Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

The Lewis 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.

$6.7M
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$2.0M
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Philanthropy$8.2MEducation$5.4MEnvironment$5.0MSocial Science$4.8MArts & Culture$2.3MPublic Benefit$1.0MCivil Rights$800kFood & Nutrition$250kOther$0
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
  • $250k+6 grants · $6.5M
$1,000,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$146M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC$2,000,000
ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$1,000,000
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE$1,000,000
THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC$1,000,000
ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC$1,000,000
EARTHJUSTICE$500,000
THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC$200,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 34% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Infact DBA Corporate Accountability International: $50k → 16%SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $500k → 10%EARTHJUSTICE: $500k → 10%INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION INC: $50k → 14%MEDIA COLLECTIVE INC: $100k → 17%THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $2.0M → 14%UTAH FILM CENTER: $150k → 8%ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC: $2.0M → 6%BIG GREEN: $250k → 7%ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $4.0M → 7%ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE: $1.0M → 12%Summit54: $50k → 12%Oberlin College & Conservatory: $225k → 13%THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION: $1.0M → 14%SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $500k → 10%EARTHJUSTICE: $500k → 10%INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION INC: $50k → 14%THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $1.0M → 14%UTAH FILM CENTER: $150k → 8%ASPEN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $1.0M → 6%ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $2.0M → 7%Rocky Mountain Institute: $1.0M → 12%The Sapling Foundation: $83k → 17%THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $1.0M → 14%UTAH FILM CENTER: $150k → 8%ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC: $1.0M → 6%ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1.0M → 7%The Sapling Foundation: $83k → 17%THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $425k → 14%UTAH FILM CENTER: $100k → 8%ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC: $1.0M → 6%ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $500k → 7%American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc: $200k → 17%THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $200k → 14%UTAH FILM CENTER: $100k → 8%ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC: $1.0M → 6%AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $200k → 17%THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC: $200k → 14%Aspen Community Foundation: $500k → 6%AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $200k → 17%ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: $200k → 6%ACLU Foundation: $200k → 17%ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: $200k → 6%ASPEN ART MUSEUM: $200k → 6%ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: $200k → 6%ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: $200k → 6%ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: $200k → 6%ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC: $100k → 6%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

IL
NY
MA
OH
CA
UT
CO
DC

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

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

About 30% of The Lewis Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 63% of the giving stays in CO; read by stated purpose it is 66% — more of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Lewis Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

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 foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$17M · 9 repeat orgs$3.5M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +102% since the first grant, against -17% for the ones you funded once.

9 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
12

Total granted

$17M
$3.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+102%
-17%

Still filing today

100%
83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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 & CultureEnvironmentSocial ScienceFood & NutritionCrime & LegalCivil RightsOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • TA
    THE ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC
    4× · 2020–2024 · $5.1M · revenue +22%
  • THE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC
    3× · 2022–2024 · $4.8M · revenue +134%
  • Rocky Mountain Institute
    2× · 2017–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +381%

Funded once

  • THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $1.0M · revenue +49%
  • AA
    ASPEN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $1.0M · revenue +139% · 75% of their budget
  • BG
    Big Green
    one grant, 2022 · $250k · revenue -49%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Sundance Institute

Sundance institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences.

Arts & Culture
2
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
3
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
4
American Gas Association

American gas association's (the association) mission is to develop and advocate for informed, innovative, and durable policy that fulfills our nation's energy needs, environmental aspirations and economic potential. we are committed to…

5
American Geophysical Union

Agu's mission is to advance and support an inclusive community of earth and space scientists and partners dedicated to discovery and solutions to societal challenges. agu seeks to catalyze discovery and solutions to scientific and societal…

Science & Tech
6
Climate Catalyst Inc

Climate catalyst sparks collective action to tackle the biggest climate challenges we face today: cutting emissions in heavy industries.

Environment
7
Asociacion Interamericana Para La Defensa Del Ambiente

To strenghten people's ability to guarantee their individual and collective right to a healthy environment, via the development, implementation, and effective enforcement of national and international law.

Crime & Legal
8
The American Film Institute

The american film institute ("afi") is a national institute providing leadership in screen education and the recognition and celebration of excellence in the art of film, television and digital media.

Arts & Culture
9
Cdp North America Inc

Cdp north america, inc. 's ("cdp-na") vision for the future is a thriving economy that works for people and planet in the long term. we focus investors and companies on taking urgent action to build a truly sustainable economy by measuring…

Environment
10
American Society of Civil Engineers Inc

To provide essential value to our members, their careers, our partners, and the public, asce will: facilitate the advancement of technology; encourage and provide the tools for lifelong learning; promote professionalism and the profession;…

Science & Tech
11
Aia Colorado

AIA Colorado,is the voice of the architecture profession in Colorado. Through advocacy, leadership development, education and resources for architects, the organization supports architecture professionals in designing a better world where…

12
Center for Green Market Activation

To promote the uptake of low-carbon and zero-carbon fuels and materials in high-emitting and hard-to decarbonize sectors, as a means of combatting climate change and its adverse impacts on the environment and public health.

Science & Tech

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Aspen Institute Inc and the most unlike its peers is The Sapling Foundation. 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

20 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 20 of the 22 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
20/20
Grantees still filing
12/20
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $8,000,000 · PhilanthropyASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION+1 more — $166,668 · PhilanthropyTHE ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC — $5,100,000 · OtherTHE ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL IN…Rocky Mountain Institute — $2,000,000 · OtherRocky Mountain Institute+5 more — $800,000 · Other+5 moreTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $4,825,000 · Social ScienceTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE…EARTHJUSTICE — $1,000,000 · EnvironmentEARTHJUSTICEASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES — $1,000,000 · EnvironmentASPEN CENTER…SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · EnvironmentSIERRA CLUB …+1 more — $50,000 · EnvironmentTHE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · Arts & CultureTHE BARACK O…ASPEN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · Arts & CultureASPEN ART MU…UTAH FILM CENTER — $650,000 · Arts & CultureUTAH FILM CE…ASPEN ART MUSEUM — $200,000 · Arts & CultureASPEN ART MU…INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOUNDATION INC — $100,000 · Arts & Culture+1 more — $50,000 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC — $800,000 · Civil RightsBig Green — $250,000 · Food & Nutrition
Philanthropy$8,166,668Other$7,900,000Social Science$4,825,000Environment$3,050,000Arts & Culture$3,000,000Civil Rights$800,000Food & Nutrition$250,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetASPEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $8,000,000 over 5y, 23% of budgetTHE ASPEN COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC — $5,100,000 over 4y, 16% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $4,825,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetRocky Mountain Institute — $2,000,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budgetEARTHJUSTICE — $1,000,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES — $1,000,000 over 5y, 4.4% of budgetSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetASPEN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 over 1y, 75% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC — $800,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetUTAH FILM CENTER — $650,000 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetBig Green — $250,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetEVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY SUPPORT FUND INC — $225,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetASPEN ART MUSEUM — $200,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetINTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FOUNDATION INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMEDIA COLLECTIVE INC — $100,000 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetSUMMIT54 — $50,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetInfact DBA Corporate Accountability — $50,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

National Philanthropic TrustPA10.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Lewis Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • Infact Dba Corporate Accountability0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 22 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph