· Private foundation
The Merlin Foundation Inc
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 FY2023–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k11 grants · $55k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BEST FRIENDS | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $8,500 |
| SAVE THE CHIMPS | $6,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $6,500 |
| ANIMAL CARE CENTERS OF NYC | $6,000 |
| WOMENS ANIMAL CENTER | $6,000 |
| RED ROVER | $5,000 |
| ENVISIONING ACCESS | $4,500 |
| JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE | $4,000 |
| TIGER HAVEN | $3,000 |
| WILDLIFE FREEDOM FOUNDATION | $3,000 |
| THERAPEUTIC HORSES OF SARATOGA INC | $2,000 |
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 (FY23–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 55% 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +42% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 7 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, 48% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $34k went to new ones.
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
ANIMAL CARE AND CONTROL OF NEW YORK CITY INC2× · 2023–2024 · $8k · revenue +42%- JGJANE GOODALL INSTITUTE FOR WILDLIFE RESEARCH EDUCATION AND CONSERVATION2× · 2023–2024 · $6k · revenue +12%
- WFWILDLIFE FREEDOM FOUNDATION INC2× · 2023–2024 · $5k · revenue +42%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $7k
- STSAVE THE CHIMPS INCone grant, 2024 · $7k · revenue -64%
- WHWOMEN'S HUMANE SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS INCone grant, 2024 · $6k · revenue 0%
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.
Animal care sanctuary's lifesaving mission as a no kill organization envisions a community that promotes turning compassion into action for companion animals by: 1.) adopting healthy pet companions into loving homes. 2.) promoting the…
The washington humane society protects animals, supports families, and advocates for positive change to create a world where all animals can thrive. we enrich the humanity of our communities by promoting compassion and encouraging people…
Marin humane transforms lives through exceptional animal care, humane education, and advocacy. every day, marin humane inspires compassion and positive relationships between people and animals.
Animal haven is a nonprofit organization that finds homes for dogs and cats throughout the tristate area. it operates out of its adoption center in lower manhattan which has facilities for dog training and grooming as part of the adoption…
Animal welfare organization providing rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption for wild, domestic, and farmed animals.
The connecticut humane society is the leading resource in the state for companion animal welfare, enriching the lives of families and communities through adoption services, medical care, education, and prevention of cruelty.
Animal shelter for the protection and care of abused and neglected animals.
Seattle humane promotes the human-animal bond by saving and serving pets in need, regardless of age, ability, circumstance or geography.
Is a volunteer-based non profit organization that saves dogs and cats from death (high kill shelters) and adopts them to loving families.
THE ANIMAL RESCUE FUND OF THE HAMPTONS ACTIVELY RESCUES CATS AND DOGS, PROVIDES QUALITY CARE AND OFFERS SANCTUARY UNTIL LOVING HOMES CAN BE FOUND. ARF's work with animals, within our community and throughout the organization is guided by…
Founded in 2023, humane animal partners is a nonprofit no-kill animal care and adoption center. we are committed to providing for the needs of homeless and owned dogs and cats in our community. we make "friends for life" by connecting…
Catskill animal sanctuary rescues farmed animals, ignites social change to end their exploitation, and champions vegan living.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Women's Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Inc and the most unlike its peers is Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 12 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 ANIMAL CARE AND CONTROL OF NEW YORK CITY INC ↗
- Who funds SAVE THE CHIMPS INC ↗
- Who funds JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE FOR WILDLIFE RESEARCH EDUCATION AND CONSERVATION ↗
- Who funds WOMEN'S HUMANE SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED ANIMAL NATIONS DBA REDROVER ↗
- Who funds WILDLIFE FREEDOM FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ENVISIONING ACCESS INC ↗
- Who funds TIGER HAVEN INC ↗
- Who funds THERAPEUTIC HORSES OF SARATOGA 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: 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 Merlin Foundation Inc 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.
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 Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Merlin Foundation Inc 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.