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The Leona and Ralph W Kern Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Leona and Ralph W Kern 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.

$777k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$167k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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.

Arts & Culture$4.0MEducation$591kEnvironment$460kReligion$65kHealth$15k
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$125,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$26M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA$166,667
NEW YORK CITY BALLET$150,000
HITCHCOCK CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT$135,000
NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER$125,000
THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC$100,000
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO$50,000
FRACTURED ATLAS INC$50,000
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 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 98% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $500k → 12%THORNTON DONOVAN SCHOOL: $35k → 9%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $167k → 17%INTERNATIONAL LIVING FUTURE INSTITUTE: $184k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $50k → 14%HOLMDEL THEATRE COMPANY INC: $10k → 6%TRUSTEES OF FIRST PARISH IN PORTLAND: $65k → 7%HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $220k → 12%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $167k → 17%INTERNATIONAL LIVING FUTURE INSTITUTE: $131k → 12%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $150k → 12%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $167k → 17%HITCHCOCK CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: $135k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER: $125k → 12%NEW YORK CITY BALLET: $150k → 17%HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $70k → 12%THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $100k → 17%HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $70k → 12%THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $100k → 17%HITCHCOCK CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: $10k → 12%THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $100k → 17%THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $75k → 17%THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $75k → 17%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $67k → 17%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $67k → 17%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $67k → 17%FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $50k → 17%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $67k → 17%FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $40k → 17%FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $10k → 17%THE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $67k → 17%FRACTURED ATLAS INC: $30k → 17%CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION: $15k → 17%THE EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE INC: $11k → 17%THE EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE INC: $5k → 17%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.
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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$5.0M · 9 repeat orgs$175k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
4

Total granted

$5.0M
$125k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+20%
+168%

Still filing today

89%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 94% 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
Arts & CultureEducationEnvironmentOther
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

  • NY
    NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $1.4M · revenue +99%
  • NY
    NEW YORK CITY BALLET INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $1.2M · revenue +21%
  • TP
    THE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $450k · revenue +5%

Funded once

  • TO
    Trustees of First Parish in Portlandgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $65k · revenue +283% · 33% of their budget
  • TD
    THORNTON DONOVAN SCHOOL INC
    one grant, 2023 · $35k · revenue +17%
  • CH
    CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2019 · $15k
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
Boston Architectural College

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

—
2
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
3
Wheaton College

Wheaton college provides a transformative liberal arts education, combining theory and practice, for intellectually curious students within a collaborative and vibrant extended community and network that values and strives to create an…

Education
4
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
5
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
6
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
7
New York School of Interior Design

New york school of interior design provides the most innovative, immersive, and transformative interior design education in the world, demonstrating the impact of professionally designed interiors on the health, happiness, and well-being…

Education
8
Hampden-Sydney College

Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.

Education
9
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
10
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
11
New York City Center Inc

The mission of new york city center is to be new york city's leading center for dance and musical theater. dedicated to making the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience, city center seeks to create a welcoming environment and…

Arts & Culture
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Philharmonic Symphony Society of Ny Inc; the most unlike its peers is Holmdel Theatre Company 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

12 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. 12 of the 14 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
9/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC: $1,400,000 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INCNEW YORK CITY BALLET INC: $1,200,000 · Arts & CultureNEW YORK CITY BALLET INCTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $450,000 · Arts & CultureTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INCFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $130,000 · Arts & Culture+1 more: $10,000 · Arts & CultureTHE METROPOLITAN OPERA: $833,336 · OtherTHE METROPOLITAN OPERAHITCHCOCK CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT INC: $145,000 · OtherHITCHCOCK CENTER FOR THE…Trustees of First Parish in Portland: $65,000 · OtherTrustees of First Parish…+3 more: $70,500 · Other+3 moreHAMPSHIRE COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $485,000 · EducationHAMPSHIRE C…University of Chicago: $50,000 · EducationUniversity …International Living Future Institute: $315,000 · Environment
Arts & Culture$3,190,000Other$1,113,836Education$535,000Environment$315,000

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 budgetNATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC: $1,400,000 over 8y, 6.7% of budgetNEW YORK CITY BALLET INC: $1,200,000 over 8y, 0.4% of budgetHAMPSHIRE COLLEGE TRUSTEES: $485,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetTHE PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NY INC: $450,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetInternational Living Future Institute: $315,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetHITCHCOCK CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT INC: $145,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $130,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of First Parish in Portland: $65,000 over 1y, 33% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHORNTON DONOVAN SCHOOL INC: $35,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetTHE EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE INC: $20,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHOLMDEL THEATRE COMPANY INC: $10,000 over 1y, 27% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Fidelity Investments …
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA5.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Leona and Ralph W Kern Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Leona and Ralph W Kern Foundation. 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%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →median 55%
  • Hitchcock Center for the Environment Inc: 55% of income from government
  • National Yiddish Book Center Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
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 14 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 Leona and Ralph W Kern’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