· Private foundation
The Merlin 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k11 grants · $280k
- $50k–250k12 grants · $1.3M
- $250k+5 grants · $3.5M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WORLD WILDLIFE FUND | $1,000,000 |
| EARTHJUSTICE LEAGUE DEFENSE FUND | $1,000,000 |
| THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY | $800,000 |
| THE RHODES TRUST | $500,000 |
| OCEANA | $250,000 |
| JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE | $200,000 |
| HEROES PROJECT | $175,000 |
| YALE UNIVERSITY | $130,000 |
| VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS | $100,000 |
| ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES | $100,000 |
| RE WILD | $100,000 |
| OUTDOOR AFRO | $100,000 |
| NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY | $100,000 |
| WILDERNESS LAND TRUST | $75,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 95% of your 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
38 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2024, 20 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
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 FY2024, 62% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.9M 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
- TWTHE WILDERNESS SOCIETY7× · 2017–2024 · $7.5M · revenue +40%
- AFAMERICANS FOR OXFORD INC5× · 2017–2022 · $5.6M · revenue +17%
- WCWildlife Conservation Society5× · 2020–2024 · $3.0M · revenue +57%
Funded once
- PUPRINCETON UNIVERSTIYone grant, 2019 · $1.3M
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2018 · $100k
- LOLEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERSone grant, 2018 · $100k
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.
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
Ocean conservancy unites science, people, and policy to protect our ocean, today and for generations to come.
Cascadia wildlands defends and restores cacasia's wild ecosystems in the forests,in the courts, and in the streets. we envision vast old-growth forests, rivers full of wild salmon, wolves howling in the backcountry, a stable climate, and…
The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species
The resource renewal institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively.
We work towards a future where birds thrive across the americas because audubon is a powerful, diverse, and ever-growing force for conservation. (continued on schedule o).
Dedicated to protecting the world's natural environment on behalf of the public by serving as a public interest law firm. refer to schedule o, part iii, line 4a, for list of litigated cases or advocacy work.
Awf's mission is to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern africa. we work to equip african governments, institutions, business, and communities with the tools, insights, and support they need to define, own, and realize a…
The purpose of rainforest foundation us is to support indigenous peoples and forest communities in their efforts to secure their lands, protect their environment, and uphold their rights.
Inspiring communities to save wildlife for future generations.
We bring science, policy, and proven solutions directly to communities working to restore the integrity and natural connectivity of the landscapes in which they live. (see schedule o)
Perc is dedicated to advancing conservation through markets, incentives, property rights, and partnerships.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Conservation Colorado and the most unlike its peers is Wildlife Conservation Society. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 48 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
36 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. 36 of the 56 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 THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds AMERICANS FOR OXFORD INC ↗
- Who funds Wildlife Conservation Society ↗
- Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
- Who funds UC SANTA BARBARA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OCEANA INC ↗
- Who funds JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE FOR WILDLIFE RESEARCH EDUCATION AND CONSERVATION ↗
- Who funds VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds ASPEN CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES ↗
- Who funds THE WILDERNESS LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds TOMPKINS CONSERVATION ↗
- Who funds WILDERNESS WORKSHOP ↗
- Who funds COLORADO OPEN LANDS ↗
- Who funds THORNE ECOLOGICAL INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN RIVERS INC ↗
- Who funds WILLIAM J PALMER PARKS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds OPEN SPACE INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds REWILD ↗
- Who funds OUTDOOR AFRO ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ALASKA WILDERNESS LEAGUE ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
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: The Nature Conservancy · Resources Legacy Fund · Colorado Gives Foundation · Seattle Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation 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 Merlin 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.
- Milton Academy — 0% of income from government
- Vermont College of Fine Arts Inc — 0% of income from government
- Kinhaven Music School Inc — 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Merlin Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Merlin 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.