· Private foundation
The Shamos 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TEMPLE EMANUEL | $20,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 80% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +30% since the first grant, against +24% for the ones you funded once.
34 repeat relationships — 0 still active in FY2024, 34 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $20k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- SCSamaritan Counseling Center6× · 2017–2022 · $291k · revenue +208%
- CACOLORADO ACADEMY5× · 2017–2021 · $225k · revenue +54%
- SEST ELIZABETH'S SCHOOL6× · 2017–2022 · $96k · revenue +87%
Funded once
- CTCURIOUS THEATRE COMPANYone grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue +8%
- DCDenver Center of the Performing Artone grant, 2018 · $5k
- DADENVER ACADEMY INCone grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue +4%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
To provide a challenging environment where children can reach their full potential by enhancing their musical talents, forging diverse meaningful friendships, and sharing their joy of music with others.
Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.
Boulder ensemble theatre company creates powerful, engaging, top-quality performances and programs, with meaningful impacts beyond the stage. we serve and welcome colorado's many diverse communities, cultivating an inclusive environment…
AIA Colorado,is the voice of the architecture profession in Colorado. Through advocacy, leadership development, education and resources for architects, the organization supports architecture professionals in designing a better world where…
Colorado nbsp;music nbsp;bridge nbsp;provides nbsp;access nbsp;to nbsp;inclusive nbsp;modern nbsp;music nbsp;education nbsp;programs nbsp;curricular nbsp;resources nbsp;and nbsp;professional nbsp;development
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…
The colorado symphony association (csa) is a not-for-profit organization established to fund and operate the colorado symphony orchestra for the enjoyment and benefit of the citizens of metropolitan denver and (cont'd on schedule…
The dcpa engages and inspires nearly 950,000 people every year through broadway tours, locally produced theatre, intimate cabaret, immersive experiences, theatre for young audiences and educational opportunities for all ages. continued on…
Colorado ballet's mission is to present exceptional classical ballet and contemporary dance through performances, training, education and community engagement while inspiring and growing an increasingly diverse audience base.
Providing entertainment and education through the production of high-quality orchestral music.
At colorado college our goal is to provide the finest liberal arts education in the country. drawing upon the adventurous spirit of the rocky mountain west, we challenge students, one course at a time, to develop those habits of intellect…
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Santa Fe Opera and the most unlike its peers is Phillips Exeter Academy. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 42 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
36 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. 36 of the 54 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds Samaritan Counseling Center ↗
- Who funds COLORADO ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds ST ELIZABETH'S SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds OPERA COLORADO ↗
- Who funds THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds THE SANTA FE OPERA ↗
- Who funds DALTON SCHOOLS INC ↗
- Who funds HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST ↗
- Who funds Redline ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC BROADCASTING OF COLORADO INC ↗
- Who funds CURIOUS THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds COLORADO NEW PLAY FESTIVAL ↗
- Who funds ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds JEWISHColorado ↗
- Who funds DENVER ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB INC ↗
- Who funds ROUNDUP RIVER RANCH ↗
- Who funds PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS INC ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF THE ROCKIES ↗
- Who funds ROCKY MOUNTAIN PUBLIC MEDIA INC ↗
- Who funds ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY ↗
- Who funds Clubbed Thumb Inc ↗
- Who funds DENVER ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC INC ↗
- Who funds OPERA AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds COLORADO CHILDREN'S CHORALE ↗
- Who funds LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS WORKSHOP INC ↗
- Who funds MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA OF COLORADO ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Colorado Gives Foundation · The Denver Foundation · Rose Community Foundation · The Anschutz Foundation · Bonfils-Stanton Foundation · The Colorado Health Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Margulf Foundation · Hill Foundation Wells Fargo Bank Na · Boettcher Foundation · Amg Charitable Gift Foundation · Mile High United Way Inc
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 Shamos Family 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Shamos Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Shamos 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.