· Private foundation
The Paul J Koessler Foundation Inc
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k2 grants · $7k
- $10k–50k10 grants · $181k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $113k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CANISIUS HIGH SCHOOL | $113,410 |
| BUFFALO MARITIME CENTER | $40,000 |
| HOME OF MY OWN OF WNY | $31,000 |
| BORNHAVA | $25,000 |
| SISTERS HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER | $10,000 |
| HAITI DENTAL STGEORGE RC CHURCH | $10,000 |
| TROCAIRE COLLEGE | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSRCY | $10,000 |
| SABAH INC | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| FOUNDATION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC | $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 (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% 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.
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.
20 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down; 1 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, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $31k 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
BUFFALO MARITIME CENTER INC6× · 2019–2024 · $223k · revenue +77%
SKATING ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND & HAND5× · 2019–2024 · $75k · revenue +1%- BOBUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY INC6× · 2019–2024 · $35k · revenue +14%
Funded once
- OCOLV CHARITIESone grant, 2023 · $42k
- UPUNIVERSAL POSSIBILITIESone grant, 2023 · $25k
- JGJUST GET OUTSIDE INCone grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue -7%
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.
Inspire joyful exploration of science and nature through engaging experiences, unique resources, and exceptional staff.
To acquire, remediate, and steward lands along wny's waterfronts prioritizing public access.
Support the urban economic development efforts of the region through the acquisition, remediation and management of distressed properties
Open Buffalo's mission is to advance racial, economic, and ecological justice through skill building, network connecting, and activating leadership opportunities with the ultimate goal for all communities in Western New York to thrive free…
Building community; creating connections; saving wildlife through a collaboration for change: the buffalo zoo will be a center of conservation excellence, providing leadership to secure a future where wildlife thrives. we embody our…
Create new public golf and recreation amenities in the city of buffalo; assist in the restoration of frederick law olmsted's south park arboretum; and construct a new education center for underserved, minority youth.
Development of downtown
Committed to jobs creation, material reuse and recycling, and community betterment
The organization's exempt purpose is to promote and cultivate the quality of education and activities for students of the state university of new york at buffalo. the organization carries out those charitable and educational purposes by…
The organization was formed for the specific purpose of operating, maintaining and protecting parks and public spaces in the city of buffalo, new york, including but not limited to parks and public spaces owned or operated by the city of…
To promote, sponsor, and provide facilities for ice hockey for the youth of buffalo and surrounding areas.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper Inc and the most unlike its peers is Universal Possibilities. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
14 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. 14 of the 32 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 BUFFALO MARITIME CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds SISTERS OF CHARITY HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VICTORY SPORTS GLOBAL OUTREACH INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO NIAGARA WATERKEEPER INC ↗
- Who funds SKATING ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND & HAND ↗
- Who funds TROCAIRE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO OLMSTED PARKS CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds HOME OF MY OWN OF WNY INC ↗
- Who funds Community Music School ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSAL POSSIBILITIES ↗
- Who funds JUST GET OUTSIDE INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO SCHOLASTIC ROWING ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds BACK TO BASICS OUTREACH MINISTRIES ↗
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: Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · The Baird Foundation · The Western New York Foundation · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · Kenneth & Katherine Koessler Family Foundation Inc · Children's Foundation of Erie County Inc · The John R Oishei Foundation · Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc · The Hunt Charitable Foundation Inc · The Osc Charitable Foundation · The Frank G Raichle Foundation · Cullen 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 Paul J Koessler 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 Paul J Koessler Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Paul J Koessler 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.