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The Rhimes Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Rhimes Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$3.3M
Granted FY2024still arriving
33
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$750k
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.

Arts & Culture$12MPublic Benefit$10MEducation$4.5MHuman Services$1.5MFood & Nutrition$391kPhilanthropy$280kCivil Rights$225kHealth$150kOther$0
02FY2024 · 33 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k16 grants · $285k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $789k
  • $250k+5 grants · $2.3M
$26,550
Median grant
8
States reached
$8.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
EMMETT TILL INTERPRETIVE CENTER$750,000
THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL INC$500,000
THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL INC$500,000
LINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC$250,000
GREENS FARMS ACADEMY INC$250,000
IAMA THEATRE COMPANY$200,000
FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC$79,922
FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC$79,817
FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC$78,810
TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE$50,000
JOHN F KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS$50,000
TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE$50,000
CIVIC NATION$50,000
DEBBIE ALLEN DANCE INC$50,000
TRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE$50,000
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 (FY19–24, $1.9M) land where the poverty rate runs at 26%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 79% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%TIDES CENTER: $10k → 10%EMMETT TILL INTERPRETIVE CENTER: $750k → 31%EMMETT TILL INTERPRETIVE CENTER: $750k → 31%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $80k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $80k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $79k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $50k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $29k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $27k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $27k → 9%FILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $10k → 9%FRIENDS OF THE WESTPORT CENTER FOR SENIOR ACTIVITI: $5k → 9%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF LOS ANGELES: $10k → 14%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF LOS ANGELES: $10k → 14%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

NH
IL
NY
MA
PA
CT
CA
DC
MS
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 7% of The Rhimes Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Rhimes Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 4.0% 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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$26M · 31 repeat orgs$3.2M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +25% since the first grant, against +19% for those funded once.

31 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2024, 16 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

31
23

Total granted

$26M
$3.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+25%
+19%

Still filing today

84%
61%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $130k 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
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesCivil RightsHealthMembership BenefitOther
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

  • THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION
    5× · 2018–2022 · $10M · revenue +27%
  • IT
    IAMA THEATRE COMPANY
    8× · 2017–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +140% · 70% of their budget
  • ET
    EMMETT TILL INTERPRETIVE CENTER
    2× · 2023–2024 · $1.5M · revenue +223% · 55% of their budget

Funded once

  • SN
    SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
    one grant, 2020 · $2.0M
  • TP
    THE PILGRIM SCHOOL
    one grant, 2017 · $400k
  • AA
    ARRAY ALLIANCE INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $250k · revenue +40%
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
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

The Television Academy is dedicated to celebrating excellence, innovation and the advancement of the telecommunications arts and sciences through recognition, education and leadership, while fostering a diverse, inclusive and accessible…

—
2
New York City Center Inc

The mission of new york city center is to be new york city's leading center for dance and musical theater. dedicated to making the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience, city center seeks to create a welcoming environment and…

Arts & Culture
3
Women's Project & Productions Inc

Wp theater is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing, and promoting the work of women+ at every stage of their careers. for over four decades we have served as leaders of a global movement…

Arts & Culture
4
Boston Architectural College

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

—
5
Washington Performing Arts Society

Washington performing arts champions the arts as a unifying force. through collaborations with artists, educators, community leaders, and institutional partners, we bring wide-ranging artistic programs to stages, schools, and neighborhoods…

Arts & Culture
6
Point Park University

Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…

—
7
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
8
Apollo Theater Foundation Inc

The apollo theater is a commissioner and presenter; catalyst for new artists, audiences, and creative workforce; and partner in the projection of the african american narrative and its role in the development of american and global…

Arts & Culture
9
Wnet

Wnet is a multi-media public service non-profit that delivers lifelong learning and meaningful experiences to our communities. our content inspires curiosity, encourages action and nurtures dreams.

Arts & Culture
10
White Columns Inc

White columns identifies significant emerging and under-represented visual artists and encourages their creative and professional development through the presentation of group and solo exhibitions, an online curated artists registry, and…

Arts & Culture
11
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education
12
Wheaton College

Wheaton college provides a transformative liberal arts education, combining theory and practice, for intellectually curious students within a collaborative and vibrant extended community and network that values and strives to create an…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Actors' Fund of America; the most unlike its peers is The Dartmouth 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

51 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. 51 of the 64 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
49/51
Grantees still filing
37/51
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION: $10,000,000 · Arts & CultureTHE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATIONIAMA THEATRE COMPANY: $1,600,000 · Arts & CultureIAMA THEATRE COMPANYLINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC: $500,000 · Arts & Culture+12 more: $732,975 · Arts & Culture+12 moreTHE SMITHSONIAN: $6,000,000 · OtherTHE SMITHSONIANSMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE: $2,000,000 · OtherSMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AM…THE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL INC: $1,025,000 · OtherTHE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL INCTRUSTEES OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $475,000 · OtherTHE PILGRIM SCHOOL: $400,000 · Other+23 more: $861,000 · Other+23 moreBEYOND 12 EDUCATION INC: $1,100,000 · EducationBEYOND 12 E…MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL: $925,000 · EducationMARLBOROUGH…DEBBIE ALLEN DANCE INC DEBBIE ALLEN DANCE ACADEMY: $386,250 · EducationDEBBIE ALLE…GREENS FARMS ACADEMY INC: $300,000 · EducationGREENS FARM…TURNING POINT SCHOOL: $100,000 · EducationPARK CENTURY SCHOOL: $100,000 · Education+4 more: $80,000 · EducationEMMETT TILL INTERPRETIVE CENTER: $1,500,000 · Human ServicesFILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $380,699 · Human Services+3 more: $45,000 · Human ServicesTHE PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION: $250,000 · PhilanthropyTHE CICELY TYSON FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 · PhilanthropyTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC: $125,000 · Civil RightsHUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOUNDATION: $75,000 · Civil RightsAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · Civil RightsTHE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA: $100,000 · Membership Benefit
Arts & Culture$12,832,975Other$10,761,000Education$2,991,250Human Services$1,925,699Philanthropy$260,000Civil Rights$215,000Membership Benefit$100,000

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 budgetTHE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION: $10,000,000 over 5y, 1.4% of budgetIAMA THEATRE COMPANY: $1,600,000 over 8y, 70% of budgetEMMETT TILL INTERPRETIVE CENTER: $1,500,000 over 2y, 55% of budgetBEYOND 12 EDUCATION INC: $1,100,000 over 7y, 4.9% of budgetTHE SOUTHPORT SCHOOL INC: $1,025,000 over 3y, 9.5% of budgetMARLBOROUGH SCHOOL: $925,000 over 6y, 1.4% of budgetLINCOLN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC: $500,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetDEBBIE ALLEN DANCE INC DEBBIE ALLEN DANCE ACADEMY: $386,250 over 7y, 2.8% of budgetFILLING IN THE BLANKS INC: $380,699 over 2y, 7.3% of budgetGREENS FARMS ACADEMY INC: $300,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetARRAY ALLIANCE INC: $250,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetTHE PITTSBURGH FOUNDATION: $250,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC: $125,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetJOHN F KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWRITERS GUILD FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 2y, 5.5% of budgetPARK CENTURY SCHOOL: $100,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetWHEN WE ALL VOTE: $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOUNDATION: $75,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $75,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCHLOE AND MAUD FOUNDATION: $75,000 over 3y, 17% of budgetTHE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE: $60,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE DARTMOUTH INC: $50,000 over 1y, 35% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK ABORTION ACCESS FUND: $50,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetCivic Nation: $50,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetA BETTER CHANCE OF WESTPORT INC: $30,000 over 2y, 6.0% of budgetWALLIS ANNENBERG CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS: $28,900 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetWESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE INC: $28,575 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF LOS ANGELES: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTIDES CENTER: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCOLORECTAL CANCER ALLIANCE: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSCREEN ACTORS GUILD-AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS FOUND: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWESTPORT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION: $10,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetGLAAD INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTALKINGPOINTS: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSESAME WORKSHOP: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE LEVITT PAVILION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetWESTPORT ROTARY CLUB FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetWESTPORT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE WILLOWS COMMUNITY SCHOOL: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CICELY TYSON FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 76% of budgetSHARE OUR STRENGTH: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMERCY LEARNING CENTER OF BRIDGEPORT INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetHARLEM JUNIOR TENNIS AND EDUCATION PROGRAM INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE WESTPORT CENTER FOR SENIOR ACTIVITIES: $5,000 over 1y, 17% 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.

The James & Mary Elle…Newman's Own Foundati…The Goldman Sachs Cha…Fairfield County's Co…California Community …Howard & Katherine Ai…Tides FoundationMorgan Stanley Global…Jewish Communal FundNational Philanthropi…Silicon Valley Commun…American Endowment Fo…
The James & Mary Ellen Marpe Family FoundationCT17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 9 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The James & Mary Ellen Marpe Family Foundation · Newman's Own Foundation · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · Fairfield County's Community Foundation Inc · California Community Foundation · Howard & Katherine Aibel Foundation · Tides Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Jewish Communal Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · American Endowment 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 Rhimes Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Rhimes Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 60%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 4%
  • Mercy Learning Center of Bridgeport Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Westport Country Playhouse Inc: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
6get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
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 Rhimes Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Rhimes 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 64 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 Rhimes’ 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