· Private foundation
The Harold & Mary Louise Shaw 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 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 $10k3 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k11 grants · $260k
- $50k–250k13 grants · $1.2M
- $250k+2 grants · $1.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOO | $860,000 |
| Colby Sawyer College | $500,000 |
| WOLFE'S NECK FARM | $175,000 |
| Vail Christian High School | $150,000 |
| VAIL VALLEY MOUNTAIN TRAILS ALLIANCE | $150,000 |
| Cycle Effect | $125,000 |
| VAIL HEALTH FOUNDATION | $101,856 |
| 317 MAIN ST COMMUNITY CENTER | $100,000 |
| Mountain Valley Horse Rescue | $100,000 |
| ROUND UP RIVER RANCH | $70,000 |
| FULL PLATES FULL POTENTIAL | $60,000 |
| Dayton Art Institute | $50,000 |
| EQUALITY MAINE | $50,000 |
| Good Shepard Food Bank | $50,000 |
| Planned Parenthood of Northern Colorado | $50,000 |
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, $245k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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 +74% since the first grant, against +43% for the ones you funded once.
30 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 9 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, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $350k 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
- MVMOUNTAIN VALLEY HORSE RESCUE7× · 2017–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +98% · 47% of their budget
- 3M317 Main St Community Center Inc7× · 2017–2024 · $770k · revenue +130% · 29% of their budget
- TCThe Cycle Effect7× · 2017–2024 · $680k · revenue +191%
Funded once
- YOYMCA of Colorado Springsone grant, 2017 · $50k
- VVVail Valley Charitable Fund Incgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $50k · revenue +97%
- VCVAIL CLINIC INC % VHH ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $30k · revenue +50%
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.
The mission of Midcoast Conservancy is to protect vital lands and waters on a scale that matters and to inspire wonder and action on behalf of all species and the Earth.
To provide access to outdoor gear and know-how through a collaborative, equity-centered approach.
To preserve and protect land surrounding the appalachian trail in maine for public benefit.
We conserve land permanently to benefit the natural and human communities of western the Penobscot Bay region.
The mission of Islesboro Islands Trust is to enhance the quality of residents' lives through the preservation of open space, educate all residents as to the value of the island's natural ecosystems, and act as an environmental advocate on…
Maine Farmland Trust protects farmland, supports farmers, and advances the future of farming.
Maine Media Workshops & College educates and inspires visual artists and storytellers to achieve their creative potential. We provide lifelong learning opportunities for those pursuing the fine arts and media-related professions. We are…
MCAN catalyzes transformative education and action in response to the climate crisis. We seek to honor, unite and amplify the voices of youth, frontline communities, and others historically excluded from the climate conversation and…
The mission of the mount desert land & garden preserve is to conserve and share the beauty of our historic lands and gardens.
Our Mission is to educate and advocate for the sustainable use of the forest and the ecological, economic, and social health of Maines forest community
Kennebunk Land Trust's mission is to permanently conserve and steward land to benefit natural and human communities.
Maine Rivers is a statewide advocacy organization. Our mission is to protect, restore and enhance the ecological health of Maine's river systems. We support and direct efforts to conserve and improve the health of Maine's rivers and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Vail Health Services Foundation and the most unlike its peers is World Bicycle Relief Nfp. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 27 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% 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.
48 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 48 of the 71 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 Colby-Sawyer College ↗
- Who funds MOUNTAIN VALLEY HORSE RESCUE ↗
- Who funds 317 Main St Community Center Inc ↗
- Who funds The Cycle Effect ↗
- Who funds Vail Valley Mountain Bike Association ↗
- Who funds Portland Museum of Art ↗
- Who funds FULL PLATES FULL POTENTIAL ↗
- Who funds Zealous Schools ↗
- Who funds VAIL HEALTH SERVICES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AUGUSTANA CARE ↗
- Who funds Good Shepherd Food Bank ↗
- Who funds FIRST DESCENTS ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds SOS OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds EqualityMaine ↗
- Who funds NORTH YARMOUTH ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds PREBLE STREET ↗
- Who funds ROUNDUP RIVER RANCH ↗
- Who funds CHILDRENS GLOBAL ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds THE WILD ANIMAL SANCTUARY ↗
- Who funds THE DAYTON ART INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds Vail Valley Charitable Fund Inc ↗
- Who funds Forest Society of Maine ↗
- Who funds GCSEN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MIDCOAST SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds VAIL CLINIC INC % VHH ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT ↗
- Who funds The Telling Room ↗
- Who funds Maine Huts & Trails ↗
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: Maine Community Foundation Inc · Onion Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Horizon Foundation Inc · Elmina B Sewall Foundation · The Bob Crewe Foundation A/K/A Crewe Foundation · Morse Hill Trust · The Widgeon Point Charitable Foundation · Sam L Cohen Foundation · Texas Instruments Foundation · The Skerryvore Foundation Inc · Algar 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 Harold & Mary Louise Shaw 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Appalachian Mountain Club — 1% 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 Harold & Mary Louise Shaw Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Harold & Mary Louise Shaw 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.