· Private foundation
The Episode 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, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $55k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $62k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART BOSTON | $62,000 |
| BOSTON ART REVIEW | $15,000 |
| BOSTON PUBLIC ART TRIENNIAL | $10,000 |
| GRUBSTREET | $10,000 |
| BRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| MASSART ART MUSEUM | $10,000 |
| GEORGTOWN UNIVERSITY | $5,000 |
| TRUSTEES OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY | $3,000 |
| THE ASSOCIATES OF THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY | $2,000 |
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 (FY19–22, $14k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 93% 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
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 +76% since the first grant, against +47% for those funded once.
40 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2024, 36 since wound down; 5 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, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC8× · 2017–2024 · $219k · revenue +31%- AFARTISTS FOR HUMANITY INC7× · 2017–2023 · $106k · revenue +83%
BOSTON BALLET INC3× · 2021–2023 · $25k · revenue +94%
Funded once
826 BOSTON INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +143%- ABARTS & BUSINESS COUNCIL OF GREATER BOSTON INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +287%
- HFHORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDRENgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue +47%
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 bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
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…
The Boston Public Library provides educational and cultural enrichment free to all by engaging the public through programming and active spaces, restoring and preserving our history, providing access to borrow from our vast collection of…
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
The mission of the brooklyn institute of arts and sciences, d/b/a brooklyn museum (the "museum") is to bring people together through art and experiences that inspire celebration, compassion, courage, and the will to act. (see schedule o).
Organization's mission bentley university believes good business can impact more than the bottom line - it can change the world. bentley is a community of future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting…
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…
Mass general brigham incorporated is developing an integrated health care delivery system throughout the region that offers patients a continuum of coordinated, high-quality care.
How this is measured
39 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. 39 of the 57 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 THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC ↗
- Who funds ARTISTS FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds NAHANT HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds GRUB STREET INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON BALLET INC ↗
- Who funds GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds ESPLANADE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ↗
- Who funds BOSTON ART REVIEW INC ↗
- Who funds BRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds 826 BOSTON INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON PUBLIC ART TRIENNIAL INC ↗
- Who funds ARTS & BUSINESS COUNCIL OF GREATER BOSTON INC ↗
- Who funds HORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds CHARLES RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE CO INC ↗
- Who funds PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds Mercy Ships International ↗
- Who funds PERKINS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND ↗
- Who funds The Farm School Inc ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MY BROTHER'S TABLE INC ↗
- Who funds OCEAN CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds ARTS AFTER HOURS INC ↗
- Who funds Nahant Preservation Trust Inc ↗
- Who funds LIVABLE STREETS TRANSPORTATION ALLIANCE OF BOSTON INC ↗
- Who funds Boston Charitable Trust Fund City of Boston Trust Office ↗
- Who funds SAVE THE HARBORSAVE THE BAY INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON HARBOR NOW 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: Boston Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · Barr Foundation · Eastern Cambridge Foundation · Highland Street Connection and Subsidiaries · Liberty Mutual Foundation Inc · Fidelity Foundation · Lawrence & Lillian Solomon Foundation Inc · Oristaglio Family Foundation · Lovett-Woodsum Foundation Inc · The Beker Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Episode Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Episode Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Boston Harbor Now Inc: 45% of income from government
- The Home for Little Wanderers Inc: 38% of income from government
- Italian Home for Children Inc: 29% of income from government
- Horizons for Homeless Children: 21% of income from government
- Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
- The Farm School Inc: 12% of income from government
- Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston Inc: 8% of income from government
- Charles River Watershed Association Inc: 8% of income from government
- Perkins School for the Blind: 7% of income from government
- Peabody Essex Museum Inc: 3% of income from government
- 826 Boston Inc: 3% of income from government
- Cradles to Crayons Inc: 2% of income from government
- Boston Art Review Inc: 2% of income from government
- Artists for Humanity Inc: 2% of income from government
- Grub Street Inc: 2% of income from government
- The Institute of Contemporary Art Inc: 1% of income from government
- Boston Ballet Inc: 0% of income from government
- American Repertory Theatre Co Inc: 0% of income from government
- Museum of Fine Arts: 0% of income from government
- Rosie's Place Inc: 0% of income from government
- Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Episode Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Episode 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 Episode’s filings →