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Foundation Dossiers

Connecticut · Private foundation

The Mayer Family Foundation

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.

$804k
Granted FY2023
26
Itemized grants FY2023
22
Organizations funded FY2023
23%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Itemized, FY2023
$772k
The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2023
$6,000
Largest grant, FY2023
$500,000
Organizations funded a year
22 to 24
FY2022 to FY2023
States reached, FY2023
4
Total assets, FY2023
$3.6M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 23% of the organizations The Mayer Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 74% of its grant dollars.

The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY202322$772k23%
FY202224$221kn/a
86% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Education$811kArts & Culture$73kEnvironment$33kHealth$32kPhilanthropy$22kAnimals$10kReligion$5kYouth Development$4kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2022 to FY2023, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Fordham Preparatory School$200,3002n/a
American Museum of Natural History$20,00020%
The Windward School$20,00020%
University at Albany Foundation$20,00020%
United Way of Greenwich Inc$20,00021%
New York Botanical Garden$20,00020%
Metropolitan Museum of Art$20,00020%
The Metropolitan Opera Guild Inc$20,00020%
Catholic Academy of Bridgeport Inc$10,2001n/a
The Lake George Association Inc$10,00010%
Show all 24 grantees
All grantees of The Mayer Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Fordham Preparatory School$200,3002n/a
American Museum of Natural History$20,00020%
The Windward School$20,00020%
University at Albany Foundation$20,00020%
United Way of Greenwich Inc$20,00021%
New York Botanical Garden$20,00020%
Metropolitan Museum of Art$20,00020%
The Metropolitan Opera Guild Inc$20,00020%
Catholic Academy of Bridgeport Inc$10,2001n/a
The Lake George Association Inc$10,00010%
Wildlife Conservation Society$10,00020%
Bruce Museum Inc$10,00020%
Foundations in Education Inc$6,00010%
Breast Cancer Alliance Inc$6,00010%
Round Hill Community Church Inc$5,0001n/a
Museum of Modern Art$3,00020%
The Greenwich Land Trust Inc$2,50010%
St Joseph's Health Fund$2,00010%
The Greenwich Library$2,00020%
Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich$2,00020%
Bucknell University$2,00020%
Greenwich Council Boy Scouts of America Incorporated$2,00010%
Greenwich Department of Human Services Fund Inc$1,80021%
Bolton Free Library$50010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 5 recipients with no EIN on record ($577k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Mayer Family Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAmerican Museum of Natural History: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Windward School: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity at Albany Foundation: $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUnited Way of Greenwich Inc: $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetNew York Botanical Garden: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMetropolitan Museum of Art: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Metropolitan Opera Guild Inc: $20,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetThe Lake George Association Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetWildlife Conservation Society: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBruce Museum Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFoundations in Education Inc: $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBreast Cancer Alliance Inc: $6,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMuseum of Modern Art: $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Greenwich Land Trust Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSt Joseph's Health Fund: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Greenwich Library: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBoys & Girls Club of Greenwich: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBucknell University: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGreenwich Council Boy Scouts of America Incorporated: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGreenwich Department of Human Services Fund Inc: $1,800 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetBolton Free Library: $500 over 1y, 0.4% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 21.

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.

Jewish Communal FundMorgan Stanley Global…Vanguard Charitable E…National Philanthropi…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Jewish Communal FundNY11.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Communal Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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.

Compare The Mayer Family Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Mayer Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Mayer Family Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

About The Mayer Family Foundation

How much does The Mayer Family Foundation give?
The Mayer Family Foundation reported 26 itemized grants totaling $772,010, out of $803,520 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2023 IRS filing. It funded between 22 and 24 organizations a year over FY2022 to FY2023.
What does The Mayer Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2022 to FY2023, its largest causes are Education (20%), Arts & Culture (2%), Environment (1%).
Who are The Mayer Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2022 to FY2023: Fordham Preparatory School ($200k), American Museum of Natural History ($20k), The Windward School ($20k).
Does The Mayer Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 23% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Mayer Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Mayer Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Jewish Communal Fund, Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc, Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program.
Where is The Mayer Family Foundation based?
The Mayer Family Foundation is based in CT.

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 29 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $368k of grant expense with no grantee named in the published copy. A private foundation itemizes every grant it makes, so a return carrying none has filed its list as an attachment that the public copy does not include. The figures above are therefore from FY2023, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Mayer Family’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