· Private foundation
The Donnelley Foundation
Its FY2024 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, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k123 grants · $261k
- $10k–50k29 grants · $473k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE SONOMA TEACHING PROJECT | $36,000 |
| THE SONOMA TEACHING PROJECT | $36,000 |
| THE SONOMA TEACHING PROJECT | $36,000 |
| THE SOCIETY OF THE FOUR ARTS | $25,000 |
| HELPING HANDS | $20,000 |
| MGH LEADERSHIP COUNCIL FOR PSYCHIATRIC FUND | $20,000 |
| CHICAGO YOUTH CENTERS | $20,000 |
| TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| LAKE FOREST COLLEGE | $20,000 |
| SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | $20,000 |
| THE MORTEM ARBORETUM | $15,000 |
| 4THOSE | $15,000 |
| ST PAULS EPISCOPAL CHURCH | $15,000 |
| NORTON MUSEUM OF ART | $14,500 |
| THE CHURCH OF BETHESDA-BY-THE-SEA | $13,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $33k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 54% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
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 +34% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.
128 repeat relationships: 69 still active in FY2024, 59 since wound down; 39 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $162k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Lake Forest College5× · 2020–2024 · $142k · revenue +50%- CYChicago Youth Centers5× · 2020–2024 · $124k · revenue +57%
NORTON MUSEUM OF ART INC5× · 2020–2024 · $88k · revenue +88%
Funded once
- TCTHE CHICAGO CLUB PRESERVATION FUNDone grant, 2023 · $60k
- TATHE ARLINGTON COMMON CAPITAL CAMPAIGNone grant, 2023 · $50k
- TSTHE SONOMA TEACHING PROIECTone grant, 2021 · $36k
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.
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Be a catalyst! Ignite our community's passion for nature and science.
To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.
The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
To preserve the unique character and natural resources of harvard.
Finance impacts everyone. as a socially relevant organization, the museum of american finance seeks to improve understanding of the influence of financial institutions and capital markets on the u.s. and global economies, and on…
To inspire conservation leadership by connecting people with wildlife and nature.
The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
Eastern national promotes the public's understanding and support of america's national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products and services.
How this is measured
143 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. 143 of the 299 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
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 Lake Forest College ↗
- Who funds Chicago Youth Centers ↗
- Who funds NORTON MUSEUM OF ART INC ↗
- Who funds The Society of the Four Arts Inc ↗
- Who funds THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds THE MORTON ARBORETUM ↗
- Who funds THE LORD'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF HISTORIC SECOND CHURCH ↗
- Who funds MONTANA HISTORY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds 4those ↗
- Who funds FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL CRANE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION IN THE UNITED STATES ↗
- Who funds Town of Palm Beach United Way Inc ↗
- Who funds SONOMA CHARTER SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds AUSTEN RIGGS CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CHAPEL & YORK US FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE PHILANTHROPY WORKSHOP INC DBA FORWARD GLOBAL ↗
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds The Renew Democracy Initiative Inc ↗
- Who funds TROUT AND SALMON FOUNDATION ↗
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: The Chicago Community Trust · Richard and Mary L Gray Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Red Bird Hollow Foundation · The Gorter Family Foundation · Norwottock Charitable Trust · Francis Beidler Foundation · Maine Community Foundation Inc · Terra Foundation for American Art · Helen V Brach Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Donnelley Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Donnelley Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Out in the Open Inc: 25% of income from government
- Yale University: 12% of income from government
- The Lord's Place Inc: 12% of income from government
- Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Inc: 2% of income from government
- The Trustees of Reservations: 2% of income from government
- Proprietors of the Boston Athenaeum: 0% of income from government
- Historic Deerfield Inc: 0% of income from government
- Williams College: 0% of income from government
- Austen Riggs Center Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Donnelley Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Donnelley 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 Donnelley’s filings →