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The Poss Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Poss Family Foundation

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.

$2.0M
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$1.4M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$5.4MEducation$3.5MInternational$1.5MCivil Rights$325kHuman Services$125kEnvironment$30kHealth$10kOther$0
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $1k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $63k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.9M
$100,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT$1,429,998
CENTER FOR ARTS - DESIGN AND$450,000
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS$100,000
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT$37,959
NEW YORK LIVE ARTS$25,000
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT$1,191
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, $125k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MARTHAS VINEYARD COMMUNITY SERVICES: $125k → 7%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.
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

73%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$8.0M · 9 repeat orgs$2.9M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +1% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
13

Total granted

$8.0M
$1.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+1%
0%

Still filing today

100%
69%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 6% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.9M went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesInternationalEnvironmentOther
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

  • NY
    NEW YORK LIVE ARTS INC
    4× · 2020–2025 · $1.4M · revenue +128%
  • THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC
    2× · 2020–2021 · $1.1M · revenue +66%
  • IM
    INDIGENOUS MEDIA FREEDOM ALLIANCE
    3× · 2020–2022 · $225k · revenue +244% · 45% of their budget

Funded once

  • TY
    THE YARD INC
    one grant, 2022 · $550k · revenue -78% · 30% of their budget
  • MV
    MARTHA'S VINEYARD COMMUNITY SERVICES INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $125k · revenue +78%
  • PR
    PEOPLES RIGHTS FUND INC
    one grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue -49% · 41% of their budget
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
The Black Literacy and Arts Collaborative Project
—
2
International Cultural Arts Network
Arts & Culture
3
Think Global Arts Foundation
International
4
State of the Arts Productions
Arts & Culture
5
United Artist Collaborative
Arts & Culture
6
New Dance Alliance Inc

New Dance Alliance is a performing arts nonprofit. Our mission, from the earliest days, has been to support experimental movement-based artists. In recent years, we have shifted our focus, making an explicit commitment to equity and…

—
7
Global Arts Project Inc
Arts & Culture
8
Los Angeles International Dance Festival
—
9
Art for Resistance Through Change

Raise awareness of social justice

Arts & Culture
10
Artists for a Better World International
Arts & Culture
11
Artnoir Inc

ARTNOIR is a global collective and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to celebrate and highlight the work of creatives of color from around the world while catalyzing cultural equity across the arts and culture industries.…

Arts & Culture
12
The Center for International Theatre Development
Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Institute of Contemporary Art Inc; the most unlike its peers is Lakai Arts Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

18 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. 18 of the 24 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.

7
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
9/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NEW YORK LIVE ARTS INC: $1,396,315 · Arts & CultureNEW YORK LIVE ARTS INCTHE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC: $1,100,000 · Arts & CultureTHE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INCTHE THEATER OFFENSIVE INC: $850,000 · Arts & CultureTHE THEATER OFFENSIVE INCTHE YARD INC: $550,000 · Arts & CultureTHE YARD INCDISCALCED INC: $200,000 · Arts & Culture+6 more: $301,930 · Arts & Culture+6 moreCENTER FOR ARTS DESIGN AND SOCIAL RESEARCH INCORPORATED: $1,980,000 · EducationCENTER FOR ARTS DESIGN AND SOCIAL RESE…THE ALGEBRA PROJECT INC: $1,500,000 · EducationTHE ALGEBRA PROJECT INCINDIGENOUS MEDIA FREEDOM ALLIANCE: $225,000 · EducationINDIGENOUS MEDIA FREEDOM ALLIANCEMORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT: $1,469,148 · OtherMORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPA…YOUNG PEOPLES THEATRE PROJECT INC: $600,000 · OtherYOUNG PEOPLES THEATRE PROJ…CENTER FOR ARTS - DESIGN AND: $450,000 · OtherCENTER FOR ARTS - DESIGN A…+4 more: $40,500 · OtherMARTHA'S VINEYARD COMMUNITY SERVICES INC: $125,000 · Human ServicesPEOPLES RIGHTS FUND INC: $100,000 · InternationalHONOR THE EARTH: $20,000 · Environment
Arts & Culture$4,398,245Education$3,705,000Other$2,559,648Human Services$125,000International$100,000Environment$20,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCENTER FOR ARTS DESIGN AND SOCIAL RESEARCH INCORPORATED: $1,980,000 over 4y, 20% of budgetTHE ALGEBRA PROJECT INC: $1,500,000 over 3y, 43% of budgetNEW YORK LIVE ARTS INC: $1,396,315 over 4y, 9.9% of budgetTHE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC: $1,100,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetTHE THEATER OFFENSIVE INC: $850,000 over 3y, 16% of budgetTHE YARD INC: $550,000 over 1y, 30% of budgetINDIGENOUS MEDIA FREEDOM ALLIANCE: $225,000 over 3y, 45% of budgetDISCALCED INC: $200,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetMOUNTAIN TIME ARTS: $135,000 over 2y, 32% of budgetMARTHA'S VINEYARD COMMUNITY SERVICES INC: $125,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetPEOPLES RIGHTS FUND INC: $100,000 over 1y, 41% of budgetYOUNG DANCE COLLECTIVE INC: $78,930 over 1y, 50% of budgetIDRIS ACKAMOOR AND CULTURAL ODYSSEY: $50,000 over 1y, 8.6% of budgetLakai Arts Inc: $20,000 over 1y, 38% of budgetFRACTURED ATLAS INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWGBH Educational Foundation: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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 IncVanguard Charitable E…Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Boston Foundation IncMA18.3× affinity7 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · 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 Poss Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Poss Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • The Yard Inc: 28% of income from government
  • Martha's Vineyard Community Services Inc: 3% of income from government
  • The Theater Offensive Inc: 2% of income from government
  • The Institute of Contemporary Art Inc: 1% of income from government
  • Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
3report 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.

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 24 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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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