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· Private foundation

The Richard and Susan Master 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.

$263k
Granted FY2024still arriving
17
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$75k
Largest

Read this first · the figures below need context

88% of The Richard and Susan Master Family Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Lehigh Valley Community Foundation, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 10 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year The Richard and Susan Master Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $263k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

4
’17
3
’18
5
’19
6
’20
6
’21
5
’22
7
’23
9
’24
10
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Philanthropy$1.6MHousing & Shelter$300kEducation$258kPublic Benefit$258kAnimals$235kHuman Services$199kYouth Development$132kCrime & Legal$130kOther$0
02FY2024 · 17 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k9 grants · $27k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $61k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $175k
$5,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$2.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SPOTLIGHT PA$75,000
LEHIGH VALLEY JUSTICE INSTITUTE$50,000
CENTER FOR HEALTH AND DEMOCRACY$50,000
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB$20,000
JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY$11,200
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF EASTON$10,000
FRIENDS OF YEMEN ORDE$10,000
CB COMMUNITY SCHOOL$10,000
NORTHAMPTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE$5,000
PUBLIC CITIZEN IN WASHINGTON DC$5,000
LEHIGH COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY$5,000
JEWISH FEDERATION OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY$4,000
TIKVA CHILDREN'S SCHOOL$2,500
WDIY 881 FM$2,000
Individual grant recipient$1,125
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 (FY17–25, $199k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $37k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $32k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $27k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $27k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $25k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $20k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $15k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $11k → 11%JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $5k → 11%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.
$1.2M · 15 repeat orgs$448k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +12% since the first grant, against -27% for those funded once.

15 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
9

Total granted

$1.2M
$403k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+12%
-27%

Still filing today

67%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $35k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureAnimalsHuman ServicesHealthReligionOther
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

  • LC
    LEHIGH COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY
    9× · 2017–2025 · $235k · revenue +125%
  • JF
    JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY
    9× · 2017–2025 · $199k · revenue +114%
  • CC
    CB COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
    7× · 2017–2024 · $160k · revenue +215%

Funded once

  • HF
    HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
    one grant, 2023 · $300k
  • LV
    LEHIGH VALLEY PUBLIC TELEVISION
    one grant, 2022 · $40k
  • PC
    Progressive Change Institute
    one grant, 2019 · $25k · revenue -62%
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
Jewish Electorate Institute

The jewish electorate institute (jei) is an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization that surveys, interprets, reports, and educates the public about the perspectives, voting behaviors, and motivations of the american jewish…

Civil Rights
2
Central Penn Business Group On Health

Central business group on health advocates for the appropriate balance between cost and quality of employee healthcare in lancaster county by providing education on healthcare issues, promoting cooperation among payers, providers and…

—
3
Community Justice Project

To provide high quality civil legal assistance and other services to indigent individuals and families.

Crime & Legal
4
Delaware Center for Justice

The delaware center for justice, inc. seeks to ensure an effective, efficient, and equitable system of justice in delaware through advocacy, direct services, research and public education.

Crime & Legal
5
Liberty Justice Center

To advance economic and social liberties and a free enterprise society through strategic litigation, training, communication, activism and research. in addition, the center will train law students, lawyers and policy activists in the…

Crime & Legal
6
Center for Jewish Community Studies

To initiate and conduct research, publications and the production of educational materials and position papers on questions pertaining to public policy, strategy, diplomacy, administration, economics and society, jewish political tradition…

Religion
7
American Jewish Historical Society

See schedule o - the american jewish historical society (the "society") is the oldest ethnic, cultural archive in the united states. the society provides access to more than 30 million documents and 50,000 books, photographs, art and…

Arts & Culture
8
New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute Inc

The Organization's mission is to improve the safety, quality, and affordability of healthcare for everyone.

—
9
Corporation for New Jersey Local Media

We build strong communities through journalism and civic engagement.

Public Benefit
10
Commission On Presidential Debates

Organize general election presidential and vice-presidential debates

Civil Rights
11
Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (Lvedc)

The mission of the lehigh valley economic development corporation is to market the economic assets of the lehigh valley and to create partnerships to support the recruitment, growth and retention of employers, and the creation of jobs for…

Community Improvement
12
The Library Company of Philadelphia

The mission of the library company is to enrich public understanding of our nation's history by fostering advanced research in its collections of primary source materials relating to american history and culture from the 17th through 19th…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lehigh Valley Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Museum of Indian Culture. 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

17 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. 17 of the 33 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
9/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LEHIGH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1,500,000 · PhilanthropyLEHIGH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONJEWISH FEDERATION OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $54,500 · PhilanthropyHABITAT FOR HUMANITY: $300,000 · OtherHABITAT FOR HUMANITYPUBLIC CITIZEN IN WASHINGTON DC: $67,500 · OtherPUBLIC CITIZEN IN WASHINGTO…CENTER FOR HEALTH AND DEMOCRACY: $60,000 · OtherCENTER FOR HEALTH AND DEMOC…BOYS & GIRLS CLUB: $60,000 · OtherBOYS & GIRLS CLUBNORTHAMPTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $53,700 · OtherNORTHAMPTON COMMUNITY COLLE…TIKVA CHILDREN'S SCHOOL: $44,500 · OtherTIKVA CHILDREN'S SCHOOLLEHIGH VALLEY PUBLIC TELEVISION: $40,000 · Other+17 more: $141,275 · Other+17 moreCB COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: $160,000 · EducationCB COMMUN…SPOTLIGHT PA: $102,500 · EducationSPOTLIGHT…LEHIGH COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY: $235,000 · AnimalsJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $199,200 · Human ServicesLEHIGH VALLEY JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $125,000 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY: $25,000 · Arts & CultureBOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF EASTON INC: $49,410 · Youth Development
Philanthropy$1,554,500Other$766,975Education$262,500Animals$235,000Human Services$199,200Arts & Culture$150,000Youth Development$49,410

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLEHIGH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1,500,000 over 1y, 5.2% of budgetLEHIGH COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY: $235,000 over 9y, 6.4% of budgetJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $199,200 over 9y, 5.6% of budgetCB COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: $160,000 over 7y, 5.5% of budgetLEHIGH VALLEY JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $125,000 over 2y, 16% of budgetSPOTLIGHT PA: $102,500 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetCENTER FOR HEALTH AND DEMOCRACY: $60,000 over 2y, 7.5% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $54,500 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF EASTON INC: $49,410 over 4y, 2.6% of budgetProgressive Change Institute: $25,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetHEALTH CARE FOR ALL OREGON: $25,000 over 5y, 3.8% of budgetCENTER FOR HUMANISTIC CHANGE INC: $22,500 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetPROMISE NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY: $2,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetJ STREET EDUCATION FUND INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJAZZ GENERATION INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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.

  • Who funds LEHIGH VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds LEHIGH COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY ↗
  • Who funds CB COMMUNITY SCHOOLS ↗
  • Who funds LEHIGH VALLEY JUSTICE INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds SPOTLIGHT PA ↗
  • Who funds CENTER FOR HEALTH AND DEMOCRACY ↗
  • Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY ↗
  • Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF EASTON INC ↗
  • Who funds NATIONAL MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ↗
  • Who funds Progressive Change Institute ↗
  • Who funds HEALTH CARE FOR ALL OREGON ↗
  • Who funds CENTER FOR HUMANISTIC CHANGE INC ↗
  • Who funds PROMISE NEIGHBORHOODS OF THE LEHIGH VALLEY ↗
  • Who funds J STREET EDUCATION FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds JAZZ GENERATION INC ↗
  • Who funds MUSEUM OF INDIAN CULTURE ↗

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.

Lehigh Valley Community FoundationPA19.8× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Lehigh Valley Community Foundation · United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley · Ross J Born and Wendy G Born Charitable Trust · Martin D Cohen Family Foundation · Harry C Trexler Estate · Air Products Foundation · The Century Fund Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift 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 Richard and Susan Master Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Richard and Susan Master Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    6report 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Richard and Susan Master Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Richard and Susan Master Family 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 33 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

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