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The Mugar Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Mugar Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$848k
Granted FY2024still arriving
15
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$1.3MHealth$791kArts & Culture$773kYouth Development$345kPhilanthropy$251kRecreation & Sports$176kPublic Benefit$100kFood & Nutrition$63kOther$0
02FY2024 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k4 grants · $17k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $131k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $450k
  • $250k+1 grant · $250k
$30,629
Median grant
2
States reached
$9.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CLARK UNIVERSITY$250,000
BELMONT HILL SCHOOL$100,000
BELMONT HILL SCHOOL$100,000
BOSTON 4 CELEBRATIONS FOUNDATION INC$100,000
DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE$100,000
TUFTS UNIVERSITY$50,000
WATERTOWN BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB$40,000
FIRST NIGHT BOSTON 2024$30,629
BOSTON ARTS ACADEMY FOUNDATION$25,000
EPILEPSY FOUNDATION NEW ENGLAND$25,000
CYSTIC FIBROSIS FOUNDATION$10,000
BELMONT HILL SCHOOL$5,000
ARMENIA TREE PROJECT$5,000
ASSOCIATION OF COTUIT MOQUITO YACHT CLUB INC$5,000
FARM AID$2,229
02The need
03

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 (FY22–22, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $5k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

ME
IL
WI
MA
OH
PA
MD
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.
04

Where the work is directed

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

About 6% of The Mugar Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 94% of the giving stays in MA; by stated purpose, 90%.

The Mugar Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 3.1% directed abroad (not shown)
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.

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.9M · 12 repeat orgs$1.0M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +52% since the first grant, against +7% for those funded once.

12 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
21

Total granted

$2.9M
$941k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+52%
+7%

Still filing today

92%
48%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $96k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHealthArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesOther
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

  • TRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2022–2024 · $545k · revenue +19%
  • B4
    BOSTON 4 CELEBRATIONS FOUNDATION INC
    6× · 2017–2024 · $522k · revenue ×16 · 72% of their budget
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc
    5× · 2019–2024 · $500k · revenue +97%

Funded once

  • BC
    Boston Charitable Trust Fund City of Boston Trust Office
    one grant, 2020 · $250k · revenue -100%
  • BA
    BRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $200k · revenue +44%
  • CB
    COMMUNITY BOATING INC
    one grant, 2023 · $140k · revenue -34%
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.

1
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
4
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

—
5
Children's Hospital Corporation

Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service

Health
6
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
7
Buckingham Browne & Nichols School

Bb&n, an all gender day school in cambridge, massachusetts, was established in 1974 by the merger of two independent schools, the buckingham school and the browne & nichols school, founded respectively in 1889 and 1883. located on multiple…

Education
8
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
9
New England Lawboston

New england law/boston dedicates itself to preparing students to be successful lawyers and leaders in the public and private sectors through integrated practical, theoretical and ethical education of the highest caliber and to contributing…

Education
10
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
11
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
12
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Belmont Day School Inc; the most unlike its peers is Charles River Clean up Boat. 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

25 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. 25 of the 38 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
25/25
Grantees still filing
17/25
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY: $545,000 · EducationTRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITYBELMONT HILL SCHOOL INC: $410,000 · EducationBELMONT HILL SCHOOL INCBRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOL: $200,000 · EducationBRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOLTrustees of Tufts College: $162,500 · EducationTrustees of Tufts College+2 more: $15,000 · EducationDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $500,000 · HealthDana-Farber Cancer I…Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy: $190,000 · HealthCitizens United for …+2 more: $14,500 · HealthBOSTON 4 CELEBRATIONS FOUNDATION INC: $522,453 · Arts & CultureBOSTON 4 CELEBRAT…PLIMOTH PATUXET MUSEUMS INC: $50,000 · Arts & CulturePLIMOTH PATUXET M…BOSTON ARTS ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 · Arts & CultureARMENIA FUND: $100,000 · OtherARMENIA FUNDIndividual grant recipient: $88,000 · OtherIndividual gran…FIRST NIGHT BOSTON 2024: $30,629 · OtherFIRST NIGHT BOS…KEVIN QUINN MEMORIAL FUND: $30,000 · OtherKEVIN QUINN MEM…MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $30,000 · OtherMASSACHUSETTS G…FIRST NIGHT BOSTON 2023: $29,851 · OtherFIRST NIGHT BOS…FIRST NIGHT BOSTON 2022: $27,500 · OtherEPILEPSY FOUNDATION NEW ENGLAND: $25,000 · OtherSIDELINE CANCER THE GRIFFITH FOUNDATION: $25,000 · OtherFARM AID INC: $62,997 · OtherFARM AID INCARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA INC: $50,000 · OtherARMENIAN ASSEMB…+9 more: $24,600 · OtherWATERTOWN BOYS AND GIRLS' CLUB INC: $200,000 · Youth DevelopmentWATERTOWN…CAMP HARBOR VIEW FOUNDATION INC: $140,000 · Youth DevelopmentCAMP HARB…Boston Charitable Trust Fund City of Boston Trust Office: $250,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY BOATING INC: $140,000 · Recreation & SportsCOTUIT ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION INC: $30,000 · Recreation & Sports
Education$1,332,500Health$704,500Arts & Culture$597,453Other$523,577Youth Development$340,000Philanthropy$250,000Recreation & Sports$170,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY: $545,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBOSTON 4 CELEBRATIONS FOUNDATION INC: $522,453 over 6y, 72% of budgetDana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: $500,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetBELMONT HILL SCHOOL INC: $410,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetBoston Charitable Trust Fund City of Boston Trust Office: $250,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetBRIMMER AND MAY SCHOOL: $200,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetWATERTOWN BOYS AND GIRLS' CLUB INC: $200,000 over 5y, 4.8% of budgetCitizens United for Research in Epilepsy: $190,000 over 3y, 1.6% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $162,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCAMP HARBOR VIEW FOUNDATION INC: $140,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetCOMMUNITY BOATING INC: $140,000 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetFARM AID INC: $62,997 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetPLIMOTH PATUXET MUSEUMS INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA INC: $50,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetCOTUIT ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION INC: $30,000 over 1y, 5.3% of budgetEPILEPSY FOUNDATION NEW ENGLAND: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBOSTON ARTS ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetCYSTIC FIBROSIS FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBELMONT DAY SCHOOL INC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetASSOCIATION OF COTUIT MOSQUITO YACHT CLUB INC: $5,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetTHE FESSENDEN SCHOOL: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDAYTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $4,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPINE TREE HOSPICE: $1,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budget
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.

Boston Foundation IncFidelity FoundationGe Aerospace Foundati…American Tower Corpor…Combined Jewish Phila…The Bank of America C…National Philanthropi…The Ayco Charitable F…The Pfizer Foundation…The Chicago Community…Vanguard Charitable E…The Blackbaud Giving …
Boston Foundation IncMA17.7× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Fidelity Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · American Tower Corporation Foundation Inc · Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Blackbaud Giving Fund

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 Mugar Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Mugar Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 90%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Farm Aid Inc: 100% of income from government
  • The Home for Little Wanderers Inc: 38% of income from government
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 13% of income from government
  • Epilepsy Foundation New England: 11% of income from government
  • Boston 4 Celebrations Foundation Inc: 10% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
  • Watertown Boys and Girls' Club Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Trustees of Clark University: 2% of income from government
  • Camp Harbor View Foundation Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Plimoth Patuxet Museums Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Boston Arts Academy Foundation Inc: 0% of income from government
  • The Fessenden School: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
9get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
1rely 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 Mugar Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Mugar 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.

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 38 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Mugar’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