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The Kestenbaum Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Kestenbaum Family 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.

$555k
Granted FY2018
18
Grants FY2018
5
States reached
$390k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

81% of The Kestenbaum Family Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Jewish Federation Of Greater Philadelphia, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 14 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year The Kestenbaum Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 14 organizations, $555k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

15
’17
14
’18
12
’19
14
’20
16
’21
16
’22
15
’23
15
’24
14
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$2.2MArts & Culture$1.0MHealth$175kReligion$129kInternational$97kHuman Services$80kEducation$52kCivil Rights$3kOther$0
02FY2018 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2018

  • Under $10k15 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $26k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $120k
  • $250k+1 grant · $390k
$700
Median grant
5
States reached
$4.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY$390,250
JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA$120,000
CHILDREN'S CRISIS TREATMENT CENTER$25,500
WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL$6,689
HAR ZION TEMPLE$5,000
TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA$1,500
Individual grant recipient$1,000
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY & BIOLOGY$1,000
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART$700
LIVE LIKE BLAINE FOUNDATION$500
JEWISH LEARNING VENTURE$500
FREIRE CHARTER SCHOOL FOUNDATION$500
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY$500
COMCAST-SPECTACOR CHARITIES$250
LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY$250
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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–21, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 42% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%JEWISH ADOPTION & FOSTER CARE OPTIONS INC: $250 → 13%GILDA'S CLUB SOUTH JERSEY: $250 → 11%URBAN PROMISE MINISTRIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INC: $250 → 12%SHANES KINDNESS: $50 → 7%JEWISH RELIEF AGENCY: $1k → 7%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
PA
NJ
VA
MD
TX
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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.6M · 17 repeat orgs$14k to everyone else

17 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2018, 7 since wound down; 31 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
9

Total granted

$1.6M
$4k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%
+56%

Still filing today

88%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $850 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthEducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesInternationalPhilanthropyOther
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

  • WEITZMAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +29%
  • TW
    THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY
    6× · 2017–2022 · $143k · revenue +8%
  • CC
    CHILDREN'S CRISIS TREATMENT CENTER
    9× · 2017–2025 · $79k · revenue +56%

Funded once

  • HC
    HARID CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue +111%
  • PM
    PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART CRAFT SHOW
    one grant, 2017 · $700
  • AI
    ACADEMY IN MANAYUNKgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $500 · revenue +156%
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
Drexel University

Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…

Education
2
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…

Health
3
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
4
New York Genome Center Inc

Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.

Health
5
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…

Health
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
Saint Joseph's University

As philadelphia's jesuit catholic university, saint joseph's provides a rigorous, student-centered education rooted in the liberal arts. we prepare students for personal excellence, professional success, and engaged citizenship. striving…

Education
8
Hugo W Moser Research Institute At Kennedy Krieger Inc

The hugo w. moser research institute at kennedy krieger, inc. (the "research institute") is an internationally recognized research facility finding answers to problems and injuries that affect a child's developing brain. researchers have…

Science & Tech
9
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc

The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…

Health
10
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Leadership in the prevention, treatment, and cure of cancer through excellence, vision and cost effectiveness in patient care, outreach programs, research, and education.

Health
11
Bar Ilan University in Israel Inc

Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.

—
12
The Lieber Institute Inc

The mission of the institute is to translate basic genetic and molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia and related developmental brain disorders into clinical advances that change the lives of affected individuals. it is catalyzing a new…

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Israel Tennis Centers Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is The Gateway School. 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

53 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. 53 of the 61 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
52/53
Grantees still filing
40/53
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA: $2,169,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA+3 more: $600 · PhilanthropyWEITZMAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY: $1,036,535 · Arts & CultureWEITZMAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AME…+4 more: $12,400 · Arts & CultureTHE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY: $143,000 · HealthCHILDREN'S CRISIS TREATMENT CENTER: $78,500 · HealthCystic Fibrosis Research Fund Inc: $17,750 · Health+13 more: $11,400 · HealthHAR ZION TEMPLE: $128,082 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $8,000 · Other+21 more: $6,910 · OtherAMERICAN FRIENDS OF LIBI INC: $75,000 · InternationalISRAEL TENNIS CENTERS FOUNDATION INC: $21,800 · International+2 more: $1,180 · InternationalWILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL INC: $27,073 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $13,036 · EducationFREIRE FOUNDATION: $5,000 · EducationLIVE LIKE BLAINE FOUNDATION: $4,500 · Education+4 more: $1,350 · EducationAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE: $3,000 · Civil Rights
Philanthropy$2,169,600Arts & Culture$1,048,935Health$250,650Other$142,992International$97,980Education$50,959Civil Rights$3,000

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 budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA: $2,169,000 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetWEITZMAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY: $1,036,535 over 9y, 5.3% of budgetTHE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY: $143,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetCHILDREN'S CRISIS TREATMENT CENTER: $78,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF LIBI INC: $75,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetWILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL INC: $27,073 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetISRAEL TENNIS CENTERS FOUNDATION INC: $21,800 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetCystic Fibrosis Research Fund Inc: $17,750 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $13,036 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetPHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART: $8,350 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetFREIRE FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH: $4,750 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetLIVE LIKE BLAINE FOUNDATION: $4,500 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE: $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMANN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPARTNERS FOR CANCER CARE AND PREVENTION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH T1D: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH RELIEF AGENCY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHARID CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE GATEWAY SCHOOL: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLIVENGRIN FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetACADEMY IN MANAYUNK: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRIBE 12: $360 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBRANDYWINE VALLEY SPCA: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPEF ISRAEL ENDOWMENT FUNDS INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBEYOND CELIAC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBRAIN INJURY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJewish Adoption and Foster Care Options Inc: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGILDA'S CLUB SOUTH JERSEY INC: $250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCAMP RAMAH IN THE POCONOS: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWILLIAMS SYNDROME ASSOCIATION INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetComcast Spectacor Charities Flyers Wives Fight For Lives: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetURBAN PROMISE MINISTRIES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INC: $250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetADAGIO HEALTH INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF THE PHILADELPHIA REGION: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBARKANN FAMILY HEALING HEARTS FOUNDATION: $250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHOLY REDEEMER HEALTH SYSTEM: $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION IN JAFFA INC: $180 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED JEWISH APPEAL-FEDERATION OF JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES OF NEW YORK INC: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA FOUNDATION: $100 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.

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 Saramar Charitabl…The Robert Wood Johns…The Tobin Family Foun…The Specter FoundationThe Philadelphia Foun…Steven and Ilene Berm…The Cigna Group Found…United Way of Greater…Julius & Ray Charlest…Erlbaum Family Founda…Chubb Charitable Foun…The Pfizer Foundation…
The Saramar Charitable FundPA21.9× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Saramar Charitable Fund · The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation · The Tobin Family Foundation · The Specter Foundation · The Philadelphia Foundation · Steven and Ilene Berman Family Foundation Inc · The Cigna Group Foundation · United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey · Julius & Ray Charlestein Foundation · Erlbaum Family Foundation · Chubb Charitable Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation 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 Kestenbaum Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Kestenbaum Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
10report 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.

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 61 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 2018, released 2018. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Kestenbaum 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