· Private foundation
The Karen Katen 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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k52 grants · $90k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $155k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $123k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cleveland Clinic Indian River | $73,200 |
| University of Chicago | $50,000 |
| Simpson College | $30,000 |
| Middlesex Health Philanthropy | $25,000 |
| NY Botanical Garden Center | $25,000 |
| Connecticut River Museum | $25,000 |
| Alzheimers Assn | $25,000 |
| McKee Botanical Gardens | $25,000 |
| Miss Stacie's Foundation | $7,000 |
| Youth Guidance | $6,300 |
| Visiting Nurse of Lower valley | $5,500 |
| Planned Parenthood | $5,000 |
| Johns Island Community Service | $5,000 |
| Help Me See | $5,000 |
| Indian River Land Trust | $5,000 |
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 (FY19–25, $21k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 66% 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.
84 repeat relationships — 53 still active in FY2025, 31 since wound down; 6 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, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k 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
University of Chicago7× · 2019–2025 · $2.1M · revenue +25%- MBMCKEE BOTANICAL GARDEN INC7× · 2019–2025 · $200k · revenue +36%
- TCTHE CONNECTICUT RIVER FOUNDATION AT STEAMBOAT DOCK INC7× · 2019–2025 · $181k · revenue +31%
Funded once
- CCCLEVELAND CLINIC (INDIAN RIVER HOSPITAL FOUNDATION)one grant, 2019 · $105k
- NYNEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN CENTERone grant, 2019 · $30k
- MSMemorial Sloan Ketteringone grant, 2021 · $20k
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 connecticut river conservancy (crc) restores and advocates for clean water, healthy habitats, and resilient communicities to support a diverse and thriving watershed. through collaborative partnerships in new hampshire, vermont, and…
The adirondack council ensures the ecological integrity (clean water and air, wildlife habitat, etc.), wild character (solitude, scenic beauty, etc.), and vibrant communities of new york's six-million-acre adirondack park. the adirondack…
The nantucket conservation foundation owns, protects, and stewards over 9,000 acres of land and coastal shoreline, conserves nantucket's rare and significant natural resources, and engages in impactful ecological research to inform…
The connecticut humane society is the leading resource in the state for companion animal welfare, enriching the lives of families and communities through adoption services, medical care, education, and prevention of cruelty.
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…
The new england air museum's mission is to preserve and present the story of aviation and aerospace, with an emphasis on new england's role, and the genius and inspiration that made it possible. the museum also seeks to inspire young…
To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.
The westport library was established for the purpose of maintaining a public library in the town of westport, connecticut. the library is committed to empowering the individual and strengthening the community through dynamic interaction…
Dutchess land conservancy (dlc) is dedicated to preserving the scenic, agricultural and environmental resources of dutchess county, new york, and the surrounding area. dlc, as a private non-profit land conservation organization, carries…
Protect Connecticuts farmland for agricultural use by purchasing and accepting donations of agricultural conservation easements
To preserve and steward aquidneck island's open spaces for the lasting benefit of the community while connecting people with the land that defines the island's natural character.
United way's mission is uniting our community and resources to build racial equity and opportunities for all rhode islanders.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Indian River County Inc and the most unlike its peers is The Gaylord Foundation 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 39 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 12% 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.
56 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. 56 of the 145 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 University of Chicago ↗
- Who funds MCKEE BOTANICAL GARDEN INC ↗
- Who funds THE CONNECTICUT RIVER FOUNDATION AT STEAMBOAT DOCK INC ↗
- Who funds The Rand Corporation ↗
- Who funds INDIAN RIVER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds HELP ME SEE INC ↗
- Who funds TRICKLE UP PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds INDIAN RIVER LAND TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds Indian River County Habitat for Humanity Inc ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING CENTERS OF CONNECTICUT INC ↗
- Who funds THE JOHN'S ISLAND FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds RED DOOR COMMUNITY INC ↗
- Who funds ADAM J LEWIS ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds FLORENCE GRISWOLD MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds Youth Guidance ↗
- Who funds CHILD AND FAMILY AGENCY OF SOUTHEASTERN CONNECTICUT INC ↗
- Who funds THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
- Who funds Senior Resource Association Inc ↗
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: Indian River Community Foundation Inc · Archie S Wingfield Jr Charitable Trust U/A/D 5/15/1995 · Bernard a Egan Foundation Inc · Kitchings Family Foundation · Olivia Delacruz Foundation Inc · Grand Harbor Community Outreach Program Inc · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · S & H Foundation Inc · Enid Storm Dwyer Foundation · Impact 100 of Indian River County · The John's Island Foundation Inc · United Way of Indian River County Inc
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 Karen Katen 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- The Covenant Shelter of New London Inc — 61% of income from government
- Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut Inc — 55% of income from government
- Tri-Town Youth Services Bureau Inc — 10% of income from government
- Florence Griswold Museum Inc — 2% of income from government
- Treasure Coast Food Bank Inc — 2% of income from government
- United Way of Indian River County Inc — 1% of income from government
- Indian River Land Trust Inc — 0% of income from government
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc — 0% of income from government
- The Learning Alliance 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 Karen Katen Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Karen Katen 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.