Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Cowls Jones 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.

$68k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20242025.

Education$50kHuman Services$16kCommunity Improvement$10kEnvironment$3kArts & Culture$1kHealth$1k
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k5 grants · $18k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
$4,893
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST FOUNDATION INC$25,000
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST FOUNDATION INC$25,000
CENTER FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INC$5,000
SURVIVAL CENTER$4,893
MASSACHUSETTS FOREST TRUST$3,000
AMHERST WOMANS CLUB INC$2,500
TWICE AS SMART INC$2,500
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 (FY24–25, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%TWICE AS SMART INC: $3k → 14%CENTER FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INC: $5k → 17%CENTER FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INC: $1k → 17%FRIENDS OF HOSPICE HOUSE INC: $1k → 12%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 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 Massachusetts Amherst Alumni Association Inc

To promote the interests of the university of massachusetts amherst through programs, services and communications that develop and reinforce the bonds between the university and its alumni; to validate the value and alumni pride in the…

2
Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy Inc

We create opportunities for the people of massachusetts to transform their lives and build a more equitable commonwealth through the humanities.

Arts & Culture
3
Amherst Community Television Inc

Operation of public access, educuational,and governmental television channels.

4
The Federation of Massachusetts Farmers and Gardeners Markets Inc

Mass farmers markets partners wtih farmers, consumers, and communities to improve the health of individuals, strenghten community vitality, and enhance local farm viability through farmers markets.

Food & Nutrition
5
Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions Inc

The organization protects massachusetts natural resources by supporting conservation commissions through education and advocacy.

Environment
6
Massachusetts Outdoor Heritage Foundation Inc Attn Susan Sacco
7
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

8
Amherst Land Trust

Land conservation and open space preservation

9
Franklin Land Trust Inc

The franklin land trust works to conserve farms, forests, wildlands, and other natural resources significant to the quality of the environment, economy, and rural character of western massachusetts.

Environment
10
Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce

To promote educational, civic, social, commercial, agricultural and economic welfare of the people of amherst, massachusetts & vicinity; to preserve and distribute civic educational information.

11
Massachusetts Fair Housing Center Inc

Mfhc is committed to ending systemic housing discrimination and creating inclusive communities through education, outreach, advocacy, housing counseling and enforcement.

Housing & Shelter
12
Amherst College Trustees

Amherst college educates students of exceptional potential from all backgrounds so that they may seek value and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence. amherst brings together the most…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Survival Centers Inc and the most unlike its peers is Nipmuc Indian Development Corp. 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

9 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
3/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST FOUNDATION INCCENTER FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INC — $6,000 · Human ServicesCENTER FOR HUMAN DEV…SURVIVAL CENTERS INC — $4,893 · Human ServicesSURVIVAL CENTERS INCTWICE AS SMART INC — $2,500 · Human ServicesTWICE AS SMART INCFRIENDS OF HOSPICE HOUSE INC — $1,000 · Human ServicesFRIENDS OF HOSPICE H…NIPMUC INDIAN DEVELOPMENT CORP — $10,000 · Community ImprovementNIPMUC INDIAN …Massachusetts Forest Trust Inc — $3,000 · EnvironmentTHE AMHERST WOMANS CLUB INC — $2,500 · OtherAMHERST CINEMA ARTS CENTER INC — $1,000 · Arts & Culture
Education$50,000Human Services$14,393Community Improvement$10,000Environment$3,000Other$2,500Arts & Culture$1,000

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 budgetUNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNIPMUC INDIAN DEVELOPMENT CORP — $10,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetCENTER FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INC — $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSURVIVAL CENTERS INC — $4,893 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMassachusetts Forest Trust Inc — $3,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetTHE AMHERST WOMANS CLUB INC — $2,500 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetFRIENDS OF HOSPICE HOUSE INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMHERST CINEMA ARTS CENTER INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Community Foundation of Western MassachusettsMA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts · 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 Cowls Jones 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
202122232425
no gov · 40%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 9%
  • Center for Human Development Inc26% of income from government
  • Nipmuc Indian Development Corp24% of income from government
  • Survival Centers Inc9% of income from government
  • Friends of Hospice House Inc2% of income from government
  • Amherst Cinema Arts Center Inc1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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 9 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