How much does The John S Hilson Family Fund give?

The John S Hilson Family Fund reported 76 grants totaling $4,627,925 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 37 and 41 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.

What does The John S Hilson Family Fund fund?

By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (59%), Education (12%), Arts & Culture (2%).

Who are The John S Hilson Family Fund's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Hilson Fam Fund Tr Agreement 04292023 ($1.4M), The Hilson Parker Fund Trust Ua Dtd 4/24/2023 ($1.4M), Pratt Institute ($235k).

Does The John S Hilson Family Fund fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 46% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The John S Hilson Family Fund 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 John S Hilson Family Fund?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Morris Family Foundation, Hobbs Family Charitable Trust, New Canaan Community Foundation Inc.

Where is The John S Hilson Family Fund based?

The John S Hilson Family Fund is based in NY.

The John S Hilson Family Fund

The John S Hilson Family Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

The John S Hilson Family Fund

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.

$4.6M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$1.5M

Largest

01What it funds

0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Philanthropy$4.3MEducation$836kArts & Culture$156kScience & Tech$142kAnimals$133kHealth$106kHuman Services$23kCrime & Legal$20kOther$0

02FY2025 · 76 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k51 grants · $77k
$10k–50k22 grants · $400k
$250k+3 grants · $4.2M

$2,000

Median grant

States reached

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
JOHN S HILSON FAM FUND TR AGREEMENT 04112023	$1,466,508
HILSON FAM FUND TR AGREEMENT 04292023	$1,352,872
THE HILSON PARKER FUND TRUST UA DTD 4242023	$1,331,923
JOHN S HILSON FAM FUND TR AGREEMENT 04112023	$38,219
HILSON FAM FUND TR AGREEMENT 04292023	$38,219
THE HILSON PARKER FUND TRUST UA DTD 4242023	$38,219
MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE	$30,000
ST ANDREWS SCHOOL	$25,000
LAKE WORTH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL	$25,000
PRATT INSTITUTE	$25,000
PRATT INSTITUTE	$25,000
PRATT INSTITUTE	$15,000
THE BIG DOG RANCH RESCUE	$15,000
BOSTON UNIVERSITY	$15,000
THE BIG DOG RANCH RESCUE	$10,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY24–25, $15k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

23%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.3M · 68 repeat orgs$4.4M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +13% since the first grant, against +8% for those funded once.

68 repeat relationships: 41 still active in FY2025, 27 since wound down; 19 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.3M

$53k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+13%

+8%

Still filing today

43%

24%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 6% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4.3M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationAnimalsArts & CultureEnvironmentHuman ServicesHealthOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

PI
PRATT INSTITUTE
3× · 2021–2025 · $235k · revenue +51%
MU
MANHATTANVILLE UNIVERSITY
3× · 2021–2025 · $105k · revenue +7%
BD
BIG DOG RANCH RESCUE INC
3× · 2021–2025 · $65k · revenue +79%

Funded once

PB
Palm Beach Police Foundation
one grant, 2019 · $10k
RF
Research Foundation
one grant, 2020 · $10k
LF
Leeds Foundation
one grant, 2020 · $5k

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.

04Its field

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.

University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education

Boston Architectural College

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

—

Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education

United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—

The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education

Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education

Stony Brook Urology University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health

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

Stony Brook Internists University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health

Stony Brook Surgical Associates University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health

The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

Enhance the ability of actec members to provide the most efficient and highest quality services to their clients; develop qualified trust and estate counselors; improve and reform probate, trust and tax laws, procedures, and standards of…

Community Improvement

National Association of College and University Attorneys

To advance the practice of higher education attorneys for the benefit of the institutions they serve.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Canine Companions for Independence Inc; the most unlike its peers is The Hilson Parker Fund Trust Ua Dtd 4/24/2023. 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

50 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. 50 of the 114 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

50/50

Grantees still filing

23/50

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Philanthropy$2,766,983Other$2,401,777Education$420,830Animals$76,750Arts & Culture$45,500Human Services$17,250Health$10,150

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.

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.

The Morris Family FoundationTN15.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Morris Family Foundation · Hobbs Family Charitable Trust · New Canaan Community Foundation Inc · Fairfield County's Community Foundation Inc · Synchrony Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The John S Hilson Family Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The John S Hilson Family Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

12get no government money at all

4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The John S Hilson Family Fund?

Find your warmest path to The John S Hilson Family Fund 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.

Play a game based on John S Hilson Family’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home