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The Louis Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Louis Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$439k
Granted FY2025still arriving
13
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$333k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$1.0MHealth$651kInternational$278kPhilanthropy$262kRecreation & Sports$255kArts & Culture$187kAnimals$158kReligion$83kOther$0
02FY2025 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k7 grants · $12k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $94k
  • $250k+1 grant · $333k
$4,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$1.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SEATTLE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL$333,333
JOHNS HOPKINS$29,000
BOSTON CHILDRENS HOSPITAL$25,000
EPIPHANY SCHOOL$20,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION$10,000
Individual grant recipient$4,000
SPONSOR INC$3,000
SKIDMORE COLLEGE$2,500
PINE CAY PROJECT$1,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD$1,000
YALE CLASS OF 69 DUES$500
SHAFTSBURY HISTORICAL SOCIETY$160
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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $24k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%CAMBRIDGE FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE: $5k → 8%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%CAMBRIDGE FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE: $4k → 8%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%CAMBRIDGE FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE: $2k → 8%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%CAMBRIDGE FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE: $2k → 8%OCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $1k → 7%BRIDGES HOMEWARD: $2k → 8%BRIDGES HOMEWARD: $1k → 8%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
WY
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
CO
VA
MD
DC
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.

66%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.0M · 61 repeat orgs$1.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +25% for those funded once.

61 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 53 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

61
37

Total granted

$2.0M
$662k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%
+25%

Still filing today

64%
32%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 9% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $400k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthArts & CultureEnvironmentRecreation & SportsInternationalOther
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

  • THE EPIPHANY SCHOOL INC
    7× · 2019–2025 · $355k · revenue +129%
  • TA
    THE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC
    6× · 2018–2024 · $226k · revenue +5%
  • CH
    Children's Hospital Corporation
    5× · 2018–2023 · $150k · revenue +78%

Funded once

  • IR
    International Rescue Committee INC
    one grant, 2023 · $200k · revenue -2%
  • C4
    CUMMINGS 4TH YEAR SCHOLARSHIP
    one grant, 2023 · $100k
  • BI
    BETH ISRAEL
    one grant, 2024 · $75k
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
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
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
Boston Architectural College

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

—
4
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
5
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
6
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
7
Roger Williams University

At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…

Education
8
Cambridge College Inc

To provide academically excellent, time-efficient and cost-effective higher education for a diverse population of working adults for whom those opportunities may have been limited or denied.

Education
9
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
10
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
11
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

—
12
President and Fellows of Harvard College

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

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is More Than Words Inc; the most unlike its peers is Pine Cay Project. 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

57 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. 57 of the 106 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
56/57
Grantees still filing
45/57
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SEATTLE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $333,333 · OtherSEATTLE CHILDREN'S HOSPITALCUMMINGS VETERINARY FUND: $151,000 · OtherCUMMINGS VETERINARY FUNDCUMMINGS 4TH YEAR SCHOLARSHIP: $100,000 · OtherCUMMINGS 4TH YEAR SCHOLARSHIPIndividual grant recipient: $89,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientBETH ISRAEL: $75,000 · OtherRODMAN RIDE EPIPHANY SCHOOL: $50,000 · Other+63 more: $655,006 · Other+63 moreTHE EPIPHANY SCHOOL INC: $354,600 · EducationTHE EPIPHANY SCHOOL INCSHADY HILL SCHOOL: $106,000 · EducationSHADY HILL SCHOOLTHE COLORADO COLLEGE: $105,000 · EducationTHE COLORADO COLLEGEEDUCATION BURMA THAILAND MYANMAR: $50,000 · EducationEDUCATION BURMA THAILAND MY…BROOKS SCHOOL: $40,000 · EducationSKIDMORE COLLEGE: $37,500 · EducationGROTON SCHOOL: $35,000 · Education+8 more: $79,800 · Education+8 moreCAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $185,000 · PhilanthropyCAMBRIDGE …THE VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $75,000 · PhilanthropyTHE VERMON…Rodman For Kids Inc: $50,000 · PhilanthropyRodman For…+1 more: $1,000 · PhilanthropyTHE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC: $226,000 · Recreation & SportsCAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION INC: $17,000 · Recreation & SportsWEEKAPAUG YACHT CLUB INC: $10,000 · Recreation & SportsChildren's Hospital Corporation: $150,000 · HealthBETH ISRAEL LAHEY HEALTH PHARMACY INC: $75,000 · Health+6 more: $8,050 · HealthInternational Rescue Committee INC: $200,000 · InternationalPine Cay Project: $17,000 · InternationalFOCUS ON TANZANIAN COMMUNITIES INC: $9,500 · InternationalTHE WEEKAPAUG FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATION: $41,368 · EnvironmentVERMONT LAND TRUST INC: $17,000 · Environment+2 more: $2,000 · Environment
Other$1,453,339Education$807,900Philanthropy$311,000Recreation & Sports$253,000Health$233,050International$226,500Environment$60,368

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 budgetTHE EPIPHANY SCHOOL INC: $354,600 over 7y, 1.8% of budgetTHE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC: $226,000 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetInternational Rescue Committee INC: $200,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $185,000 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetChildren's Hospital Corporation: $150,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSHADY HILL SCHOOL: $106,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetTHE COLORADO COLLEGE: $105,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetBETH ISRAEL LAHEY HEALTH PHARMACY INC: $75,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $75,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetRodman For Kids Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetEDUCATION BURMA THAILAND MYANMAR: $50,000 over 4y, 10% of budgetTHE WEEKAPAUG FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATION: $41,368 over 7y, 2.4% of budgetBROOKS SCHOOL: $40,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSKIDMORE COLLEGE: $37,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetVermont Public Radio: $35,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetGROTON SCHOOL: $35,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $33,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetWMHT EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC: $32,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetMORE THAN WORDS INC: $29,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetREVELSINC: $26,000 over 7y, 0.4% of budgetTHE JONNYCAKE CENTER OF WESTERLY INC: $26,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $25,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetEverScholar Inc: $20,000 over 3y, 20% of budgetPine Cay Project: $17,000 over 8y, 3.1% of budgetCAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION INC: $17,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetVERMONT LAND TRUST INC: $17,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBRIDGES HOMEWARD INC: $16,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetVERMONT FOODBANK: $13,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTUTORING PLUS OF CAMBRIDGE INC: $11,000 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetWEEKAPAUG YACHT CLUB INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTHE WESTERLY LAND TRUST: $10,000 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetWGBH Educational Foundation: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFOCUS ON TANZANIAN COMMUNITIES INC: $9,500 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH GREATER BOSTON INC: $9,200 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetOrchestra of the Americas Group Inc: $9,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetAMERICAN PROMISE EDUCATION FUND INC: $9,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE CAMBRIDGE HOMES: $8,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetOCEAN COMMUNITY YMCA: $8,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS: $7,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCAMBRIDGE CENTER FOR ADULT EDUCATION: $5,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetWESTERLY COLLEGE CLUB INC: $4,500 over 4y, 3.7% of budgetRIVERSIDE COMMUNITY CARE INC: $4,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetIMAGINE SCHOLAR INC: $3,600 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetBRATTLE FILM FOUNDATION INC: $2,100 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPAN-MASSACHUSETTS CHALLENGE INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC: $1,500 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetArlington Rescue Squad Inc: $1,300 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetTHE GUIDANCE CENTER: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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 THE EPIPHANY SCHOOL INC ↗
  • Who funds THE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds International Rescue Committee INC ↗
  • Who funds CAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Children's Hospital Corporation ↗
  • Who funds SHADY HILL SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds THE COLORADO COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds BETH ISRAEL LAHEY HEALTH PHARMACY INC ↗
  • Who funds THE VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Rodman For Kids Inc ↗
  • Who funds EDUCATION BURMA THAILAND MYANMAR ↗
  • Who funds THE WEEKAPAUG FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATION ↗
  • Who funds BROOKS SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds SKIDMORE COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds Vermont Public Radio ↗
  • Who funds GROTON SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds WMHT EDUCATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
  • Who funds MORE THAN WORDS INC ↗
  • Who funds REVELSINC ↗
  • Who funds THE JONNYCAKE CENTER OF WESTERLY INC ↗
  • Who funds Trustees of Tufts College ↗
  • Who funds EverScholar Inc ↗
  • Who funds Pine Cay Project ↗
  • Who funds CAMBRIDGE CAMPING ASSOCIATION 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.

Boston Foundation IncCambridge Savings Cha…Cambridge Community F…Eastern Cambridge Fou…Eastern Bank Foundati…The Rhode Island Comm…Marci and Martin Karp…Royce Family Fund IncThe New York Communit…The William & Lia G P…Stevenson Family Char…Alchemy Foundation
Boston Foundation IncMA24.9× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation Inc · Cambridge Community Foundation · Eastern Cambridge Foundation · Eastern Bank Foundation · The Rhode Island Community Foundation · Marci and Martin Karplus Family Foundation · Royce Family Fund Inc · The New York Community Trust · The William & Lia G Poorvu Family Foundation · Stevenson Family Charitable Trust · Alchemy 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 Louis Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Louis Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 140%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Bridges Homeward Inc: 77% of income from government
  • Riverside Community Care Inc: 58% of income from government
  • Vermont Land Trust Inc: 42% of income from government
  • More Than Words Inc: 24% of income from government
  • Cambridge Camping Association Inc: 14% of income from government
  • Vermont Foodbank: 13% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Town of Bennington Rescue Squad Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Breakthrough Greater Boston Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Sponsor Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Revelsinc: 1% of income from government
  • Brattle Film Foundation Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
  • Yale New Haven Hospital: 0% of income from government
  • The Epiphany School Inc: 0% of income from government
  • Pan-Massachusetts Challenge Inc: 0% of income from government
  • The Vermont Community Foundation: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
14get no government money at all
5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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 106 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Louis’ 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