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The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$592k
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
7
States reached
$112k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$1.8MScience & Tech$415kHealth$350kRecreation & Sports$200kYouth Development$100kEnvironment$50kInternational$45kArts & Culture$40k
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k5 grants · $200k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $392k
$50,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$20M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY$112,000
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES$110,000
HARVARD UNIVERSITY$65,000
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY$55,000
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY$50,000
BOSTON UNIVERSITY$40,000
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$40,000
HOWARD UNIVERSITY$40,000
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY$40,000
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$40,000
02The need
03

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 85% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $65k → 8%NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $50k → 16%TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $110k → 14%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $40k → 17%FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $55k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: $50k → 19%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%TULANE UNIVERSITY: $34k → 23%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $112k → 19%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $60k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $50k → 16%TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $50k → 14%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $40k → 17%FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 19%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $40k → 19%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $45k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $40k → 16%TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 22%UCLA: $50k → 14%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $40k → 17%FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 19%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $40k → 19%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $40k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $40k → 16%TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $40k → 14%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $40k → 17%HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $40k → 19%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $40k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $40k → 16%TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 22%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $40k → 14%WOMEN MAKE MOVIES INC: $40k → 17%HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $35k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $40k → 16%TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: $35k → 22%HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $40k → 14%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $35k → 8%BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $40k → 16%HARVARD UNIVERSITY: $35k → 8%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

IL
NY
MA
OH
PA
CA
VA
MD
DC
LA
GA
FL
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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.3M · 13 repeat orgs$237k to everyone else

13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
12

Total granted

$2.3M
$187k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
+36%

Still filing today

77%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHealthInternationalRecreation & SportsArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2020–2024 · $298k · revenue +42%
  • TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2020–2024 · $250k · revenue +34%
  • TU
    Temple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education
    5× · 2020–2024 · $235k · revenue +14%

Funded once

  • WM
    WOMEN MAKE MOVIES INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $40k · revenue +36%
  • TA
    THE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUNDgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $34k · revenue +25%
  • AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue 0%
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.

1
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
2
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
3
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
4
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
5
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
6
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
7
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
8
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
9
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
10
Case Western Reserve University

Case Western Reserve University is an independent, research-oriented university with broadly based strengths in health, including medicine, nursing and dentistry; in engineering; in the arts and sciences; and in law, management and social…

Education
11
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
12
Pacific University

A diverse and sustainable learning community dedicated to discovery and excellence in teaching, scholarship and practice, pacific university inspires students to think, care, create and pursue justice in our world.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Georgetown University; the most unlike its peers is Citrus County 4-H Association Inc. 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

21 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. 21 of the 28 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
21/21
Grantees still filing
15/21
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

President and Fellows of Harvard College: $355,000 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Harvard CollegeJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $298,000 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $235,000 · EducationTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher…THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $200,500 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INCTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $160,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW Y…THE HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $120,000 · EducationTHE HOWARD UNIVERSITYNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $50,000 · Education+4 more: $79,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES: $445,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELESTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $250,000 · OtherTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITYFLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: $195,000 · OtherFLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITYUCLA: $170,000 · OtherUCLA+5 more: $45,000 · OtherNorthwestern University: $200,000 · Recreation & SportsCITRUS COUNTY 4-H ASSOCIATION INC: $100,000 · Youth DevelopmentPACIFIC COUNCIL ON INTERNATIONAL POLICY: $32,500 · InternationalINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: $12,500 · InternationalWOMEN MAKE MOVIES INC: $40,000 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $20,000 · Science & TechGBSCIDP FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL INC: $10,000 · HealthPLATELET DISORDER SUPPORT ASSOCIATION: $10,000 · Health
Education$1,497,500Other$1,105,000Recreation & Sports$200,000Youth Development$100,000International$45,000Arts & Culture$40,000Science & Tech$20,000Health$20,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $355,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $298,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $250,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTemple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education: $235,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $200,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $200,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $160,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOWARD UNIVERSITY: $120,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCITRUS COUNTY 4-H ASSOCIATION INC: $100,000 over 4y, 36% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWOMEN MAKE MOVIES INC: $40,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $34,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPACIFIC COUNCIL ON INTERNATIONAL POLICY: $32,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetAMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS: $12,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGBSCIDP FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL INC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetPLATELET DISORDER SUPPORT ASSOCIATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINFECTIOUS DISEASES SOCIETY OF AMERICA: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 Karen Toffler Charitable Trust?

Find your warmest path to The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 28 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Karen Toffler’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