Massachusetts · Private foundation
The Garfield 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.
- $3.5M
- Granted FY2020
- 80
- Grants FY2020
- 77
- Organizations funded FY2020
- 47%
- First-time grantees FY2020
Read this first · the figures below need context
70% of The Garfield Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Rockefeller Family Fund Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 16 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year The Garfield Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 49 organizations, $3M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
- Median grant, FY2020
- $5,500
- Largest grant, FY2020
- $870,117
- Organizations funded a year
- 62 to 77
- FY2017 to FY2020
- States reached, FY2020
- 20
- Total assets, FY2020
- $30M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2020, 47% of the organizations The Garfield Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 29% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2020, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $827k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | 77 | $2.9M | 47% |
| FY2019 | 66 | $2.9M | 29% |
| FY2018 | 62 | $2.7M | 40% |
| FY2017 | 67 | $2.3M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean Production Action Inc | $2,480,334 | 5 | 47% |
| Children's Environmental Health Network | $1,028,008 | 5 | 35% |
| The Labor Institute Inc | $815,458 | 5 | 15% |
| Center for Environmental Health | $545,008 | 4 | 5% |
| Natural Resources Defense Council Inc | $385,000 | 3 | 0% |
| Forum for the Future US Inc | $370,000 | 2 | 16% |
| Breast Cancer Prevention Partners | $295,000 | 2 | 10% |
| Institute for Strategic Clarity | $280,000 | 4 | 100% |
| Treepeople Inc | $267,500 | 8 | 1% |
| BlueGreen Alliance Foundation | $213,300 | 1 | 5% |
Show all 115 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 55 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.8M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
The Garfield Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 4 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 106 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: Resources Legacy Fund · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Freedom Together Foundation · Climateworks Foundation · The Schmidt Family Foundation · Patagoniaorg · The McKnight Foundation · California Community Foundation · The Marisla Foundation · The Kresge Foundation · United States Energy Foundation · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Garfield Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Garfield 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.
About The Garfield Foundation
- How much does The Garfield Foundation give?
- The Garfield Foundation reported 80 grants totaling $3,483,837 in its FY2020 IRS filing. It funded between 62 and 77 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2020.
- What does The Garfield Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Environment (35%), Philanthropy (24%), Health (17%).
- Who are The Garfield Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Clean Production Action Inc ($2.5M), Children's Environmental Health Network ($1.0M), The Labor Institute Inc ($815k).
- Does The Garfield Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2020, 47% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does The Garfield Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as The Garfield Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Resources Legacy Fund, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Freedom Together Foundation.
- Where is The Garfield Foundation based?
- The Garfield Foundation is based in MA.
Play a game based on Garfield’s filings →