How much does The Mousetrap Foundation give?

The Mousetrap Foundation reported 16 grants totaling $1,430,946 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 9 and 36 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Mousetrap Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (28%), Environment (18%), Health (15%).

Who are The Mousetrap Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Ayuda Inc ($1.3M), Georgetown University ($1.2M), The Piedmont Environmental Council ($958k).

Does The Mousetrap Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 75% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Mousetrap Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Where is The Mousetrap Foundation based?

The Mousetrap Foundation is based in VA.

The Mousetrap Foundation

The Mousetrap Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

The Mousetrap Foundation

Q: Which funders back the same organizations as The Mousetrap Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc, American Online Giving Foundation Inc.

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.4M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$221k

Largest

01What it funds

0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$3.1MEnvironment$2.0MHealth$1.7MCrime & Legal$1.3MCivil Rights$757kPublic Benefit$550kHousing & Shelter$400kFood & Nutrition$300kOther$0

02FY2024 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k1 grant · $5k
$10k–50k2 grants · $45k
$50k–250k13 grants · $1.4M

$100,000

Median grant

States reached

$13M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
HOWARD UNIVERSITY	$220,946
STANFORD LAW SCHOOL	$200,000
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER	$150,000
PIEDMONT ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL	$125,000
AYUDA INC	$125,000
BEST BUDDIES	$100,000
NATIONAL MUSEUM	$100,000
THE FAUQUIER FREE CLINIC	$100,000
FORD'S THEATRE	$60,000
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	$50,000
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY	$50,000
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA	$50,000
FENWICK FOUNDATION	$50,000
CARROLL CHILD CARE	$25,000
WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH	$20,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 86% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 12% of The Mousetrap Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 35% of the giving stays in VA; by stated purpose, 37%.

The Mousetrap Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$9.3M · 18 repeat orgs$954k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +82% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.

18 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 9 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$9.3M

$569k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+82%

+16%

Still filing today

72%

63%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $385k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Human ServicesInternationalEnvironmentAnimalsArts & CultureEducationOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

AI
AYUDA INC
8× · 2017–2024 · $1.3M · revenue +269%
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
8× · 2017–2024 · $1.2M · revenue +47%
TP
THE PIEDMONT ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL
8× · 2017–2024 · $958k · revenue +161%

Funded once

IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2023 · $175k
RF
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM FOR ALL FOUNDATIONgraduated
one grant, 2017 · $100k · revenue +240%
ML
MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL
one grant, 2023 · $50k

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

—

Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International

International Aids Vaccine Initiative Inc

A nonprofit scientific research organization that develops vaccines and antibodies for hiv, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases.

International

The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International

World Resources Institute

Wri is committed to creating change that improves people's lives and ensures the natural world can thrive. (see schedule o)wri's bold vision requires a formula for success we call "count it. change it. scale it.":- count it: our work is…

International

Foreign Policy Research Institute

The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…

International

Eastern National

Eastern national promotes the public's understanding and support of america's national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products and services.

Recreation & Sports

University of Virginia Investment Management Company

The university of virginia investment management company (uvimco) is organized to invest funds on behalf of the rector and visitors of the university of virginia (the university or uva) and university-associated organizations (uaos).

Education

National Opinion Research Center

See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…

Social Science

Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

—

Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International

The Rand Corporation

Help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.

Public Benefit

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Animal Nations Dba Redrover; the most unlike its peers is Well Done Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

34 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 34 of the 52 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

34/34

Grantees still filing

28/34

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$4,318,500Education$2,973,661Human Services$1,480,000Environment$1,178,340Housing & Shelter$400,000Recreation & Sports$400,000International$400,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

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.

Vanguard Charitable Endowment ProgramPA10.1× affinity8 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Mousetrap Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Mousetrap Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Mousetrap Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Mousetrap 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.

Play a game based on Mousetrap’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