· Private foundation
The Dobson Foundation Inc
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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k15 grants · $39k
- $10k–50k14 grants · $203k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NATIONAL MUSEUM OF RACING | $35,000 |
| YALE UNIVERSITY | $22,700 |
| AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION | $20,000 |
| CORNELL LAB OF ORINTHOLOGY | $20,000 |
| LANCASTER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $15,350 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF NYC | $10,000 |
| SEABIRD INSTITUTE | $10,000 |
| NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY | $10,000 |
| ENVIORNMENTAL ADVOCATES OF NY | $10,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF LANCASTER | $10,000 |
| THE PEREGRINE FUND | $10,000 |
| FREIENDS OF SUSQUEHANA RIVER ART | $10,000 |
| LANCASTER CONSERVANCY | $10,000 |
| EARTHJUSTICE | $10,000 |
| AMAZON CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION | $5,000 |
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 (FY20–23, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 90% 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
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +49% since the first grant, against +22% for those funded once.
64 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2025, 45 since wound down; 10 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, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $51k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- NMNATIONAL MUSEUM OF RACING INC8× · 2017–2025 · $212k · revenue +76%
- CRCoastal Rivers Conservation Trust8× · 2017–2025 · $111k · revenue +33%
- BGBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF LANCASTER INC9× · 2017–2025 · $52k · revenue +37%
Funded once
- LHLancaster Historical Society Incone grant, 2020 · $36k · revenue +116%
- ANAUDUBON NEW YORKone grant, 2017 · $31k
- NMNATIONAL MUSEUM OF DANCEone grant, 2023 · $12k · revenue -63%
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.
See schedule onylcv is a non-partisan policy making and political action organization that works to make environmental protection a top priority with elected officials, decision-makers and the voters by evaluating incumbent performance and…
The wildlands trust works throughout southeastern massachusetts to conserve and permanently protect native habitats, farmland, and lands of high ecologic and scenic value that serve to keep our communities healthy and our residents…
The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)
See schedule onylcvef's mission is to educate, engage and empower new yorkers to be effective advocates on behalf of the environment from clean energy and funding for parks, to solid waste and green buildings. first, we educate new yorkers…
The wildlife society's mission is to inspire, empower, and enable wildlife professionals to sustain wildlife populations and habitats through science-based management and conservation.
The mission of Midcoast Conservancy is to protect vital lands and waters on a scale that matters and to inspire wonder and action on behalf of all species and the Earth.
The central new york land trust seeks to preserve and protect natural areas in order to provide our communities clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, and a chance to connect with the land.
To protect the nature of massachusetts for people and for wildlife through education, land conservation, advocacy, scientific research, and habitat stewardship/restoration.
The mission of the atlantic coast conservancy is to provide 21st century solutions and sound scientific applications for conservation of critical natural resources in the face of a changing climate, focusing on the southeasthern united…
Sudbury valley trustees, inc. ("the organization") works to protect natural areas and farmland for wildlife and people in the 36 communities that surround the sudbury, assabet, and concord rivers. the organization cares for some of the…
How this is measured
72 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. 72 of the 128 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 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF RACING INC ↗
- Who funds Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF HOG ISLAND AKA FOHI ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF LANCASTER INC ↗
- Who funds Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences ↗
- Who funds EARTHJUSTICE ↗
- Who funds Lancaster Historical Society Inc ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK INC ↗
- Who funds MIDDLEBURG SPRING RACE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE ADIRONDACK COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds Maine Audubon Society ↗
- Who funds Unity Environmental University ↗
- Who funds THE PEREGRINE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Inc ↗
- Who funds AVENUES FOR JUSTICE INC ↗
- Who funds LANCASTERHISTORYORG ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DANCE ↗
- Who funds WESTOVER SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds TEMPLE GWATHMEY STEEPLECHASE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN 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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Lancaster County Community Foundation · The Steinman Foundation · High Foundation · The New York Community Trust · Davis Conservation Foundation · The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc · The Nature Conservancy · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Willis and Elsie Shenk Foundation · Ferree Foundation · Ibm International Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Dobson Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Dobson Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
- Northeast Wilderness Trust Corporation: 2% of income from government
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc: 2% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Dobson Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Dobson 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.
Play a game based on Dobson’s filings →