Skip to content
The Edith Carell Johnson Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Edith Carell Johnson 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.

$439k
Granted FY2020
7
Grants FY2020
2
States reached
$400k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

89% of The Edith Carell Johnson Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Community Foundation For Nantucket Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year The Edith Carell Johnson Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 6 organizations, $439k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

2
’17
7
’18
6
’19
6
’20
4
’21
2
’22
3
’23
2
’24
3
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$1.8MPhilanthropy$211kEnvironment$194kArts & Culture$42kRecreation & Sports$36kYouth Development$35kHealth$26kReligion$13kOther$0
02FY2020 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k5 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $250k+1 grant · $400k
$3,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY$400,000
NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION$25,000
CHEEKWOOD$5,333
NASHVILLE SYMPHONY$3,000
ST CECILIA CONGREGATION$2,500
SEWANEE THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH$2,500
SOUTH CUMBERLAND COMMUNITY FUND$1,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 31% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $126k → 6%DOMINICAN SISTERS OF MARY: $3k → 14%HARPETH CONSERVANCY: $2k → 4%SEWANEE THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: $10k → 13%SOUTH CUMBERLAND COMMUNITY FUND: $1k → 14%THE NASHVILLE ZOO: $2k → 14%WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $25k → 15%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR NANTUCKET: $100k → 6%DOMINICAN SISTERS OF MARY: $3k → 14%SEWANEE THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: $7k → 13%SOUTH CUMBERLAND COMMUNITY FUND: $1k → 14%THE LAND TRUST FOR TENNESSEE: $1k → 14%WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $11k → 15%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR NANTUCKET: $50k → 6%SEWANEE THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: $5k → 13%SWAN BALL 2024: $20k → 14%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR NANTUCKET: $35k → 6%SEWANEE THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: $3k → 13%SWAN BALL 2023: $13k → 14%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR NANTUCKET: $25k → 6%CHEEKWOOD: $5k → 14%NANTUCKET COTTAGE HOSPITAL: $25k → 6%CHEEKWOOD: $4k → 14%NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $25k → 6%CHEEKWOOD: $4k → 14%NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $10k → 6%SWAN BALL 2022: $4k → 14%NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL: $10k → 6%CHEEKWOOD: $4k → 14%NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $10k → 6%CHEEKWOOD: $4k → 14%NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL: $5k → 6%ENSWORTH SCHOOL: $1k → 14%NANTUCKET LAND COUNCIL: $5k → 6%GIVE AND GO: $15k → 14%NANTUCKET COTTAGE HOSPITAL: $1k → 6%GIVE AND GO: $10k → 14%NANTUCKET YACHT CLUB FOUNDATION: $1k → 6%GIVE AND GO: $10k → 14%FRIST CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS: $10k → 14%ST CECILIA CONGREGATION: $3k → 14%FRIST CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS: $5k → 14%ST CECILIA CONGREGATION: $3k → 14%FRIST CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS: $5k → 14%ST CECILIA CONGREGATION: $3k → 14%NASHVILLE SYMPHONY: $3k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.1M · 12 repeat orgs$46k to everyone else

12 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2020, 6 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call). Read against FY2020, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
3

Total granted

$2.1M
$5k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+52%
+101%

Still filing today

58%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentEducationArts & CulturePhilanthropyAnimalsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • Vanderbilt University
    4× · 2019–2022 · $1.8M · revenue +57%
  • NC
    NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC
    4× · 2018–2023 · $171k · revenue +166%
  • WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2019–2025 · $36k · revenue +33%

Funded once

  • HC
    HARPETH CONSERVANCYgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $2k · revenue +351%
  • NZ
    NASHVILLE ZOO INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $2k · revenue +51%
  • TE
    THE ENSWORTH SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $1k · revenue +101%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Harvard Conservation Trust

To preserve the unique character and natural resources of harvard.

Environment
2
Eastern National

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.

Recreation & Sports
3
Nantucket Historical Association

The nantucket historical association preserves and interprets the history of nantucket through its programs, collections, and properties, in order to promote the island's significance and foster an appreciation of it among all audiences.

Arts & Culture
4
Natural History Institute

Natural History Institute is organized to provide leadership and resources for a revitalized practice of natural history that integrates art, science, and humanities to promote the health and well-being of humans and the rest of the…

Arts & Culture
5
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
6
Kennebunk Land Trust

Kennebunk Land Trust's mission is to permanently conserve and steward land to benefit natural and human communities.

Environment
7
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

To sustain, restore, and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.

Animals
8
Nashville Public Radio

Nashville public radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.

Arts & Culture
9
Native Plant Trust Inc

The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.

Environment
10
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
11
North Carolina Symphony Society Inc

To be north carolina's state orchestra, an orchestra achieving the highest level of artistic quality and performance standards, and embracing its dual legacies of statewide service and music education.

Arts & Culture
12
Tenngreen Land Conservancy

The organization's primary mission is conserving land where people and nature can thrive by creating green corridors linking existing public lands using conservation easments and outright purchase.

Recreation & Sports
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Nantucket Conservation Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Wake Forest University. 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

15 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. 15 of the 22 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/15
Grantees still filing
11/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Vanderbilt University: $1,750,000 · EducationVanderbilt University+2 more: $37,000 · EducationCommunity Foundation for Nantucket Inc: $210,000 · PhilanthropyCommunity …+2 more: $3,000 · PhilanthropyNANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC: $170,750 · EnvironmentNANTUCKET…NANTUCKET LAND & WATER COUNCIL INC: $20,000 · EnvironmentNANTUCKET…+2 more: $3,000 · EnvironmentGIVE AND GO INC: $35,000 · OtherNANTUCKET COTTAGE HOSPITAL: $26,000 · OtherSEWANEE THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: $24,678 · OtherSWAN BALL 2024: $20,200 · OtherSWAN BALL 2023: $12,500 · OtherST CECILIA CONGREGATION: $7,500 · OtherDOMINICAN SISTERS OF MARY: $5,000 · Other+1 more: $3,500 · OtherFRIST ART MUSEUM: $20,000 · Arts & CultureCHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART: $19,333 · Arts & CultureNashville Symphony Association: $3,000 · Arts & CultureNASHVILLE ZOO INC: $1,500 · Animals
Education$1,787,000Philanthropy$213,000Environment$193,750Other$134,378Arts & Culture$42,333Animals$1,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetVanderbilt University: $1,750,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCommunity Foundation for Nantucket Inc: $210,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetNANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC: $170,750 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $36,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGIVE AND GO INC: $35,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetNANTUCKET LAND & WATER COUNCIL INC: $20,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetFRIST ART MUSEUM: $20,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCHEEKWOOD BOTANICAL GARDEN AND MUSEUM OF ART: $19,333 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetNashville Symphony Association: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTH CUMBERLAND COMMUNITY FUND: $2,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHARPETH CONSERVANCY: $2,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNASHVILLE ZOO INC: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LAND TRUST FOR TENNESSEE INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ENSWORTH SCHOOL: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNANTUCKET YACHT CLUB FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budget
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.

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.

The Community Foundat…The Hunt Family Found…The Steven & Laurie E…Msb Cockayne Fund IncDorothy Cate and Thom…The Frist FoundationCommunity Foundation …American Endowment Fo…National Philanthropi…Vanguard Charitable E…Morgan Stanley Global…Natl Christian Charit…
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee IncTN16.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Inc · The Hunt Family Foundation of Nashville · The Steven & Laurie Eskind Family Foundation · Msb Cockayne Fund Inc · Dorothy Cate and Thomas F Frist Foundation · The Frist Foundation · Community Foundation of Greater Memphis Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Edith Carell Johnson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Edith Carell Johnson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 10%
  • Community Foundation for Nantucket Inc: 10% of income from government
  • Nantucket Conservation Foundation Inc: 4% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Edith Carell Johnson Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Edith Carell Johnson 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 22 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Edith Carell Johnson’s filings →

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 endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home