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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Seymour H Knox Foundation

Its FY2021 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$561k
Granted FY2020
8
Grants FY2020
1
States reached
$230k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your fieldRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of The Seymour H Knox Foundation’s FY2021 grant dollars went to Community Foundation For Greater Buffalo Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2021 names 11 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year The Seymour H Knox Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $561k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

5
’20
11
’21

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

01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2021.

Philanthropy$20MArts & Culture$234kEducation$139kHealth$91kRecreation & Sports$2kYouth Development$2kScience & Tech$1kOther$0
02FY2020 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2020

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $65k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $496k
$50,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BUFFALO FINE ARTS$230,000
MATCHING GRANTS$106,000
JACOBS INSTITUTE$60,000
BUFFALO PREP$50,000
ELMWOOD VILLAGE CHARTER SCHOOL$50,000
HAUPTMAN WOODWARD MED RESEARCH INSTITUTE$30,000
SAY YES TO EDUCATION$25,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%BROOKS SCHOOL: $1k → 10%BUFFALO SHAMROCKS HOCKEY CLUB INC: $2k → 13%MJ RUBENSTEIN MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: $1k → 14%GEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM: $1k → 14%ARTPARK & COMPANY INC: $1k → 14%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $1k → 8%UB FOUNDATION: $500 → 13%ELMWOOD VILLAGE CHARTER SCHOOL: $50k → 13%SAY YES TO EDUCATION: $25k → 13%NICHOLS SCHOOL: $1k → 13%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC: $19.6M → 13%JACOBS INSTITUTE: $60k → 13%HAUPTMAN WOODWARD MED RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $30k → 13%BUFFALO PREP: $50k → 13%CAZENOVIA COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER INC: $1k → 13%CITY YEAR BUFFALO: $10k → 13%716 SQUASH INC: $2k → 13%MUSIC IS ART: $500 → 13%BUFFALO ARTS STUDIO: $1k → 13%SPORTSMENS AMERICAN MUSIC FOUNDATION: $500 → 13%BUFFALO FINE ARTS: $230k → 13%MATCHING GRANTS: $106k → 13%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School

Buffalo academy of science is a tuition-free, college-preparatory charter school teaching students in a diverse community to be successful in a globally-oriented environment, using innovative and dynamic teaching methods with a small…

Education
2
The Park School of Buffalo

The school engages the student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and…

Education
3
Buffalo Commons Charter School

Establish and operate a charter school to prepare our diverse community of students to succeed academically and professionally regardless of background and circumstance.

Education
4
Niagara University

Niagara university educates its students and enriches their lives through programs in the liberal arts and through career preparation, informed by the catholic and vincentian traditions.

Education
5
Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art

The Buffalo Institiute for Contemporary Art (Bica) is a art and educational project for Buffalo, NY. Through Innovative exhibitions, cross-discipplinary skills-based programming, and arts ecology development, bica mission is to break down…

Arts & Culture
6
Rochester Academy of Science Charter School

Rochester academy of science charter school (the school) is a not-for-profit education corporation that operates kindergarten through 12th grades and is dedicated to providing quality education to a diverse body of students in the…

Education
7
Buffalo Collegiate Charter School

With unrelenting determination and a commitment to excellence, buffalo collegiate charter school educated students in grades 4 through 12 to graduate from the college of their choice and serve as our next generation of leaders. the…

—
8
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
9
South Buffalo Charter School

South buffalo charter school provides elementary education to students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. we are a professional learning community. our focus on learning is driven by research, data and collaborative reflection to…

Education
10
Stony Brook Internists University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
11
Enterprise Charter School

Engage young minds through projects and partnerships.

Education
12
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

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Buffalo Prep Inc and the most unlike its peers is Elmwood Village Charter School. 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 one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 23 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
16/17
Grantees still filing
13/17
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC — $19,644,400 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INCBUFFALO FINE ARTS — $230,000 · OtherMATCHING GRANTS — $106,000 · OtherElmwood Village Charter School — $50,000 · OtherBUFFALO PREP INC — $50,000 · OtherSAY YES TO EDUCATION INC — $25,000 · Other+5 more — $13,500 · OtherTHE JACOBS INSTITUTE INC — $60,000 · HealthHAUPTMAN-WOODWARD MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE INC — $30,000 · HealthLake Forest College — $1,000 · EducationNICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALO — $1,000 · EducationBROOKS SCHOOL — $1,000 · EducationCAZENOVIA COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER INC — $1,000 · EducationBUFFALO ARTS STUDIO — $1,000 · Arts & CultureGEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM — $1,000 · Arts & CultureMUSIC IS ART — $500 · Arts & CultureSPORTSMENS AMERICANA MUSIC FOUNDATION INC — $500 · Arts & CultureBUFFALO SHAMROCKS HOCKEY CLUB INC — $2,000 · Recreation & Sports716 Squash Inc — $1,500 · Public Benefit
Philanthropy$19,644,400Other$474,500Health$90,000Education$4,000Arts & Culture$3,000Recreation & Sports$2,000Public Benefit$1,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC — $19,644,400 over 1y, 14% of budgetTHE JACOBS INSTITUTE INC — $60,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetBUFFALO PREP INC — $50,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetHAUPTMAN-WOODWARD MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE INC — $30,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetSAY YES TO EDUCATION INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetBUFFALO SHAMROCKS HOCKEY CLUB INC — $2,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budget716 Squash Inc — $1,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetBUFFALO ARTS STUDIO — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetLake Forest College — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALO — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetARTPARK & COMPANY INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBROOKS SCHOOL — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCAZENOVIA COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetGEORGE EASTMAN MUSEUM — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMUSIC IS ART — $500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSPORTSMENS AMERICANA MUSIC FOUNDATION INC — $500 over 1y, 1.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Osc Charitable Fo…Community Foundation …The Baird FoundationCullen FoundationFoundation for Jewish…Cullen Foundation of …James H Cummings Foun…Rich Family FoundationThe Richard W Rupp Fo…The Cameron and Jane …The Margaret L Wendt …First Niagara Foundat…
The Osc Charitable FoundationNY20× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Osc Charitable Foundation · Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · The Baird Foundation · Cullen Foundation · Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc · Cullen Foundation of Western New York Inc · James H Cummings Foundation Inc · Rich Family Foundation · The Richard W Rupp Foundation · The Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation · The Margaret L Wendt Foundation · First Niagara Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Seymour H Knox Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    4report 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

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 23 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines