· Private foundation
The Sharpe Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of The Sharpe Family Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Boston Foundation Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year The Sharpe Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 33 organizations, $2M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k17 grants · $41k
- $10k–50k19 grants · $398k
- $50k–250k8 grants · $746k
- $250k+1 grant · $315k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $315,000 |
| LAND TRUST ALLIANCE INC | $135,000 |
| CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION | $123,000 |
| SOUTH KENT SCHOOL | $120,000 |
| CONCORD ACADEMY | $105,000 |
| CERES INC | $93,000 |
| THE PUBLIC'S RADIO | $70,000 |
| RHODE ISLAND LAND TRUST COUNCIL | $50,000 |
| NATURE CONSERVANCY INC MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER | $50,000 |
| FRENCHMAN BAY CONSERVANCY | $42,000 |
| UTEC INC | $32,500 |
| ABBE MUSEUM | $30,000 |
| ENVIRONMENT AMERICA RESEARCH & POLICY CENTER | $25,000 |
| MOUNT DESERT ISLAND BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY | $25,000 |
| FENN SCHOOL INC | $23,000 |
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 (FY17–23, $165k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 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.
57 repeat relationships: 40 still active in FY2023, 17 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, 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
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- LTLAND TRUST ALLIANCE INC7× · 2017–2023 · $560k · revenue +45%
- CACONCORD ACADEMY7× · 2017–2023 · $490k · revenue +70%
- CICERES INC7× · 2017–2023 · $451k · revenue +88%
Funded once
- RIRHODE ISLAND PUBLIC RADIOone grant, 2017 · $70k · revenue -45%
- RIRHODE ISLAND PUBLIC RADIO (THE PUBLIC'S RADIO)one grant, 2021 · $35k
COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTICgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $35k · revenue +45%
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.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Preserve ri's vision is a future where historic preservation creates positive change, making our diverse cultures, the environment, and the economy better for the people who live, visit and work in rhode island. preserve ri's mission is to…
At Roger Williams University, students are prepared to be thinkers and doers ready to solve challenging problems with innovative solutions. RWU offers robust offerings of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across eight…
The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.
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…
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…
The nantucket conservation foundation owns, protects, and stewards over 9,000 acres of land and coastal shoreline, conserves nantucket's rare and significant natural resources, and engages in impactful ecological research to inform…
Saint anselm is a catholic, benedictine college providing all of its students a distinctive liberal arts education that incorporates opportunities for professional and career preparation. it does so in a learning community that encourages…
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.
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.
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…
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…
How this is measured
83 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. 83 of the 116 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 THE RHODE ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Boston Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds LAND TRUST ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds CONCORD ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds CERES INC ↗
- Who funds SOUTH KENT SCHOOL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds Frenchman Bay Conservancy ↗
- Who funds Abbe Museum ↗
- Who funds THE FENN SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds LOWELL COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN ↗
- Who funds UTEC Inc ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY SERVINGS INC ↗
- Who funds Maine Coast Heritage Trust ↗
- Who funds EMERSON HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION LAW FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BROWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds SAVE THE BAY INC ↗
- Who funds RHODE ISLAND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR FREE FLIGHT ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF RHODE ISLAND INC ↗
- Who funds PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC RADIO ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENT AMERICA RESEARCH AND POLICY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Narrow River Land Trust Inc ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL MASSACHUSETTS RESEARCH AND POLICY CENTER ↗
- Who funds Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory ↗
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: The Champlin Foundation · Amica Companies Foundation · The Rhode Island Community Foundation · June Rockwell Levy Foundation Incorporated · United Way of Rhode Island Inc · Boston Foundation Inc · Citizens Charitable Foundation · Washington Trust Co Charitable Fdn · Ralph R Papitto & Barbara a Papitto Private Family Foundation · Fidelity Foundation · Ida Ballou Littlefield Memorial Trust · The Sand Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Sharpe Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Sharpe Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Utec Inc: 46% of income from government
- Lowell Community Health Center Inc: 34% of income from government
- Boston Medical Center Corporation: 23% of income from government
- Community Servings Inc: 12% of income from government
- Gaining Ground Inc: 5% of income from government
- Society for the Preservation of New Engl: 2% of income from government
- Appalachian Mountain Club: 1% of income from government
- Emerson Umbrella Inc: 1% of income from government
- Concord Antiquarian Society D/B/a Concord Museum: 1% of income from government
- Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
- South Kent School Corporation: 0% of income from government
- Ceres Inc: 0% of income from government
- Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
- Boston Foundation Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on Sharpe Family’s filings →