%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Bern Schwartz Family 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.

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 39 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 Bern Schwartz Family’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