· Private foundation
The John J McDonnell Margaret T O'Brien 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $231k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $515k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MEDICINES FOR HUMANITY | $145,000 |
| MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL | $120,000 |
| NOTRE DAME CRISTO REY HIGH SCHOOL | $85,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI | $65,000 |
| CHRISTIAN APPALACHIAN PROJECT | $50,000 |
| MADISON SQUARE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB | $50,000 |
| AMERICANS INDIAN COLLEGE | $26,250 |
| GRACE INSTITUTE | $25,000 |
| RICARDO O' GORMAN GARDEN | $25,000 |
| PIEGAN INSTITUTE | $25,000 |
| COVENANT HOUSE | $20,000 |
| ROSIE'S PLACE | $20,000 |
| PLEBEIAN HELPERS INC | $20,000 |
| SISTER CELESTE CHILD DEVELOPMENT | $15,000 |
| ST JOSEPHS INDIAN SCHOOL | $15,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $190k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 76% 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.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +22% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
33 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 19 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $106k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MFMEDICINES FOR HUMANITY INC9× · 2017–2025 · $890k · revenue +15%
- MSMadison Square Boys & Girls Club9× · 2017–2025 · $750k · revenue +19%
NOTRE DAME CRISTO REY HIGH SCHOOL INC9× · 2017–2025 · $743k · revenue +22%
Funded once
BUTLER HOSPITALgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $50k · revenue +74%- CMCHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF THE EAST END Igraduatedone grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +51%
- AIAMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH RUNNING STRONG INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue +43%
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 bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
To empower individuals from diverse communities to find employment and build careers, while partnering with employers to hire, develop, and retain productive workforces.
Maha breaks down barriers facing first-time and first-generation home buyers and owners through education, counseling, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.
Neighborhealth's mission is to promote and sustain healthy communities, families, and individuals by providing accessible, person-centered, and compassionate, high-quality health care services to all who live and work in our service area,…
Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service
Laboure college provides high-quality education and prepares women and men for careers in nursing and allied health fields.
To advance the interests of the human services sector and providers through advocacy, education, and engagement of diverse stakeholders for collective impact.
For more than a century, the international institute of new england (iine) has been creating opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed through resettlement, education, career advancement, and pathways to citizenship. founded in…
Mhic's mission is to be an innovative private financier of afforable housing and community development throughout new england, providing financing that would not otherwise be available, and extending the impact of that financing to ensure…
Our mission is to ensure that the people of greater boston benefit from a vibrant, resilient, and inclusive waterfront, harbor, and islands; these spaces are equitable, accessible, and adapted to climate change; and to ensure our public,…
Mfhc is committed to ending systemic housing discrimination and creating inclusive communities through education, outreach, advocacy, housing counseling and enforcement.
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.
How this is measured
37 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. 37 of the 55 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 MEDICINES FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
- Who funds Madison Square Boys & Girls Club ↗
- Who funds NOTRE DAME CRISTO REY HIGH SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds University of Miami ↗
- Who funds CHRISTIAN APPALACHIAN PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds GRACE INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds MELROSE ALLIANCE AGAINST VIOLENCE INC ↗
- Who funds DREAMS OF HOPE ↗
- Who funds THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds COVENANT HOUSE ↗
- Who funds American Liver Foundation ↗
- Who funds BUTLER HOSPITAL ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE INC ↗
- Who funds ROSIE'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL BLOOD CLOT ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PIEGAN INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF THE EAST END I ↗
- Who funds PLEBEIANHELPERS INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH RUNNING STRONG INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds NATIVE AMERICAN JUMP START ↗
- Who funds PINE STREET INN INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON AREA RAPE CRISIS CENTER INC ↗
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: Eastern Bank Foundation · Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation Inc · Melrose Cooperative Bank Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · First Nations Development Institute · Ge Aerospace Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Tides Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The John J McDonnell Margaret T O'Brien Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The John J McDonnell Margaret T O'Brien Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Victim Rights Law Center Inc: 89% of income from government
- Boston Area Rape Crisis Center Inc: 82% of income from government
- La Colaborativa Inc: 34% of income from government
- Greater Boston Food Bank Inc: 22% of income from government
- Melrose Alliance Against Violence Inc: 19% of income from government
- Housing Families Inc: 12% of income from government
- Pine Street Inn Inc: 11% of income from government
- Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program Inc: 8% of income from government
- University of Miami: 5% of income from government
- Follow Your Art Community Studios Inc: 3% of income from government
- Jewish Family & Children's Service Inc: 1% of income from government
- The Food Drive Inc: 1% of income from government
- Rosie's Place Inc: 0% of income from government
- National Indian Child Welfare Association: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
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