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· Private foundation

The Brook J Lenfest Foundation Inc

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.2M
Granted FY2025still arriving
42
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$126k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0197% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Education$20MArts & Culture$1.1MYouth Development$663kPublic Benefit$425kEmployment$253kPhilanthropy$225kCommunity Improvement$210kHuman Services$145kOther$0
02FY2025 · 42 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $21k
  • $10k–50k30 grants · $636k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $526k
$25,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$12M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY$125,832
UNITED WAY OF PENNSYLVANIA$100,000
HEIGHTS PHILADELPHIA$50,000
BIG PICTURE PHILADELPHIA$50,000
THE COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY$50,000
NEW LEASH ON LIFE USA$50,000
PHILADELPHIA SHIP PRESERVATION GUILD$50,000
WISSAHICKON FOUNDATION$50,000
WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION$46,812
THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF DREXEL UNIVERSITY$35,000
Individual grant recipient$35,000
MERCY CAREER & TECH$30,000
READING ALLOWED$25,000
BEAT THE STREETS PHILADELPHIA$25,000
AVENUE OF THE ARTS$25,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $180k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 71% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CRADLE OF HOPE: $10k → 7%CATHEDRAL SOUP KITCHEN INC: $8k → 12%CRADLE OF HOPE INC: $10k → 7%Wings for Success: $13k → 6%Wings for Success: $10k → 6%Wings for Success: $10k → 6%CASA OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY: $15k → 22%North Light Community Center: $15k → 22%THE WELCOMING CENTER: $15k → 22%NEW LEASH ON LIFE USA: $50k → 22%EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY SERVICES: $25k → 22%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$22M · 33 repeat orgs$1.6M to everyone else

33 repeat relationships — 11 still active in FY2025, 22 since wound down; 29 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

33
28

Total granted

$22M
$723k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%
+28%

Still filing today

76%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 29% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $842k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureRecreation & SportsYouth DevelopmentPhilanthropyOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • TU
    Temple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education
    7× · 2017–2023 · $4.4M · revenue +5%
  • KC
    KIMMEL CENTER INC
    5× · 2017–2024 · $741k · revenue +75%
  • TC
    THE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC POLICY ALTERNATIVES
    3× · 2019–2021 · $325k · revenue +113%

Funded once

  • CF
    COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $175k
  • P
    PennCAN
    one grant, 2018 · $100k
  • TI
    TECH IMPACTgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $40k · revenue +43%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
The Philadelphia School

The philadelphia school educates children for a future that is impossible to know but not impossible to shape. learn here. go anywhere.

—
2
Philadelphia Works Inc

Philadelphia works, inc. develops and manages smart workforce solutions that respond to business needs and increases economic opportunity for all philadelphia residents.

Employment
3
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation

Pidc plans and implements economic development initiatives (see schedule o) which enhance the competitive environment, generate jobs and produce higher tax ratables throughout philadelphia.

Community Improvement
4
Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders Inc

We develop, engage, and retain principals and system leaders who transform schools, dramatically improve student outcomes, and drive systemic change to prepare all philadelphia students for college, career, and life.

Education
5
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
6
Point Park University

Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…

—
7
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
8
Philadelphia Youth Network Inc

Philadelphia youth network (pyn) equips young people to build lifelong skills, pursue meaningful careers, and embrace change with confidence - so they can thrive in the workforce, experience economic mobility, and strengthen their…

Youth Development
9
United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey

United way's mission is to end intergenerational poverty in our region by harnessing, leveraging and strategically investing the collective power of donors, advocates and volunteers, to help individuals and families break the cycle of…

Philanthropy
10
Philadelphia Performing Arts a String Theory Charter School

Charter school providing students a content rich, adademically rigerous core knowledge education with a well-defined, sequential curriculum in a safe, orderly disiplined and caring environment.

Education
11
Delaware Valley University

See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…

—
12
Foundations Inc

Foundations is dedicated to improving the quality of education for our nation's most vulnerable children by strengthening the skills of educators through professional learning. foundations, inc. is a not-for-profit educational service…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Philadelphia Education Fund and the most unlike its peers is NORTH10 Philadelphia. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr15%3%5–10yr19%17%10–20yr17%34%20–35yr12%20%35–55yr15%25%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr15%0%5–10yr19%48%10–20yr17%12%20–35yr12%8%35–55yr15%32%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/66
the rest of the field
15%
2,351/16,142

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

61 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 61 of the 91 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
60/61
Grantees still filing
33/61
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS FOUNDATION — $6,700,000 · EducationMASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS FOUNDATIONTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education — $4,378,911 · EducationTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Educa…Elevate 215 — $550,000 · Education+16 more — $1,116,812 · Education+16 moreThe Pennsylvania State University — $6,063,468 · OtherThe Pennsylvania State UniversityPENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY — $399,289 · Other+48 more — $2,131,837 · Other+48 moreKIMMEL CENTER INC — $740,696 · Arts & CultureAVENUE OF THE ARTS INC — $55,000 · Arts & Culture+5 more — $95,000 · Arts & CultureTHE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC POLICY ALTERNATIVES — $325,000 · Public BenefitED SNIDER YOUTH HOCKEY & EDUCATION — $225,000 · Recreation & SportsBEAT THE STREETS WRESTLING PROGRAM PHILADELPHIA — $25,000 · Recreation & SportsVARIETY THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF THE DELAWARE VALLEY — $15,000 · Recreation & Sports+1 more — $5,000 · Recreation & SportsWISSAHICKON FOUNDATION — $160,000 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY OF PENNSYLVANIA — $100,000 · PhilanthropyNEW LEASH ON LIFE USA — $50,000 · Human ServicesWings for Success Inc — $32,500 · Human ServicesEpiscopal Community Services of The Diocese of Pennsylvania — $25,000 · Human ServicesCradle of Hope Inc — $20,000 · Human ServicesWELCOMING CENTER FOR NEW PENNSYLVANIANS — $15,000 · Human ServicesNORTH LIGHT BOYS' CLUB INC — $15,000 · Human ServicesCASA OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY — $15,000 · Human ServicesTHE CATHEDRAL SOUP KITCHEN INC — $7,500 · Human Services
Education$12,745,723Other$8,594,594Arts & Culture$890,696Public Benefit$325,000Recreation & Sports$270,000Philanthropy$260,000Human Services$180,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMASTERY CHARTER SCHOOLS FOUNDATION — $6,700,000 over 2y, 27% of budgetTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education — $4,378,911 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetKIMMEL CENTER INC — $740,696 over 5y, 1.5% of budgetElevate 215 — $550,000 over 4y, 2.8% of budgetTHE COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION FOR PUBLIC POLICY ALTERNATIVES — $325,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetED SNIDER YOUTH HOCKEY & EDUCATION — $225,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA — $175,000 over 7y, 7.3% of budgetWISSAHICKON FOUNDATION — $160,000 over 5y, 14% of budgetCHILDREN'S LITERACY INITIATIVE — $155,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA — $130,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED WAY OF PENNSYLVANIA — $100,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetPENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS — $100,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCHESTER COUNTY FUTURES INC — $95,000 over 6y, 2.5% of budgetPhilabundance — $75,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCLARKE PENNSYLVANIA INC — $70,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetSTEPPINGSTONE SCHOLARS INC — $70,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS — $65,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAVENUE OF THE ARTS INC — $55,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetBIG PICTURE PHILADELPHIA — $50,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCOLLEGE POSSIBLE INC — $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHEIGHTS PHILADELPHIA — $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetADOPTION CENTER OF DELAWARE VALLEY — $50,000 over 4y, 6.9% of budgetWEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION — $46,812 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetLOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION — $45,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTECH IMPACT — $40,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBAKER INDUSTRIES INC — $40,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetWings for Success Inc — $32,500 over 3y, 3.6% of budgetWISSAHICKON CHARTER SCHOOL — $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBEAT THE STREETS WRESTLING PROGRAM PHILADELPHIA — $25,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetROCK TO THE FUTURE INC — $25,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetHOPEWORKS 'N CAMDEN INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPARENTCHILD INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetPHILADELPHIA FILM SOCIETY — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE PHILADELPHIA EDUCATION FUND — $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetEpiscopal Community Services of The Diocese of Pennsylvania — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetOPPORTUNITIES INDUSTRIALIZATION CENTER INC — $25,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetSETTLEMENT MUSIC SCHOOL OF PHILADELPHIA — $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetVariety the Childrens Charity — $25,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetNORTH10 PHILADELPHIA — $22,645 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCradle of Hope Inc — $20,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetIHMCENTER FOR LITERACY & GEDPROGRAMS — $20,000 over 2y, 7.9% of budgetPHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART — $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetACHIEVEABILITY — $15,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE GARAGE COMMUNITY & YOUTH CENTER — $15,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetWELCOMING CENTER FOR NEW PENNSYLVANIANS — $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNORTH LIGHT BOYS' CLUB INC — $15,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Philadelphia Foun…Connelly FoundationThe William Penn Foun…Henry Dolfinger 2 Tru…Lindback Cr & Mf Foun…United Way of Greater…The Gordon Charter Fo…The Patricia Kind Fam…Beatty Helen D Groome…Wsfs Cares FoundationHamilton Family Chari…Td Charitable Foundat…
The Philadelphia FoundationPA65.8× affinity34 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Philadelphia Foundation · Connelly Foundation · The William Penn Foundation · Henry Dolfinger 2 Trust Uw · Lindback Cr & Mf Foundation Tw Main · United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey · The Gordon Charter Foundation · The Patricia Kind Family Foundation · Beatty Helen D Groome Uw · Wsfs Cares Foundation · Hamilton Family Charitable Trust · Td Charitable Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Brook J Lenfest Foundation Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%2%8%17%30%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    16report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Brook J Lenfest Foundation Inc?

    Find your warmest path to The Brook J Lenfest Foundation Inc 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 91 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph

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    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
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