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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Charles H and Melanie K Berman 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.

$44k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0198% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.

Health$76kEducation$71kArts & Culture$64kYouth Development$13kPhilanthropy$10kReligion$10kSocial Science$5kRecreation & Sports$3kOther$0
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k7 grants · $24k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $20k
$5,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$943k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION$10,000
CLEVELAND CLINIC INDIAN RIVER HOSPITAL$10,000
VERO BEACH MUSEUM$7,000
NEW CANAAN LIBRARY$5,000
AMHERST COLLEGE$5,000
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY$5,000
RIVERSIDE THEATRE$1,016
MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER$1,000
ROWAYTON VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPT$250
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 19% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%AMHERST COLLEGE: $10k → 12%NAPA VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%ZONE 126: $1k → 13%WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: $3k → 17%PIONEER WORKS: $500 → 20%INNOVATIONS FOR POVERTY ACTION: $250 → 14%VERO BEACH MUSEUM: $7k → 12%ROWAYTON VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPT: $500 → 9%DARTMOUTH: $10k → 10%AMHERST COLLEGE: $10k → 12%WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: $3k → 17%VERO BEACH MUSEUM: $7k → 12%ROWAYTON VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPT: $250 → 9%DARTMOUTH: $10k → 10%AMHERST COLLEGE: $10k → 12%WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: $3k → 17%VERO BEACH MUSEUM: $7k → 12%NORWALK RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION INC: $250 → 9%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $10k → 10%AMHERST COLLEGE: $5k → 12%VERO BEACH MUSEUM OF ART: $2k → 12%NORWALK RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION INC: $250 → 9%DARTMOUTH: $10k → 10%RIVERSIDE THEATRE: $1k → 12%SHATTERPROOF: $250 → 9%BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY: $5k → 12%ABC NEW CANAAN: $10k → 9%BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY: $5k → 12%NEW CANAAN LIBRARY: $5k → 9%BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY: $2k → 12%NEW CANAAN LIBRARY: $5k → 9%CROSSOVER MISSION: $512 → 12%NEW CANAAN LIBRARY: $5k → 9%NEW CANAAN LIBRARY: $5k → 9%NEW CANAAN LIBRARY: $5k → 9%CT ALLIANCE FOR TENNIS AND EDUCATION: $3k → 9%A BETTER CHANCE OF NEW CANAAN: $1k → 9%WEE BURN COUNTRY CLUB SCHOLARSHIP FUND: $350 → 9%NEW CANAAN YMCA: $1k → 9%STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $15k → 9%STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF STAMFORD: $500 → 9%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.

84%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$198k · 9 repeat orgs$38k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
13

Total granted

$198k
$26k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+62%
+68%

Still filing today

67%
62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $12k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentHealthSocial ScienceOther

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

  • AC
    AMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES
    4× · 2019–2025 · $35k · revenue +89%
  • BG
    BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $12k · revenue +62%
  • WM
    WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
    3× · 2019–2021 · $9k · revenue +101%

Funded once

  • AN
    ABC NEW CANAAN
    one grant, 2024 · $10k
  • HB
    HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL FUND
    one grant, 2019 · $5k
  • CA
    CT ALLIANCE FOR TENNIS AND EDUCATION
    one grant, 2019 · $3k

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
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
2
Boston Architectural College

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

—
3
Rhode Island School of Design

The mission of rhode island school of design, through its college and museum,is to educate its students and the public in the creation and (see schedule o)appreciation of works of art and design, to discover and transmit knowledge and to…

Education
4
The Trustees of Grinnell College

To educate students in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.when grinnell college framed its charter in the iowa territory of the united states in 1846, it set forth a mission to educate its students "for…

Education
5
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
6
Darrow School

Darrow school is dedicated to serving students with diverse backgrounds and abilities, building on each student's talents and interests to inspire enduring confidence for success in college and life. this mission is accomplished through…

Education
7
The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences

The mission of the brooklyn institute of arts and sciences, d/b/a brooklyn museum (the "museum") is to bring people together through art and experiences that inspire celebration, compassion, courage, and the will to act. (see schedule o).

Arts & Culture
8
Endicott College

Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.

Education
9
Dickinson College

Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship

Education
10
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
11
DePauw University

Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…

Education
12
Brunswick School Inc

Brunswick school, inc. is a day school for boys in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. the purpose of the school is to educate the "whole boy". it does so by helping boys and young men - without regard to culture, ethnicity or religion…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Boys & Girls Club of Indian River County Inc and the most unlike its peers is The Dartmouth 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

17 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. 17 of the 27 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
10/17
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

STAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATION — $65,040 · OtherSTAMFORD HOSPITAL FOUNDATIONTHE DARTMOUTH INC — $30,000 · OtherTHE DARTMOUTH INCVERO BEACH MUSEUM — $21,000 · OtherVERO BEACH MUSEUMABC NEW CANAAN — $10,000 · OtherABC NEW CANAANCLEVELAND CLINIC INDIAN RIVER HOSPITAL — $10,000 · OtherCLEVELAND CLINIC INDIAN RIVER HOSPITALHARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL FUND — $5,000 · Other+7 more — $7,975 · Other+7 moreAMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES — $35,000 · EducationAMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEESTHE NEW CANAAN LIBRARY INC — $25,000 · EducationTHE NEW CANAAN LIBRARY INCTrustees of Dartmouth College — $10,000 · EducationTrustees of Dartmouth College+1 more — $1,000 · EducationWHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — $9,000 · Arts & CultureVERO BEACH MUSEUM OF ART INC — $2,250 · Arts & CultureRIVERSIDE THEATRE INC — $1,016 · Arts & CulturePIONEER WORKS ART FOUNDATION — $500 · Arts & CultureBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY INC — $11,500 · Youth DevelopmentCROSSOVER MISSION INC — $512 · Youth DevelopmentCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE NAPA VALLEY — $10,000 · PhilanthropyNorwalk River Watershed Association Inc — $500 · EnvironmentSHATTERPROOF A NONPROFIT CORPORATION — $250 · HealthINNOVATIONS FOR POVERTY ACTION A NONPROFIT CORPORATION — $250 · Social Science
Other$149,015Education$71,000Arts & Culture$12,766Youth Development$12,012Philanthropy$10,000Environment$500Health$250Social Science$250

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 budgetAMHERST COLLEGE TRUSTEES — $35,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE DARTMOUTH INC — $30,000 over 3y, 8.8% of budgetTHE NEW CANAAN LIBRARY INC — $25,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY INC — $11,500 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE NAPA VALLEY — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — $9,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetVERO BEACH MUSEUM OF ART INC — $2,250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRIVERSIDE THEATRE INC — $1,016 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetABC INC OF NEW CANAAN — $1,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE NEW CANAAN COMMUNITY YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCROSSOVER MISSION INC — $512 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF STAMFORD INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorwalk River Watershed Association Inc — $500 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetPIONEER WORKS ART FOUNDATION — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSHATTERPROOF A NONPROFIT CORPORATION — $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINNOVATIONS FOR POVERTY ACTION A NONPROFIT CORPORATION — $250 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Ge Aerospace Foundati…Fairfield County's Co…The Goldman Sachs Cha…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…Morgan Stanley Global…National Philanthropi…Vanguard Charitable E…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Ge Aerospace FoundationCT13.5× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Ge Aerospace Foundation · Fairfield County's Community Foundation Inc · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Charles H and Melanie K Berman Foundation 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Boys & Girls Club of Stamford Inc — 17% of income from government
  • Shatterproof a Nonprofit Corporation — 2% of income from government
  • Amherst College Trustees — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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.

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 27 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

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines