How much does The Bessie Family Foundation give?

The Bessie Family Foundation reported 39 grants totaling $66,054 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 52 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Bessie Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Religion (39%), International (15%), Education (7%).

Who are The Bessie Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Park City Jewish Center Inc ($124k), Sixth & I Synagogue Inc ($60k), Birthright Israel Foundation ($24k).

Does The Bessie Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 21% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Bessie Family 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.

Where is The Bessie Family Foundation based?

The Bessie Family Foundation is based in MD.

The Bessie Family Foundation

The Bessie Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Bessie 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.

$66k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$11k

Largest

01What it funds

0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Religion$233kInternational$89kEducation$45kPhilanthropy$43kHuman Services$36kArts & Culture$34kCivil Rights$33kHealth$27kOther$0

02FY2025 · 39 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k38 grants · $55k
$10k–50k1 grant · $11k

$1,000

Median grant

States reached

$554k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
TEMPLE HAR SHALOM	$11,000
WASHINGTON HEBREW CONGREGATION	$6,262
UNITED JEWISH FEDERATION OF UTAH	$5,000
HADASSAH THE WOMEN'S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA	$5,000
SIXTH AND I SYNAGOGUE	$5,000
CAPITOL LANGUAGE SERVICES	$2,240
EGYPTIAN THEATRE	$2,000
ST JUDE INTERNET CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL	$2,000
THE AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE (JDC)	$2,000
PARK CITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	$2,000
UNICEF USA	$2,000
JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE	$2,000
BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION	$2,000
FRIENDS OF JCC BUDAPEST	$1,040
HEIFER INTERNATIONAL	$1,000

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY18–25, $18k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 22% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

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

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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$527k · 61 repeat orgs$58k to everyone else

61 repeat relationships: 23 still active in FY2025, 38 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$527k

$47k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+26%

+38%

Still filing today

54%

47%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $11k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

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

SI
SIXTH & I SYNAGOGUE INC
9× · 2017–2025 · $60k · revenue +26%
TH
THE HADASSAH FOUNDATION INC
3× · 2018–2021 · $21k · revenue +358%
TI
The Ivymount School Inc
3× · 2018–2021 · $15k · revenue +21%

Funded once

AT
ADOPTIONS TOGETHER INC DBA AS PATHS FOR FAMILIESgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +41%
SL
SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
one grant, 2021 · $5k
JU
JEWS UNITED FOR JUSTICE INCgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +239%

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.

American Jewish Committee

AJC's mission is to enhance the wellbeing of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. In pursuit of this mission, AJC advances democratic principles, fights…

Civil Rights

The Jewish Museum

The mission of the jewish museum is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and jewish culture. see schedule o for more information.

Arts & Culture

Us Middle East Project Inc

The organization's mission is to engage in non partisan analysis of u.s. foreign policy in the middle east, with special emphasis on the middle east peace process, and to present policymakers in the united states, in the region and in the…

International

Minneapolis Jewish Federation

Minneapolis jewish federation is a nonprofit organization that promotes a culture of philanthropy, leverages resources to meet local and global jewish needs, and facilitates community planning to ensure a thriving and secure future.

Philanthropy

Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington

As the central community relations agency of the organized jewish community in our nation's capital, the jcrc of greater washington endeavors to foster a society based on freedom, justice and democratic pluralism for it is such a society…

Community Improvement

National Council of Jewish Women Incorporated

The national council of jewish women is a grassroots nonpartisan organization of volunteers and advocates who strive for social justice by improving the quality of life for women, children and families.

Community Improvement

Jewish Family and Children's Service of Minneapolis

Jewish family and children's service of minneapolis provides essential services to people of all ages and backgrounds to sustain healthy relationships, ease suffering and offer support in times of need.

Human Services

Public Media Nj Inc

To bring quality public television programs and resources to communities throughout new jersey and its tri-state neighbors. its content, both on-air and online, aims to reflect the diverse

Arts & Culture

The Jewish Agency for Israel

The jewish agency binds jews across ideologies and civilizations together in a worldwide jewish family with israel at its center. it provides the global framework for aliyah, ensures global jewish safety, strengthens jewish identity and…

—

Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media

Philadelphia jewish film and medias mission is to educate and engage diverse philadelphia communities, jewish and non-jewish alike, by presenting world-class film premieres, repertory cinema, and associated programs that are inspired by…

Human Services

Meridian International Center

Meridian international center is a nonpartisan diplomacy institution founded in 1960 to advance american leadership. headquartered on a historic campus in washington dc, our mission is to empower leaders to advance the next era of…

International

Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc

See schedule othe organization is a not-for-profit, public charity established in 1911 to provide for the quality and continuity of jewish life in western new york and around the world through private philanthropy. the foundation seeks,…

Philanthropy

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Jewish Federation of Utah; the most unlike its peers is Millville Volunteer Fire Co Inc. 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

69 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. 69 of the 131 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

69/69

Grantees still filing

53/69

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$371,480Religion$66,540International$57,000Philanthropy$42,177Education$27,500Health$22,565Human Services$18,626

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.

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.

The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz FoundationDC27.2× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving Inc · Duber Family Foundation · Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation · The Annette M Lerner and Theodore N Lerner Family Foundation Inc · Alan and Amy Meltzer Family Foundation Inc · The Morningstar Philanthropic Foundation D/B/A the Morningstar Foundation · Posner-Wallace Foundation · The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington Inc · American Gift Fund · George Wasserman Family Foundation Inc

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 Bessie Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Bessie Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

9get no government money at all

18report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

1rely on government for over half their income

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.

Play a game based on Bessie 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