· Public charity
The Lenny Zakim Fund
THE LENNY ZAKIM FUND ("the fund") believes positive social change can be created by small, effective, grassroots organizations that are often overlooked by large foundations, government agencies, and major donors.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k7 grants · $54k
- $10k–50k48 grants · $567k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CODESQUAD | $20,000 |
| WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER - THE WARREN DANIEL HAIRSTON PROJECT | $17,500 |
| AFRICAN CULTURAL SERVICES | $15,000 |
| SOMALI PARENTS ADVOCACY CTR FOR EDUCATION | $15,000 |
| NEIGHBORHOOD COUNSELING & COMMUNITY SVCS | $15,000 |
| THE UPWARD PROJECT | $15,000 |
| MY BROTHER'S KEEPER 617 | $15,000 |
| RIGHT TO THE CITY OF BOSTON | $15,000 |
| CULTURAL EXCHANGE THROUGH SOCCER | $13,892 |
| SOUTH COAST LGBTQ NETWORK | $13,845 |
| TOP NOTCH SCHOLARS | $13,300 |
| PINNACLE PARTNERSHIPS | $13,134 |
| SITTERS FOR SCHOLARS | $12,500 |
| RESIST | $12,500 |
| LOVE LIFE NOW FOUNDATION INC | $12,500 |
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 (FY17–24, $1.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 75% 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 +84% since the first grant, against +63% for those funded once.
118 repeat relationships: 45 still active in FY2024, 73 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $98k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC7× · 2017–2023 · $160k · revenue +44%
CHICA INC5× · 2019–2024 · $116k · revenue +299%
CENTRO COMUNITARIO DE TRABAJADORES INCORPORATED5× · 2018–2023 · $100k · revenue +316%
Funded once
- FUFATHERS UPLIFT INCORPORATEDgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue +972%
CENTRO PRESENTE INCone grant, 2018 · $20k · revenue -32%- CCCHINESE CULTURE CONNECTION INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +109%
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.
Urban Impact is dedicated to prioritizing the reduction of the impact of poverty for families in the Commonwealth. The organization offers a plethora of small business corporate and community opportunities. These opportunities include…
charitable, educational, and social welfare services.
Digital Ready activates the creative potential of young adults, especially low-income residents, to build tangible pathways to economic opportunities in Boston's innovation economy.
Start Change serves the nonprofit community and nonprofit project through consulting and shared services. Our mission is to expand capacity within the sector by providing low cost services to clients, consulting contract jobs to…
We exist to empower marginalized, low-income, and underserved communities through transformative experiences that inspire economic growth, educational excellence, and community engagement.
Boston cares organizes and leads team-oriented volunteer opportunities and services in and around boston that have a positive impact on individuals and communities.
preparing youth of today
The Boston Higher Education Resource Center equips first generation youth to obtain a higher education, break the cycle of poverty, and become agents of change in their communities.
Social services and cultural awareness
To inspire excitement for learning, create paths to and through college, and promote careers in education.
To connect, inform and engage christians to drastically impact unacceptable realities in boston. we do this by listening, innovating, and building what god is already doing
How this is measured
147 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 147 of the 159 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 THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
- Who funds CHICA INC ↗
- Who funds BMA TENPOINT INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR LABOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH INC ↗
- Who funds CENTRO COMUNITARIO DE TRABAJADORES INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH MUSIC INC ↗
- Who funds AFRICAN CULTURAL SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY WORKS WEST INC ↗
- Who funds THE WELCOME PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds AARONS PRESENTS INC ↗
- Who funds SAHELI INC ↗
- Who funds BRAZILIAN WOMEN'S GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds MUSLIM JUSTICE LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds WE ARE BETTER TOGETHER WARREN DANIEL HAIRSTON PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds IMMIGRANT FAMILY SERVICES INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds BAGLY INC ↗
- Who funds SIBLING CONNECTIONS INC ↗
- Who funds TRIANGLE INC ↗
- Who funds PARTAKERS INC ↗
- Who funds LYSOA INC ↗
- Who funds KIDS IN TECH INC ↗
- Who funds FAMILIES FOR JUSTICE AS HEALING INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY LABOR UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY INC ↗
- Who funds The City School Inc ↗
- Who funds ADAPTIVE SPORTS NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
- Who funds THE INSTITUTE FOR PAN AFRICAN CULTURAL EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds DREAM OUT LOUD CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTH COAST LGBTQ NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds MOUNT OLIVES COMMUNITY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CODESQUAD INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITIES FOR RESTORATIVE JUSTICE INC ↗
- Who funds AFRICAN BRIDGE NETWORK ↗
- Who funds HAWTHORNE YOUTH AND COMMUNITY CENTER ↗
- Who funds TO THE MOON AND BACK ↗
- Who funds BALLETROX INC ↗
- Who funds LYNN WORKER CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Pie R Squared Inc ↗
- Who funds LEVEL GROUND MIXED MARTIAL ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds SCIBOSTON 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.
Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · Eastern Bank Foundation · Foley Hoag Foundation · Haymarket People's Fund Inc · Health Resources in Action Inc · The Hyams Foundation Inc · Barr Foundation · Children's Hospital Corporation · Boston Charitable Trust Fund City of Boston Trust Office · United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc · Philanthropy Massachusetts Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Lenny Zakim Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lenny Zakim Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
- Community Caring Clinic Inc: 99% of income from government
- Triangle Inc: 90% of income from government
- Alliance for Inclusion and Prevention Inc: 73% of income from government
- Worcester Youth Center Inc: 64% of income from government
- Saheli Inc: 61% of income from government
- Partakers Inc: 59% of income from government
- Legendary Legacies Inc: 58% of income from government
- Association of Haitian Women Inc: 51% of income from government
- English at Large Inc: 49% of income from government
- Living Independently for Equality I: 46% of income from government
- Our Deaf Survivors Center: 43% of income from government
- Multicultural Aids Coalition Inc: 41% of income from government
- Bagly Inc: 39% of income from government
- Mount Olives Community Center Inc: 36% of income from government
- Louis D Brown Peace Institute Corp: 32% of income from government
- South Coast Lgbtq Network Inc: 29% of income from government
- Fathers Uplift Incorporated: 22% of income from government
- To the Moon and Back: 21% of income from government
- All Dorchester Sports & Leadership Inc: 21% of income from government
- East Boston Community Soup Kitchen Inc: 20% of income from government
- Building Bridges Through Music Inc: 19% of income from government
- Level Ground Mixed Martial Arts Inc: 19% of income from government
- Kids in Tech Inc: 15% of income from government
- Balletrox Inc: 15% of income from government
- Lysoa Inc: 15% of income from government
- Rise Above Foundation Inc: 14% of income from government
- Chica Inc: 12% of income from government
- Sibling Connections Inc: 10% of income from government
- Community Service Care Inc: 10% of income from government
- South Boston En Accion Inc: 10% of income from government
- Food Link Inc: 9% of income from government
- Out Metrowest Inc: 9% of income from government
- African Cultural Services Inc: 9% of income from government
- Communities for Restorative Justice Inc: 8% of income from government
- One Can Help Inc: 8% of income from government
- Bma Tenpoint Inc: 7% of income from government
- City Strings United Inc: 7% of income from government
- Bread of Life Inc: 6% of income from government
- Brazilian Worker Center Inc: 6% of income from government
- Spontaneous Celebrations Inc: 5% of income from government
- The Welcome Project Inc: 4% of income from government
- Dream Out Loud Center Inc: 3% of income from government
- Third Sector New England Inc: 3% of income from government
- History Project Inc: 3% of income from government
- Think Outside the Vox: 2% of income from government
- Chinese Culture Connection Inc: 2% of income from government
- Double Edge Theatre Productions Inc: 2% of income from government
- Resist Inc: 2% of income from government
- Boston Lesbigay Urban Foundation: 1% of income from government
- Cape Ann Art Haven Inc: 1% of income from government
- Brazilian Women's Group Inc: 0% of income from government
- Asian Women for Health Inc: 0% of income from government
- Community Labor United Inc: 0% of income from government
- Justice at Work Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Lenny Zakim’s filings →