· Private foundation
The Ruth L Lee Fund
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k13 grants · $29k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $95k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY PARTNERS | $40,000 |
| SMITH CAMPUS SCHOOL | $39,825 |
| UNCOMMON LAW | $15,000 |
| EMBODIMENT INSTITUTE | $7,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| BEAM | $2,500 |
| BECAUSE BLACK IS STILL BEAUTIFUL | $2,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,500 |
| CHILDREN INC | $1,140 |
| SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW | $1,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $500 |
| WGBH | $500 |
| ZERO TO THREE | $250 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD | $200 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY21–25, $8k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +52% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
12 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- ULUNCOMMON LAW9× · 2017–2025 · $280k · revenue ×24
ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY PARTNERS INC8× · 2017–2025 · $280k · revenue +153%- TTTHE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE4× · 2017–2021 · $149k · revenue +52%
Funded once
- SCSMITH COLLEGE JUNIOR YEAR ABORDone grant, 2021 · $40k
- SCSMITH COLLEGE JUNIOR YEAR ABROADone grant, 2018 · $40k
- SCSMITH COLLEGE CAMPUS FUNDone grant, 2023 · $37k
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.
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.
Poptech's mission is to accelerate the positive impact of world-changing people, projects and ideas. founded in 1996 by bob metcalfe (inventor, ethernet) and john sculley (apple, pepsi), poptech originally provided a forum to critically…
Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…
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.
WGBH enriches people's lives through programs and services that educate, inspire, and entertain, fostering citizenship and culture, the joy of learning, and the power of diverse perspectives.
Form 990 - organization's mission or most significant activitiesboston impact initiative (bii) is a nonprofit impact investment fund and certified community development financial institution (cdfi). bii provides small businesses,…
Edvestors was founded in 2002 as a platform to connect boston philanthropists with the city's public schools by identifying, shaping, and matching donors with promising school improvement efforts. (see schedule o)
The brookings institution (brookings) is a nonprofit public policy organization that conducts in-depth, independent research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national, and global level.…
Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…
Sesame workshop's mission is to help kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder. (see schedule o)
Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…
To advance an economically just region where prosperity is shared across race and ethnicity.
Organization's mission bentley university believes good business can impact more than the bottom line - it can change the world. bentley is a community of future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting…
How this is measured
15 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. 15 of the 39 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 UNCOMMON LAW ↗
- Who funds ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY PARTNERS INC ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds EMBODIMENT INSTITUTE INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds BECAUSE BLACK IS STILL BEAUTIFUL ↗
- Who funds SQUASHBUSTERS INC ↗
- Who funds ZERO TO THREE NATIONAL CENTER FOR INFANTS TODDLERS AND FAMILIES ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Boston Charitable Trust Fund City of Boston Trust Office ↗
- Who funds GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds FAMILY FOCUS LEGACY ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA 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.
Open a dossier: Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Ruth L Lee Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ruth L Lee Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
- Enterprise Community Partners Inc: 22% of income from government
- Greater Boston Food Bank Inc: 22% of income from government
- The Trustees of the Smith College: 1% of income from government
- Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
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