· Private foundation
The George L Shields Foundation Inc
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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k20 grants · $83k
- $10k–50k48 grants · $980k
- $50k–250k14 grants · $993k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ASPEN MUSIC FESTIVAL AND SCHOOL | $100,000 |
| EARTH CONSERVATION CORPS | $100,000 |
| THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY TRUST | $100,000 |
| FREDERICK COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC | $85,000 |
| THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL | $80,000 |
| CHILDREN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $78,000 |
| THE NATURE CONSERVANCY | $75,000 |
| TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER | $75,000 |
| LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY LLS- ILLINOIS | $50,000 |
| RAY OF HOPE CANCER FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| THE SHEDD AQUARIUM | $50,000 |
| CRAIG HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS USA | $50,000 |
| FREDERICK RESCUE MISSION | $40,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 70% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +55% since the first grant, against +44% for the ones you funded once.
121 repeat relationships — 66 still active in FY2024, 55 since wound down; 11 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, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $276k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- FRFREDERICK RESCUE MISSION INC8× · 2017–2024 · $900k · revenue +76%
- JSJUILLIARD SCHOOL8× · 2017–2024 · $657k · revenue +64%
- FCFREDERICK COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC8× · 2017–2024 · $587k · revenue +4%
Funded once
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYone grant, 2023 · $150k · revenue +4%- LILONG ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $50k
- MHMENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF FREDERICK COUNTY INCgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +196%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland, school of medicine, administrative support services are provided to the physician practices of the university of maryland, including but not limited to information technology,…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Mile High United Way Inc and the most unlike its peers is Fred Sommer Aces Tennis Scholarship Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.7% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
140 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 140 of the 193 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 FREDERICK RESCUE MISSION INC ↗
- Who funds Earth Conservation Corps ↗
- Who funds JUILLIARD SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds FREDERICK COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE TAHIRIH JUSTICE CENTER ↗
- Who funds CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds RAY OF HOPE CANCER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds THE THRESHOLDS ↗
- Who funds THE POTOMAC CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds Anacostia Riverkeeper Inc ↗
- Who funds Craig Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY ↗
- Who funds THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION ↗
- Who funds HIGH LINE CANAL CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HOOD COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds AMERICARES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds AUDUBON CANYON RANCH INC ↗
- Who funds HOMELESS GARDEN PROJECT ↗
- Who funds MISSION OF MERCY INC ↗
- Who funds FRANCISCAN OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO LIGHTS ↗
- Who funds HAVE DREAMS ↗
- Who funds The Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Opera Center ↗
- Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY EAST BAY SILICON VALLEY ↗
- Who funds ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Ausherman Family Trust · Delaplaine Foundation Inc · Ausherman Family Foundation · The Community Foundation of Frederick County Maryland Inc · Nora Roberts Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · United Way of Frederick County Inc · William E Cross Foundation Inc · Clark-Winchcole Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · G Frank Thomas Fdn Inc Main · The Denver 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 George L Shields Foundation Inc 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.
- Bethesda Cares Inc — 100% of income from government
- Heartly House Inc — 33% of income from government
- Interfaith Housing Alliance Inc — 27% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins University — 12% of income from government
- Children's Inn at Nih Inc — 10% of income from government
- Center for Child Counseling Inc — 8% of income from government
- Maryland Ensemble Theatre Inc — 5% of income from government
- Everymind Inc — 4% of income from government
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc — 2% of income from government
- Project Music Heals Us Inc — 2% of income from government
- Joy of Music Program Inc — 1% of income from government
- Manna Food Center Inc — 1% of income from government
- Palm Beach County Food Bank Inc — 0% of income from government
- Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc — 0% of income from government
- Americares Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The George L Shields Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The George L Shields Foundation Inc 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.