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The Ross Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ross 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.

$885k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
8
States reached
$858k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$860kEducation$183kArts & Culture$124kHealth$46kReligion$21kFood & Nutrition$20kHuman Services$17kHousing & Shelter$15kOther$0
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k11 grants · $27k
  • $250k+1 grant · $858k
$2,500
Median grant
8
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE ROSS FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND$858,183
HIGH MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE$5,000
DRIVEN TO CARE$5,000
TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY$2,500
HUN SCHOOL OF PRINCETON$2,500
US NAVAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION$2,500
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY$2,500
CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM$2,500
TAFT SCHOOL FUND$2,000
THE SCHOOL FOR FIELD STUDIES$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION$500
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 (FY19–25, $35k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION: $500 → 8%WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION: $500 → 8%WESTMINSTER CANTERBURY FOUNDATION: $10k → 8%WESTMINSTER CANTERBURY FOUNDATION: $3k → 8%WARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION: $500 → 8%DRIVEN TO CARE: $5k → 8%DRIVEN TO CURE INC: $5k → 8%DRIVEN TO CURE INC: $5k → 8%DRIVEN TO CURE INC: $3k → 8%DRIVEN TO CURE: $1k → 8%DRIVEN TO CURE: $1k → 8%DRIVEN TO CURE INC: $1k → 8%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

VT
NH
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CO
VA
MD
DC
GA
TX
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.

31%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$415k · 36 repeat orgs$910k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +43% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.

36 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 25 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

36
27

Total granted

$415k
$52k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+43%
+23%

Still filing today

64%
41%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 3% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $858k 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
Arts & CultureEducationHealthHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsEnvironmentOther
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

  • TW
    THEATRE WORKSHOP OF NANTUCKET INC
    2× · 2018–2020 · $57k · revenue +48%
  • THE HUN SCHOOL OF PRINCETON
    8× · 2018–2025 · $50k · revenue +13%
  • NA
    NANTUCKET ATHENEUM INC
    6× · 2017–2022 · $25k · revenue +78%

Funded once

  • HS
    HUN SCHOOL OF PRINCETON
    one grant, 2017 · $13k
  • US
    USA Shooting Inc
    one grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +22%
  • NC
    NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $3k · revenue +37%
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
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
2
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
3
Boston Architectural College

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

—
4
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
5
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
6
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
7
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
8
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
9
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
10
Harvard Conservation Trust

To preserve the unique character and natural resources of harvard.

Environment
11
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
12
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Us Naval Academy Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Planned Parenthood. 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

35 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 35 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
34/35
Grantees still filing
25/35
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE ROSS FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND: $858,183 · OtherTHE ROSS FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND+38 more: $191,780 · Other+38 moreTHE HUN SCHOOL OF PRINCETON: $50,000 · EducationTHE HUN SCH…HIGH MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE INC: $42,500 · EducationHIGH MOUNTA…US NAVAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC: $16,000 · EducationUS NAVAL AC…Special Operations Fund: $10,000 · EducationSpecial Ope…ST PAUL'S SCHOOL: $5,500 · EducationWilliam Marsh Rice University: $5,000 · Education+1 more: $1,500 · EducationTHEATRE WORKSHOP OF NANTUCKET INC: $56,600 · Arts & CultureCHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM INC: $12,500 · Arts & CultureNANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: $11,250 · Arts & CultureWGBH Educational Foundation: $5,000 · Arts & CultureNANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST INC: $4,500 · Arts & Culture+2 more: $2,000 · Arts & CultureDRIVEN TO CURE INC: $20,500 · Human ServicesWESTMINSTER CANTERBURY FOUNDATION: $12,500 · Human ServicesWARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION INC: $1,500 · Human ServicesTHE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC: $7,200 · Recreation & SportsSPECIAL HOCKEY MONTGOMERY INC: $2,000 · Recreation & SportsNEW ENGLAND LIFE FLIGHT INC: $2,000 · HealthPLANNED PARENTHOOD: $1,500 · HealthTHE METHODIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $1,000 · HealthPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $1,000 · HealthNANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC: $2,825 · EnvironmentNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $500 · Environment
Other$1,049,963Education$130,500Arts & Culture$91,850Human Services$34,500Recreation & Sports$9,200Health$5,500Environment$3,325

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHEATRE WORKSHOP OF NANTUCKET INC: $56,600 over 2y, 5.1% of budgetTHE HUN SCHOOL OF PRINCETON: $50,000 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetHIGH MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE INC: $42,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetNANTUCKET ATHENEUM INC: $25,250 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetDRIVEN TO CURE INC: $20,500 over 7y, 3.9% of budgetUS NAVAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC: $16,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetWESTMINSTER CANTERBURY FOUNDATION: $12,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM INC: $12,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetNANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: $11,250 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetSpecial Operations Fund: $10,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC: $7,200 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetST PAUL'S SCHOOL: $5,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWilliam Marsh Rice University: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUSA Shooting Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWGBH Educational Foundation: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST INC: $4,500 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetNANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC: $2,825 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOMESTEAD INC OF NANTUCKET: $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetProject GRAD Houston: $2,030 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSCHOOL FOR FIELD STUDIES INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEW ENGLAND LIFE FLIGHT INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNANTUCKET MARIA MITCHELL ASSOCIATION IN: $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetESPERANZA ACADEMY INC: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWARRIOR CANINE CONNECTION INC: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetStages: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE METHODIST HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNANTUCKET SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNANTUCKET DREAMLAND FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HOMESTEAD FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 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.

  • Who funds THEATRE WORKSHOP OF NANTUCKET INC ↗
  • Who funds THE HUN SCHOOL OF PRINCETON ↗
  • Who funds HIGH MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE INC ↗
  • Who funds NANTUCKET ATHENEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds DRIVEN TO CURE INC ↗
  • Who funds US NAVAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds WESTMINSTER CANTERBURY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CHESAPEAKE BAY MARITIME MUSEUM INC ↗
  • Who funds NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds Special Operations Fund ↗
  • Who funds THE ALOHA FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds ST PAUL'S SCHOOL ↗
  • Who funds William Marsh Rice University ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Carnegie Mellon University ↗
  • Who funds USA Shooting Inc ↗
  • Who funds WGBH Educational Foundation ↗
  • Who funds NANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST INC ↗
  • Who funds NANTUCKET CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds THE HOMESTEAD INC OF NANTUCKET ↗
  • Who funds Project GRAD Houston ↗
  • Who funds SCHOOL FOR FIELD STUDIES INC ↗

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.

Community Foundation …The Ayco Charitable F…Gilbert Verney Founda…Charina Foundation In…Ernst & Elfriede Fran…Boston Foundation IncClara Foundation IncThe George & Marie Ch…Meyer & Jean Steinber…Elizabeth and John Mo…Nantucket Golf Club F…Twin Chimney Inc
Community Foundation for Nantucket IncMA19.9× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Nantucket Inc · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Gilbert Verney Foundation · Charina Foundation Inc Richard Menschel · Ernst & Elfriede Frank Foundation Inc · Boston Foundation Inc · Clara Foundation Inc · The George & Marie Chabot Charitable Foundation · Meyer & Jean Steinberg Family Foundation Inc · Elizabeth and John Moller Foundation · Nantucket Golf Club Foundation Inc · Twin Chimney Inc

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 Ross Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ross Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 100%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 5%
  • Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Inc: 17% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
  • Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association in: 9% of income from government
  • Warrior Canine Connection Inc: 5% of income from government
  • New England Life Flight Inc: 5% of income from government
  • Nantucket Dreamland Foundation Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Nantucket Conservation Foundation Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
  • Nantucket Historical Association: 1% of income from government
  • The Hun School of Princeton: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
10get no government money at all
2report 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 Ross Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Ross 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Ross’ 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