· Private foundation
The Lee Family Foundation Inc
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, FY2019 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $19k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $27k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Baltimore Symphony Orchestra | $16,000 |
| Shriver Hall Concert Series | $11,000 |
| 31 501C(3) Organizations for 800 or less | $5,850 |
| WETA | $2,800 |
| The Nature Conservancy | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| University of Iowa | $1,000 |
| Doctors Without Borders | $1,000 |
| World Wildlife Fund | $1,000 |
| WBJC FM | $1,000 |
| Best Friends Animal Society | $1,000 |
| Mercy Ridge Scholarship Fund | $1,000 |
| Baltimore Museum of Art | $1,000 |
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 (FY22–22, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% 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
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 +28% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.
15 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 3 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, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BSBALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC6× · 2020–2025 · $96k · revenue +49%
- SHSHRIVER HALL CONCERT SERIES INC6× · 2020–2025 · $68k · revenue +57%
BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART6× · 2020–2025 · $6k · revenue +2%
Funded once
- JHJohns Hopkins Univ YCL Labone grant, 2022 · $20k
- 3530 501C(3) Organizations for 900 or lessone grant, 2022 · $18k
- UOUniv of Iowa Cntr for Advncmtone grant, 2019 · $2k
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.
Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.
We work towards a future where birds thrive across the americas because audubon is a powerful, diverse, and ever-growing force for conservation. (continued on schedule o).
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
Ocean conservancy unites science, people, and policy to protect our ocean, today and for generations to come.
The wildlife society's mission is to inspire, empower, and enable wildlife professionals to sustain wildlife populations and habitats through science-based management and conservation.
To advocate for policy changes by governments and corporations in order to preserve ocean life and return the oceans to their former abundance.
The wildlife conservation society (wcs) saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature.
We safeguard the earth: its people, its plants and animals, and (see schedule o) the natural systems on which all life depends. we work to restore the integrity of the elements that sustain life - air, land, and water - to defend…
To promote public health, safety, and welfare through the improvement of the quality and quantity of drinking water and the development and furtherance of understanding of the problems relating thereto.
The purpose of the water research foundation (wrf) is a definitive research organization to advance the science of all things water to better meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. to engage exclusively in…
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.
Nacwa is the national voice of public clean water utilities, shaping water policy, convening a vibrant peer network, and empowering water leaders.
How this is measured
15 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. 15 of the 31 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 BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds SHRIVER HALL CONCERT SERIES INC ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds MARYLAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds GREATER WASHINGTON EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds Mercy Ridge Inc ↗
- Who funds KENNEDY KRIEGER FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN RIVERS INC ↗
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Lee Family Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lee Family Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
- Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Inc: 11% of income from government
- Shriver Hall Concert Series Inc: 9% of income from government
- Baltimore Museum of Art: 4% of income from government
- Maryland Zoological Society Inc: 3% of income from government
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc: 2% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Lee Family’s filings →