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The Lemelson Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Lemelson Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$20M
Granted FY2024still arriving
71
Grants FY2024still arriving
18
States reached
$3.0M
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, FY2018 to 2024.

Education$33MScience & Tech$28MEnvironment$16MInternational$8.3MArts & Culture$7.3MCommunity Improvement$6.3MPhilanthropy$3.0MSocial Science$796kOther$0
02FY2024 · 71 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $15k
  • $10k–50k13 grants · $317k
  • $50k–250k33 grants · $3.7M
  • $250k+23 grants · $16M
$115,000
Median grant
18
States reached
$414M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE INVENTORS & INNOVATORS ALLIANCE$2,959,932
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION$1,650,000
ALLIANCE FOR TRIBAL CLEAN ENERGY INC$1,250,000
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY$1,150,000
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE$1,000,000
ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC$750,000
WILLIAM MARSH RICE UNIVERSITY$600,000
SEEDING JUSTICE$500,000
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC$500,000
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FOR ALL VEREIN FUR NACHHALTIGE ENERGIE$500,000
KENYA IMPACT INNOVATIONS FOUNDATION$500,000
CLIMATE BREAKTHROUGH INC$500,000
OIL CHANGE INTERNATIONAL$500,000
CLEARPATH INC$400,000
SELCO FOUNDATION$395,740
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.

US giving: 86% of grant dollars ($89M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 14% that went abroad ($15M) is mapped below.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY18–24, $1.9M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%REALIZE IMPACT: $125k → 10%TIDES CENTER: $96k → 10%TIDES CENTER: $75k → 10%TIDES CENTER: $60k → 10%CLIMATE BREAKTHROUGH INC: $1.0M → 10%CLIMATE BREAKTHROUGH INC: $500k → 10%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

VT
WA
MN
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
DC
GA
TX
FL

Beyond the US: 14% of all-years giving ($15M)

5 countries, by the recipient’s country on the filing.

grant dollars sentlessmore
India$6.7M · 27 grants
Kenya$5.9M · 21 grants
Brazil$1.0M · 1 grant
Austria$1.0M · 2 grants
Germany$100k · 2 grants
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. International giving is mapped by the recipient’s country from the same 990 filings; comparable need data isn’t available at that grain.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 29% of The Lemelson Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Lemelson Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 21% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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.
$73M · 76 repeat orgs$7.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +25% since the first grant, against +18% for those funded once.

76 repeat relationships: 42 still active in FY2024, 34 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

76
47

Total granted

$73M
$4.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+25%
+18%

Still filing today

64%
62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.8M went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureScience & TechInternationalEnvironmentPhilanthropyOther
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

  • NC
    National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc
    7× · 2018–2024 · $22M · revenue +681%
  • Rocky Mountain Institute
    4× · 2019–2024 · $3.0M · revenue +227%
  • WM
    William Marsh Rice University
    7× · 2018–2024 · $2.9M · revenue +63%

Funded once

  • IC
    INSTITUTO CLIMA E SOCIEDADE
    one grant, 2023 · $1.0M
  • SI
    SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
    one grant, 2022 · $850k
  • GF
    GEARBOX FOUNDATIONGEARBOX LIMITED
    one grant, 2018 · $295k
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
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.

—
2
Activate Global Inc

Activate empowers scientists to reinvent the world by bringing their research to market. activate partners with u.s. based funders, research institutions, and other pillars of the hard technology community to help entrepreneurial…

Environment
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
The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International
5
Breakthrough Energy Foundation

Working with our world-class network of innovators, business and industry leaders, and policy experts, we accelerate the innovation of climate technologies at every stage - from discovery to development to deployment.

Public Benefit
6
Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Inc

Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…

Community Improvement
7
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
8
Peter G Peterson Institute for International Economics

The peterson institute for international economics (piie) is an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to strengthening prosperity and human welfare in the global economy through expert analysis and practical…

Social Science
9
Boston Architectural College

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

—
10
Acec Research Institute

Acec research institute serve as the leading source of knowledge and thought leadership for creating a more sustainable, safe, secure, and technically advanced built environment. identify, fund, and provide industry wide research forecasts…

Unclassified
11
Institute of Food Technologists

As an organization, the institute of food technologists is focusing its work in four main areas, or "roles and goals." each is wide-reaching and helps to advance our mission.steward for the profession and its community - provide learning,…

—
12
Orcid Inc

Orcid provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. we provide open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Aspen Institute Inc; the most unlike its peers is Global Minimum Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

103 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. 103 of the 145 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.

9
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
98/103
Grantees still filing
65/103
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc: $21,793,866 · EducationNational Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance …Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $19,309,478 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyWilliam Marsh Rice University: $2,899,732 · EducationWilliam Marsh Rice University+25 more: $4,405,385 · Education+25 morePORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $4,721,946 · OtherPORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIONKENYA IMPACT INNOVATIONS FOUNDATION: $3,357,766 · OtherKENYA IMPACT INNOVATIONS FOUNDATIONRocky Mountain Institute: $3,000,000 · OtherRocky Mountain InstituteVILLGRO INNOVATIONS FOUNDATION: $2,605,475 · OtherVILLGRO INNOVATIONS FOUNDATIONSELCO FOUNDATION: $2,569,316 · OtherSELCO FOUNDATIONNATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: $2,000,000 · OtherNATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATIONKENYA CLIMATE INNOVATION CENTER: $1,844,618 · OtherKENYA CLIMATE INNOVATION CENTERVILLGRO INNOVATIONS FOUNDATION (FORMERLY KNOWN AS RURAL INNOVATIONS NETWORK: $1,131,143 · OtherCLIMATE BREAKTHROUGH INC: $1,500,000 · Other+60 more: $10,799,899 · Other+60 moreGREATER WASHINGTON EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION INC: $1,847,468 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC: $1,840,000 · Arts & CultureTHE EDISON INSTITUTE INC: $1,804,590 · Arts & CultureWGBH Educational Foundation: $401,271 · Arts & CultureEDITORIAL PROJECTS IN EDUCATION INC: $315,000 · Arts & Culture+6 more: $472,575 · Arts & CultureENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $2,000,000 · EnvironmentALLIANCE FOR TRIBAL CLEAN ENERGY INC: $1,250,000 · EnvironmentCLEARPATH INC: $900,000 · EnvironmentWINDWARD FUND: $860,000 · EnvironmentBeyond Benign Inc: $553,403 · EnvironmentGOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC: $350,000 · EnvironmentNEW VENTURE FUND: $300,000 · EnvironmentCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC: $250,000 · Environment+1 more: $99,763 · EnvironmentSOCIETY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC: $1,050,668 · Science & TechAMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE: $836,226 · Science & TechTHE ASME FOUNDATION INC: $752,000 · Science & TechINTERNATIONAL CRYOSPHERE CLIMATE INITIATIVE: $200,000 · Science & TechVertueLab: $135,500 · Science & Tech+5 more: $219,975 · Science & TechIMPACT INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURS FOUNDATION: $2,414,548 · InternationalTHOUSAND CURRENTS: $250,000 · International50BREAKTHROUGHS FOUNDATION: $99,500 · International+4 more: $200,000 · InternationalROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC: $750,000 · PhilanthropyTHE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $605,000 · PhilanthropySEEDING JUSTICE: $500,000 · PhilanthropyROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC: $500,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY INITIATIVES: $295,000 · Philanthropy+6 more: $58,182 · Philanthropy
Education$48,408,461Other$33,530,163Arts & Culture$6,680,904Environment$6,563,166Science & Tech$3,194,369International$2,964,048Philanthropy$2,708,182

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 budgetNational Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc: $21,793,866 over 7y, 23% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $19,309,478 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetPORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $4,721,946 over 7y, 2.7% of budgetRocky Mountain Institute: $3,000,000 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetWilliam Marsh Rice University: $2,899,732 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetIMPACT INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURS FOUNDATION: $2,414,548 over 7y, 81% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED: $2,000,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetGREATER WASHINGTON EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION INC: $1,847,468 over 7y, 0.4% of budgetNATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC: $1,840,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetTHE EDISON INSTITUTE INC: $1,804,590 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetCLIMATE BREAKTHROUGH INC: $1,500,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetALLIANCE FOR TRIBAL CLEAN ENERGY INC: $1,250,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetSOCIETY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC: $1,050,668 over 7y, 0.8% of budgetAmerican Society for Engineering Education: $1,031,898 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetOregon State University Foundation: $932,692 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetInclusive Entrepreneurs Foundation FKA TiE Oregon Foundation: $911,900 over 6y, 77% of budgetCLEARPATH INC: $900,000 over 2y, 4.5% of budgetWINDWARD FUND: $860,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE: $836,226 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $796,087 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ASME FOUNDATION INC: $752,000 over 6y, 7.9% of budgetROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC: $750,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNONPROFIT ENTERPRISE AND SELF- SUSTAINABILITY TEAM INC (NESST): $641,765 over 2y, 25% of budgetTHE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $605,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetBeyond Benign Inc: $553,403 over 5y, 21% of budgetSEEDING JUSTICE: $500,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetOil Change International Inc: $500,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC: $500,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetWGBH Educational Foundation: $401,271 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSTEM NEXT OPPORTUNITY FUND: $387,500 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetGOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC: $350,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $350,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetGLOBAL MINIMUM INC: $348,448 over 2y, 71% of budgetEDITORIAL PROJECTS IN EDUCATION INC: $315,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetNEW VENTURE FUND: $300,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMUNITY INITIATIVES: $295,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetCLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC: $250,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHOUSAND CURRENTS: $250,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY: $239,728 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTIDES CENTER: $230,775 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $215,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL CRYOSPHERE CLIMATE INITIATIVE: $200,000 over 1y, 58% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR EDUCATION RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIPS: $182,000 over 1y, 23% of budgetTIE FOUNDATION: $180,000 over 2y, 42% of budgetTHE INDUS ENTREPRENEURS: $175,060 over 2y, 30% of budgetPORTLAND CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: $163,650 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetKENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND SERVICE FOUNDATION INC: $160,129 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetMOCO KIDSCO INC: $137,952 over 3y, 1.5% 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.

  • Who funds National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc ↗
  • Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
  • Who funds PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Rocky Mountain Institute ↗
  • Who funds William Marsh Rice University ↗
  • Who funds IMPACT INNOVATORS AND ENTREPRENEURS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds GREATER WASHINGTON EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC ↗
  • Who funds THE EDISON INSTITUTE INC ↗
  • Who funds CLIMATE BREAKTHROUGH INC ↗
  • Who funds ALLIANCE FOR TRIBAL CLEAN ENERGY INC ↗
  • Who funds SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC ↗
  • Who funds American Society for Engineering Education ↗
  • Who funds Oregon State University Foundation ↗
  • Who funds Inclusive Entrepreneurs Foundation FKA TiE Oregon Foundation ↗
  • Who funds CLEARPATH INC ↗
  • Who funds WINDWARD FUND ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE ↗
  • Who funds THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC ↗
  • Who funds THE ASME FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ↗
  • Who funds NONPROFIT ENTERPRISE AND SELF- SUSTAINABILITY TEAM INC (NESST) ↗
  • Who funds THE OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Beyond Benign Inc ↗
  • Who funds SEEDING JUSTICE ↗
  • Who funds Oil Change International Inc ↗
  • Who funds ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds WGBH Educational Foundation ↗
  • Who funds STEM NEXT OPPORTUNITY FUND ↗
  • Who funds GOODPOWER EDUCATION FUND INC ↗

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 Oregon Community …Silicon Valley Commun…Meyer Memorial TrustThe William & Flora H…Marie Lamfrom Charita…Climateworks Foundati…National Collegiate I…New Venture FundEwing Marion Kauffman…The Collins FoundationTides FoundationCharles Stewart Mott …
The Oregon Community FoundationOR21.6× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Oregon Community Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Meyer Memorial Trust · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation Trust · Climateworks Foundation · National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc · New Venture Fund · Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation · The Collins Foundation · Tides Foundation · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

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 Lemelson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lemelson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 150%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service Inc Dba Global Refuge: 100% of income from government
  • National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance Inc: 38% of income from government
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • Connected Lane County: 17% of income from government
  • Moco Kidsco Inc: 15% of income from government
  • VertueLab: 12% of income from government
  • University of Central Florida Research Foundation Inc: 10% of income from government
  • The Oregon Community Foundation: 2% of income from government
  • Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
  • Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Inc: 0% of income from government
  • National Academy of Inventors Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Beyond Benign Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Oregon State University Foundation: 0% of income from government
  • Seeding Justice: 0% of income from government
  • Portland State University Foundation: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
15get no government money at all
12report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely 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 Lemelson Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Lemelson 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.

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 145 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 Lemelson’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