· Private foundation
The Essel 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.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2024
- $50k–250k10 grants · $1.3M
- $250k+2 grants · $800k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | $400,000 |
| COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY | $400,000 |
| THE LIEBER INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN DEVELOPMENT | $186,074 |
| THE LIEBER INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN DEVELOPMENT | $186,074 |
| POYNTER INSTITUTE | $180,000 |
| POYNTER INSTITUTE | $180,000 |
| THE CARTER CENTER INC | $157,000 |
| THE CARTER CENTER INC | $157,000 |
| BRAIN & BEHAVIOR RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $65,388 |
| BRAIN & BEHAVIOR RESEARCH FOUNDATION | $65,388 |
| SAN FRANCISCO STUDY CENTER | $50,000 |
| SAN FRANCISCO STUDY CENTER | $50,000 |
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 (FY20–20, $15k) land where the poverty rate runs at 20%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% 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.
8 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 2 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, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $460k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TLTHE LIEBER INSTITUTE INC5× · 2017–2024 · $35M · revenue +131% · 44% of their budget
- NANATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR RESEARCH ON SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DEPRESSION4× · 2017–2024 · $5.4M · revenue +60%
Williams College4× · 2018–2022 · $1.0M · revenue +36%
Funded once
- NPNY PRESBYTERIANone grant, 2017 · $200k
- NFNYPH FUND INCone grant, 2018 · $200k
- YAYOUTH ANXIETY CENTER NYP FUND INCone grant, 2020 · $200k
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 institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.
Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.
Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.
Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.
Medical research organization van andel research institute is an independent biomedical research organization committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations.
The hugo w. moser research institute at kennedy krieger, inc. (the "research institute") is an internationally recognized research facility finding answers to problems and injuries that affect a child's developing brain. researchers have…
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.
Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…
To carry out and support basic research related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder OCD and Depression.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
The graduate school of the stowers institute for medical research ("gssimr") exempt purpose is to provide graduate education that will prepare scholars for scientific research in the biological sciences.
Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.
How this is measured
11 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. 11 of the 24 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 LIEBER INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR RESEARCH ON SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DEPRESSION ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds NARSAD RESEARCH INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds Williams College ↗
- Who funds THE CARTER CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC ↗
- Who funds SAN FRANCISCO STUDY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HEARTSHARE HUMAN SERVICES OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE 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: National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Essel Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Essel Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- The Lieber Institute Inc: 31% of income from government
- Williams College: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Essel Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Essel 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 Essel’s filings →