· Private foundation
The Lowell Institute
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $9k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $76k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $481k
- $250k+3 grants · $1.7M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WGBH | $998,356 |
| Northeastern University | $404,245 |
| Museum of Science | $301,415 |
| WorldBoston Inc | $105,417 |
| Harvard University Extension School | $100,542 |
| John F Kennedy Library Foundation | $90,000 |
| Boston College | $75,000 |
| Cambridge Forum | $60,000 |
| Boston Public Library Fund | $50,000 |
| Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University | $32,666 |
| Peabody Essex Museum | $30,000 |
| Boston University | $13,500 |
| Paul Revere Memorial Association | $9,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–21, $50k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
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.
20 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2025, 7 since wound down.
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 FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY6× · 2020–2025 · $2.7M · revenue +63%- MOMUSEUM OF SCIENCE6× · 2020–2025 · $1.8M · revenue +13%
NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM CORPORATION4× · 2020–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +108%
Funded once
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETYgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue +159%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
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…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
Organization's mission bentley university believes good business can impact more than the bottom line - it can change the world. bentley is a community of future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting…
New england historic genealogical society's mission is to advance the study of family history in america and beyond. we educate, inspire, and connect people through our scholarship, collections, and expertise. we conduct business under the…
The rhode island historical society, through its collections, museums, and educational initiatives, welcomes everyone to engage with rhode island's complex and significant past.
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.
The Boston Public Library provides educational and cultural enrichment free to all by engaging the public through programming and active spaces, restoring and preserving our history, providing access to borrow from our vast collection of…
The mission of lowell observatory is to pursue the study of astronomy, especially the study of our solar system and its evolution; to conduct pure research in astronomical phenomena; and to maintain quality public education and outreach…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trustees of Boston University and the most unlike its peers is Cambridge Forum Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
14 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 14 of the 21 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF SCIENCE ↗
- Who funds NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY LIBRARY FOUNDATION INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds WORLD BOSTON INC ↗
- Who funds CAMBRIDGE FORUM INC ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds REVOLUTIONARY SPACES INC ↗
- Who funds PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY FUND INC ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds UNCORNERED INC ↗
- Who funds PAUL REVERE MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Highland Street Connection and Subsidiaries · Eastern Bank Foundation · Fidelity Non-Profit Management Foundation · Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities & Public Policy Inc · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 Lowell Institute 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Uncornered Inc — 24% of income from government
- Massachusetts Historical Society — 22% of income from government
- Revolutionary Spaces Inc — 20% of income from government
- Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
- New England Aquarium Corporation — 12% of income from government
- Northeastern University — 7% of income from government
- Cambridge Forum Inc — 4% of income from government
- Peabody Essex Museum Inc — 3% of income from government
- Trustees of Boston College — 3% of income from government
- Paul Revere Memorial Association — 1% of income from government
- Museum of Science — 0% of income from government
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.