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The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust

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.

$2.5M
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$2.5M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0183% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$377kCivil Rights$125kEducation$109kYouth Development$40kSocial Science$25kInternational$25kHealth$21kAnimals$16kOther$0
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,500,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$979k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BARD COLLEGE$2,500,000
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 (FY21–22, $35k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%NEW YORK INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES: $25k → 17%SEARCH AND CARE: $10k → 17%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

IL
NY
MA
OR
PA
NJ
DC
OK
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.

17%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$551k · 14 repeat orgs$2.7M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +182% since the first grant, against +47% for those funded once.

14 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 14 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
18

Total granted

$551k
$200k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+182%
+47%

Still filing today

57%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.5M went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureCivil RightsEducationYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesPhilanthropyOther
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

  • MI
    MAYSLES INSTITUTE INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $150k · revenue +57%
  • WILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC
    2× · 2019–2020 · $100k · revenue +182%
  • SC
    SHEFFIELD CHAMBER PLAYERS INC
    6× · 2019–2024 · $36k · revenue +192%

Funded once

  • TS
    THE STUDIO MUSEUM OF HARLEM
    one grant, 2019 · $50k
  • NY
    NEW YORK INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +5% · 32% of their budget
  • IF
    INSTITUTE FOR ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES GOETHE UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2019 · $20k
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
Sarah Lawrence College

At sarah lawrence college, our mission is to graduate citizens of the world who are diverse in every definition of the word, who take intellectual and creative risks, and who are able to focus exceptional intellectual discipline (continued…

Education
2
New Museum of Contemporary Art

A center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists since 1977, which continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

Arts & Culture
3
Museum of Arts and Design

To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.

Arts & Culture
4
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc

The manhattan institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in america and its great cities.

Public Benefit
5
Public Art Fund Inc

As the leader in its field, public art fund brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in new york city and beyond by mounting ambitious free exhibitions of international scope and impact that offer the public powerful experiences…

—
6
The Paris Review Foundation Inc

The mission of the organization is to foster the development of creative individuals as writers and artists and to promote public appreciation of excellence in the literary and graphic arts by publishing a magazine containing fiction,…

Education
7
Boston Architectural College

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

—
8
En Garde Arts Inc

To produce bold theatre experiences that reach across artistic, physical and social boundries. We aim to increase empathy and open-mindedness by illuminating nuanced perspectives and unspoken truths behind the salient issues of our time.…

Arts & Culture
9
Performance Space 122 Inc

See schedule operformance space new york is committed to promoting the arts (including performance, visual and all other contemporary arts), fostering artistic development (including through direct grants), advancing diversity in the field…

Arts & Culture
10
New York School of Interior Design

New york school of interior design provides the most innovative, immersive, and transformative interior design education in the world, demonstrating the impact of professionally designed interiors on the health, happiness, and well-being…

Education
11
Brooklyn Arts Exchange Inc

Bax/brooklyn arts exchange is a multigenerational arts organization nurturing creative expression and artistic process through education, residencies, and performance at the intersection of arts and social justice.

Arts & Culture
12
Berggruen Institute
Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Naacp Legal Defense & Educ Fund Inc; the most unlike its peers is Elevated Access 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

24 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. 24 of the 34 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)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
23/24
Grantees still filing
18/24
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BARD COLLEGE: $2,500,000 · EducationBARD COLLEGEWILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC: $100,000 · EducationMAYSLES INSTITUTE INC: $150,000 · Arts & CultureSHEFFIELD CHAMBER PLAYERS INC: $36,000 · Arts & CultureSTUDIO ROUTE 29: $20,000 · Arts & CultureCANOPY CANOPY CANOPY INC: $15,000 · Arts & CultureTHE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM: $10,000 · Arts & Culture+3 more: $13,000 · Arts & CultureWILLAMETTE VALLEY CHAMBER FESTIVAL: $52,500 · OtherTHE STUDIO MUSEUM OF HARLEM: $50,000 · OtherINSTITUTE FOR ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES GOETHE UNIVERSITY: $20,000 · OtherBALING TWINE AND HOPE: $11,000 · OtherLEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE -SPECIAL COLLECTION: $8,500 · OtherMARTHA'S VINEYARD CEREBRAL PALSY CAMP INC: $7,500 · OtherFriends of Hopewell House dba Hopewell House: $8,500 · OtherDOUBLE H HOLE IN THE WOODS RANCH INC: $7,500 · Other+8 more: $36,250 · OtherPEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION: $115,000 · Civil RightsNAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC: $10,000 · Civil RightsElevated Access Inc: $5,000 · Civil RightsPOW POWER OF WE ENRICHMENT INC: $30,000 · Youth DevelopmentTHE VENTURE OUT PROJECT INC: $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentNEW YORK INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES: $25,000 · Human ServicesSEARCH AND CARE INC: $10,000 · Human ServicesMYRIAD USA INC: $25,000 · International
Education$2,600,000Arts & Culture$244,000Other$201,750Civil Rights$130,000Youth Development$40,000Human Services$35,000International$25,000

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 budgetBARD COLLEGE: $2,500,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMAYSLES INSTITUTE INC: $150,000 over 4y, 7.1% of budgetPEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION: $115,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetWILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC: $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetSHEFFIELD CHAMBER PLAYERS INC: $36,000 over 6y, 18% of budgetPOW POWER OF WE ENRICHMENT INC: $30,000 over 3y, 14% of budgetNEW YORK INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES: $25,000 over 1y, 32% of budgetMYRIAD USA INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTUDIO ROUTE 29: $20,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetCANOPY CANOPY CANOPY INC: $15,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetNAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE VENTURE OUT PROJECT INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetSEARCH AND CARE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFriends of Hopewell House dba Hopewell House: $8,500 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetMARTHA'S VINEYARD CEREBRAL PALSY CAMP INC: $7,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDOUBLE H HOLE IN THE WOODS RANCH INC: $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRalph Ellison Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetElevated Access Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE BROOKLYN RAIL INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF PET PIGS INC: $5,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFAST FEET RUNNING AND ATHLETICS INC: $4,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetPORTLAND BAROQUE ORCHESTRA: $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% 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.

Amalgamated Charitabl…Morgan Stanley Global…Vanguard Charitable E…National Philanthropi…Paypal Charitable Giv…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation IncDC12.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 50%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Portland Baroque Orchestra: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
5get 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
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
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 34 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

Play a game based on Ralph and Fanny Ellison’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