· Private foundation
The Merritt Charitable Fund Inc
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 FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k2 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $161k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THRIVE FOR LIFE PRISON PROJECT INC | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| FACETS CARES INC | $20,600 |
| THE LAMB CENTER | $20,580 |
| HOME STRETCH VA | $20,020 |
| MARK GARWOOD SCHOLARSHIP FUND | $20,000 |
| OXFORD HOUSE INC | $10,220 |
| SALVATION ARMY SOUTH | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| CLOVERLEAF EQUINE CENTER | $5,149 |
| CENTRAL UNION MISSION | $5,053 |
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 (FY19–25, $140k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 14% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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 +80% since the first grant, against +31% for the ones you funded once.
17 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $55k 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
- TFTHRIVE FOR LIFE PRISON PROJECT INC7× · 2019–2025 · $127k · revenue +577%
- FCFACETS CARES INC6× · 2019–2025 · $85k · revenue +76%
- TLTHE LAMB CENTER4× · 2019–2025 · $41k · revenue +218%
Funded once
- SPSAMARITAN'S PURSEgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $50k · revenue +40%
- FSFEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA INCone grant, 2020 · $15k · revenue -30%
- NLNEW LONDON HOMELESS HOSPITALITY CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $15k · revenue +156%
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.
Covenant house washington, dc ("chw") provides shelter, crisis care, community services, and outreach services to youth in the washington dc area.
Since 1972, under 21, d.b.a. covenant house new york (chny) has been working with one of new york city's most vulnerable populations - youth experiencing homelessness, age 16-24, and their dependent children. chny provides young people…
In 34 cities across five countries, covenant house builds bridges to hope for young people facing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. we meet their immediate needs for food, clothing, protection, and medical and mental health…
Cases' mission is to increase public safety through innovative services that reduce crime and incarceration, improve behavioral health, promote recovery and rehabilitation, and create opportunities for success in the community. we believe…
To provide shelter, food, medical and mental health care, legal services, educational and vocational services and an array of housing options, including transitional and permanent housing opportunities, for youth facing homelessness and…
Pibly's mission embraces the belief that the needs of its consumers can be met and their goals can be achieved. pibly strives to expand opportunities for people living with mental health challenges by delivering person centered services…
Lantern community services' mission is to champion the independence and well-being of people who are impacted by or threatened with homelessness.
Our mission is to serve children and youth facing homelessness and human trafficking, and to protect and safeguard all children. we provide trauma-informed interventions for youth who are in need.covenant house pennsylvania (chpa) remains…
Journey home's mission is to ensure a home for all. we believe the most powerful way to do this is collectively - by working together with service providers, elected officials, businesses, and local communities to end homelessness in the…
To end hunger in communities throughout new york city. (see schedule o)to end hunger in communities throughout new york city. we do this through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions.
The mission of the organization is to ensure safety and stability for people who are battered, abused, homeless or at risk; to create public awareness about the epidemic of violence; and to mobilize the community to prevent violence and…
Friendship Place is a leader in the Washington, DC, metro area in developing solutions to homelessness that have measurable results and a lasting impact. Friendship Place's mission is to empower people who are experiencing or at risk of…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New York Cares Inc and the most unlike its peers is Hanley Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 36 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.
26 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. 26 of the 37 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 THRIVE FOR LIFE PRISON PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds FACETS CARES INC ↗
- Who funds SAMARITAN'S PURSE ↗
- Who funds THE LAMB CENTER ↗
- Who funds MIAMI BRIDGE YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds CLOVERLEAF EQUINE CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY INC ↗
- Who funds AVENUES FOR JUSTICE INC ↗
- Who funds Oxford House Inc ↗
- Who funds Homestretch Inc ↗
- Who funds FEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA INC ↗
- Who funds NEW LONDON HOMELESS HOSPITALITY CENTER ↗
- Who funds Bike New York Inc ↗
- Who funds HANLEY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MIRIAM'S KITCHEN ↗
- Who funds BOWERY RESIDENTS COMMITTEE INC ↗
- Who funds NETWORK FOR GOOD ↗
- Who funds OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL INC D/B/A OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL-US ↗
- Who funds JOYJ INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL UNION MISSION ↗
- Who funds JERICHO PROJECT ↗
- Who funds FEED THE FRONTLINES NYC INC ↗
- Who funds NEW YORK CARES INC ↗
- Who funds Humane World for Animals Inc ↗
- Who funds MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds CASA FOR CHILDREN 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: United Way of the National Capital Area · The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia Inc · Robin Hood Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Jewish Communal Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · American Endowment Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving 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 Merritt Charitable Fund 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- New London Homeless Hospitality Center — 47% of income from government
- Oxford House Inc — 8% of income from government
- Feeding South Florida Inc — 5% of income from government
- Casa for Children Inc — 2% 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 Merritt Charitable Fund Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Merritt Charitable Fund 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.