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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Elms Foundation

Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$18M
Granted FY2020
3
Grants FY2020
2
States reached
$18M
Largest
01What you fund
0191% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172020.

Philanthropy$18MHuman Services$2.1MEducation$661kHealth$80kArts & Culture$60kReligion$8kAnimals$5kCivil Rights$4kOther$0
02FY2020 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2020

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $170k
  • $250k+1 grant · $18M
$170,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ELMS FAMILY DONOR ADVISED FUND CO SCHWAB CHARITABLE$17,925,401
MFG SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM CO THE PHILANTHROPIC INITIATIVE$170,000
Individual grant recipient$20,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $3k → 8%MARTHA'S VINEYARD YMCA: $20k → 8%MFG SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM CO THE PHILANTHROPIC INITIATIVE: $170k → 16%THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL: $10k → 17%PLANNED PARENTHOOD: $10k → 11%GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION: $5k → 15%BIG PICTURE CO-COLLEGE UNBOUND: $250k → 14%MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $3k → 8%MARTHA'S VINEYARD YMCA: $10k → 8%THE PHILANTHROPIC INITIATIVE: $56k → 16%LEHRMAN COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL: $10k → 15%BIG PICTURE CO-COLLEGE UNBOUND: $125k → 14%MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $3k → 8%TRUSTEES OF THE RESERVATION: $3k → 16%MIAMI CANCER INSTITUTE: $10k → 15%WOMAN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RHODE ISLAND: $25k → 14%TRUSTEES OF THE RESERVATION: $1k → 16%MIAMI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 15%WOMAN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RHODE ISLAND: $25k → 14%TEMPLE BETH SHOLOM: $8k → 15%WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE: $10k → 14%PEREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI: $25k → 15%WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE: $10k → 14%ADRIENNE ARSHT CENTER: $5k → 15%ELMS FAMILY DAF: $884k → 14%MIAMI CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: $5k → 15%ELMS FAMILY DAF: $754k → 14%FROST MUSEUM OF SCIENCE: $3k → 15%ELMS FAMILY DAF: $493k → 14%MFG SCHOLARSHIP: $110k → 14%COMMUNITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL: $50k → 14%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 edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

12%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.6M · 7 repeat orgs$18M to everyone else

7 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2020, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
14

Total granted

$2.6M
$314k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
+99%

Still filing today

29%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2020, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $18M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20
Arts & CultureEducationEnvironmentHealthOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • EF
    ELMS FAMILY DAF
    3× · 2017–2019 · $2.1M
  • BP
    BIG PICTURE CO-COLLEGE UNBOUND
    2× · 2017–2018 · $375k
  • WOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RI
    2× · 2018–2019 · $50k · revenue +23%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2019 · $110k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2018 · $56k
  • COMMUNITY PREPARATORY SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $50k · revenue +200%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your 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
The Jewish Museum

The mission of the jewish museum is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and jewish culture. see schedule o for more information.

Arts & Culture
2
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Inc

We harness the power of plants for humankind and share the joy and beauty of tropical gardening with everyone. fairchild tropical botanic garden is a museum of tropical plants within a world famous, 83-acre designed landscape. it was…

Environment
3
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
4
Providence Children's Museum

The mission of the providence children's museum is to inspire and celebrate learning through active play and exploration. the museum welcomes children and adults of all ages and backgrounds and from all communities although its focus is on…

Arts & Culture
5
New York Hall of Science

Nysci's mission is to nurture generations of passionate learners, critical thinkers, and active citizens through design make play - an approach to learning and engagement that is deeply rooted in research on stem learning and guides the…

Arts & Culture
6
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

The mission is "to understand the natural world and inspire everyone to care for it." the academy implements its mission through understanding the diversity of life; developing and applying science to protect the environment; and informing…

Science & Tech
7
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Inc

Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…

Arts & Culture
8
Newport Art Museum and Art Association

The newport art museum's mission is to share a diversity of art and experiences that spark reflection, inspiration, and connection within our newport community and beyond. the museum was founded in 1912 on the belief that arts and culture…

Arts & Culture
9
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Chartered by a unanimous act of congress, the museum is america's national institution for the documentation, study, interpretation, and education of holocaust history and serves as our country's memorial to the victims of the holocaust.…

Arts & Culture
10
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
11
The Newark Museum Association

Nmoa mission statement is: we welcome everyone with inclusive experiences that spark curiosity and foster community.

Arts & Culture
12
Philadelphia Museum of Art

The philadelphia museum of art - in partnership with the city, the region, and art museums around the globe - seeks to preserve, enhance, interpret, and extend the reach of its great collection in particular, and the visual arts in…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Miami Children's Museum Inc Fka Miami Youth Museum and the most unlike its peers is Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc. 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. 9 of the 24 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
8/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ELMS FAMILY DONOR ADVISED FUND CO SCHWAB CHARITABLE — $17,925,401 · OtherELMS FAMILY DONOR ADVISED FUND CO SCHWAB CHARITABLEELMS FAMILY DAF — $2,131,409 · OtherELMS FAMILY DAF+14 more — $822,000 · OtherCOMMUNITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL — $50,000 · EducationLEHRMAN COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL INC — $10,000 · EducationWOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RI — $50,000 · HealthJORGE M PEREZ ART MUSEUM OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY INC — $25,000 · Arts & CultureMIAMI CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC FKA MIAMI YOUTH MUSEUM — $5,000 · Arts & CulturePHILLIP AND PATRICIA FROST MUSEUM OF SCIENCE INC — $2,500 · Arts & CultureGREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION INC — $5,000 · PhilanthropyMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC — $2,500 · Environment
Other$20,878,810Education$60,000Health$50,000Arts & Culture$32,500Philanthropy$5,000Environment$2,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCOMMUNITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL — $50,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetWOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RI — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJORGE M PEREZ ART MUSEUM OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWATERFIRE PROVIDENCE — $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetLEHRMAN COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMIAMI CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC FKA MIAMI YOUTH MUSEUM — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPHILLIP AND PATRICIA FROST MUSEUM OF SCIENCE INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds COMMUNITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL
  • Who funds WOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RI
  • Who funds JORGE M PEREZ ART MUSEUM OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY INC
  • Who funds WATERFIRE PROVIDENCE
  • Who funds LEHRMAN COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL INC
  • Who funds MIAMI CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC FKA MIAMI YOUTH MUSEUM
  • Who funds GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION INC
  • Who funds PHILLIP AND PATRICIA FROST MUSEUM OF SCIENCE INC
  • Who funds MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC

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.

Mightycause Charitable FoundationFL12.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · 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 Elms 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 · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 1%
  • Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science Inc1% of income from government
  • Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc1% of income from government
  • Miami Children's Museum Inc Fka Miami Youth Museum0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
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 24 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph