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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Foster Family 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.

$182k
Granted FY2025still arriving
29
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20242025.

Education$146kEnvironment$72kCommunity Improvement$47kPublic Benefit$5kArts & Culture$3kHealth$3kReligion$2kYouth Development$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 29 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k23 grants · $42k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $90k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
$2,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$4.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC$50,000
LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC$25,000
LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC$25,000
BOWDOIN COLLEGE$20,000
BOWDOIN COLLEGE$10,000
MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC$10,000
BOWDOIN COLLEGE$6,000
BOWDOIN COLLEGE$5,000
TOWN OF BELMONT$5,000
OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION$3,500
OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION$2,500
MOUNT AUBURN HOSPITAL$2,500
OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION$2,500
BOWDOIN COLLEGE$2,000
FIRST CHURCH IN BELMONT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST$2,000
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 (FY24–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 76% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%ARLINGTON BOYS CLUB INC: $1k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $160 → 16%THE SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATIONWASHINGTON DC ICO: $1k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $1k → 13%MARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION: $100 → 7%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK FOUNDATION INC: $1k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND FOUNDATION: $155 → 22%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $20k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $13k → 9%MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $50k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $155 → 16%THE SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATIONWASHINGTON DC ICO: $1k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL: $155 → 13%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $20k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $10k → 9%MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $10k → 8%GRUB STREET INC: $1k → 16%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $10k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $10k → 9%MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $10k → 8%GRUB STREET INC: $500 → 16%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $6k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $4k → 9%TRANSITION HOUSE INC: $500 → 8%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $5k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $4k → 9%LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC: $25k → 8%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $2k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $3k → 9%LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC: $25k → 8%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $2k → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $3k → 9%LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC: $25k → 8%BOWDOIN COLLEGE: $500 → 7%OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION: $3k → 9%LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC: $2k → 8%LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC: $500 → 8%MOUNT AUBURN HOSPITAL: $3k → 8%TOWN OF BELMONT: $5k → 8%FIRST CHURCH IN BELMONT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST: $2k → 8%FRIENDS OF THE BELMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY INCORPORATED: $1k → 8%BELMONT NEWS FOUNDATION INC: $1k → 8%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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$263k · 7 repeat orgs$16k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +6% since the first grant, against -2% for the ones you funded once.

7 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
1

Total granted

$263k
$155

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+6%
-2%

Still filing today

71%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $16k went to new ones.

50%100%’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’24’25
EducationArts & CultureEnvironmentCommunity ImprovementHealthYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • LM
    LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $77k · revenue +6%
  • BC
    Bowdoin College
    2× · 2024–2025 · $66k · revenue +22%
  • TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2024–2025 · $315 · revenue +8%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2024 · $155 · revenue -2%

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
Trustees of Boston College

Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…

Education
2
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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.

Education
4
Bentley University

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…

Education
5
University of Massachusetts Foundation Inc

The mission of the university of massachusetts foundation, inc. is to foster and promote the growth, progress and general welfare of the university of massachusetts as stated in the original 1950 articles of organization. the foundation…

Education
6
Marine Biological Laboratory

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…

Science & Tech
7
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
8
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
9
University of Massachusetts Amherst Alumni Association Inc

To promote the interests of the university of massachusetts amherst through programs, services and communications that develop and reinforce the bonds between the university and its alumni; to validate the value and alumni pride in the…

10
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

11
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
12
Dean College

Dean college is a private, residential new england college grounded in a culture and tradition that all students deserve the opportunity to discover and exceed their greatest aspirations. a personal and transformative community since 1865,…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Maryland College Park Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Mount Auburn Hospital. 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

14 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. 14 of the 18 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/14
Grantees still filing
7/14
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

LEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC — $77,000 · EducationLEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INCBowdoin College — $65,500 · EducationBowdoin College+3 more — $2,155 · EducationMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC — $70,000 · EnvironmentMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIET…OCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION — $47,000 · Community ImprovementOCEAN PARK ASSOCIAT…TOWN OF BELMONT — $5,000 · OtherTHE FIRST CHURCH IN BELMONT UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST — $2,000 · OtherTHE SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATIONWASHINGTON DC ICO — $2,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL — $1,155 · OtherTRANSITION HOUSE INC — $500 · Other+1 more — $315 · OtherMOUNT AUBURN HOSPITAL — $2,500 · HealthGRUB STREET INC — $1,500 · Arts & CultureBELMONT NEWS FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 · Arts & CultureARLINGTON BOYS & GIRLS CLUB INC — $1,000 · Youth DevelopmentMARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION — $100 · Philanthropy
Education$144,655Environment$70,000Community Improvement$47,000Other$10,970Health$2,500Arts & Culture$2,500Youth Development$1,000Philanthropy$100

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetLEXINGTON MONTESSORI SCHOOL INC — $77,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC — $70,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBowdoin College — $65,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetOCEAN PARK ASSOCIATION — $47,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF BELMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY INC — $1,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetTRANSITION HOUSE INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $315 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND FOUNDATION INC — $155 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION — $100 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.

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.

Boston Foundation IncMA16.6× affinity6 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation 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 Foster Family 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 · 30%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 5%
  • Transition House Inc39% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University12% of income from government
  • Mount Auburn Hospital5% of income from government
  • Grub Street Inc2% of income from government
  • Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc1% of income from government
  • University of Maryland Foundation Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
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 18 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph