· Private foundation
The Cornell 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $6k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $121k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Harvard University | $50,000 |
| Every Mother Counts | $45,500 |
| The Spence School | $25,000 |
| St Bernards School Inc | $25,000 |
| Riverdale Country School Inc | $25,000 |
| The Felix Organization | $6,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY22–24, $43k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
7 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- RCRIVERDALE COUNTRY SCHOOL INC5× · 2021–2025 · $400k · revenue +25%
- TSTHE SPENCE SCHOOL5× · 2021–2025 · $350k · revenue -13%
- SBST BERNARD'S SCHOOL INC5× · 2021–2025 · $226k · revenue -3%
Funded once
- NYNEW YORKERS FOR CHILDREN INCone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue -66%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $10k
- DLDAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION FOR CONSCIOUSNESS -BASED EDUCATION AND WORLD PEACEone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +4%
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.
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.
A preschool through 12th grade, private, college preparatory school. the school's mission statement is "together, cultivating the best in each for the benefit of all."
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…
To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.
The robert louis stevenson school's mission is to provide a college preparatory program for bright adolescents who have not reached their potential in more traditional school settings. the program provides every student individually…
The philadelphia school educates children for a future that is impossible to know but not impossible to shape. learn here. go anywhere.
Excellence community schools prepares young people in new york city and stamford to compete for admission to and succeed in top public, private and parochial high schools by cultivating their intellectual, artistic, social, emotional, and…
A private school that cultivates and celebrates the intellectual, imaginative, and humanitarian promise of each student in a community that practices mutual respect, embraces diversity, and inspires passion for learning.
The east harlem school challenges students to develop a balanced physical, moral, and intellectual strength that they will use to adapt to change and for the final purpose of creating and sharing lives of deep meaning, dynamic actions, and…
Fordham university, the jesuit university of new york, is committed to the discovery of wisdom and the transmission of learning, through research and through education of the highest quality. for more information, see schedule o.
The williamsburg charter high school unites youth, families, staff, teachers, and the community at large in providing young people with the tools necessary to make sense of the world and prepares them in their journey to become successful…
Revor day school builds an activity-based setting to educate each student for academic excellence and personal integrity in a diverse co-educational community that emphasizes responsibility, stimulates collaboration, and promotes mutual…
Compass charter school is a safe and nurturing educational environment that honors the individuality of each learner. by engaging in a process of inquiry, our graduates will be equipped with the necessary skills to lead fulfilling personal…
How this is measured
12 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. 12 of the 15 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds RIVERDALE COUNTRY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds THE SPENCE SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds ST BERNARD'S SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds ST PAUL'S SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
- Who funds EVERY MOTHER COUNTS ↗
- Who funds NEW YORKERS FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds HIDDEN WATER INC ↗
- Who funds DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION FOR CONSCIOUSNESS -BASED EDUCATION AND WORLD PEACE ↗
- Who funds FELIX ORGANIZATION - ADOPTEES FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds City Squash Inc ↗
- Who funds National Scholastic Chess Foundation Inc ↗
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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.
Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Cornell Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Cornell Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Cornell Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Cornell 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.
Play a game based on Cornell Family’s filings →