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The Silvermansutherland Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Silvermansutherland Family Foundation

Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$17k
Granted FY2019
11
Grants FY2019
4
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

65% of The Silvermansutherland Family Foundation’s FY2021 grant dollars went to Schwab Charitable Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2021 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year The Silvermansutherland Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $17k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

4
’17
3
’18
9
’19
4
’20
0
’21

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

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2021.

Education$63kPhilanthropy$18kArts & Culture$4kInternational$500
02FY2019 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND$5,000
CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA$3,000
GROTON SCHOOL$2,500
CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON$1,250
LAUREL SCHOOL$1,000
MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE$1,000
INTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES$1,000
ST IGNATIUS HIGH SCHOOL$1,000
UNICEF USA$500
FRIENDS OF LITURGICAL MUSIC$500
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS$300
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 31% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND: $10k → 8%MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: $300 → 16%INTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES: $1k → 8%MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE: $1k → 9%UNICEF USA: $500 → 17%THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $3k → 14%BEAUMONT SCHOOL: $250 → 17%HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND: $8k → 8%CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON: $1k → 16%INTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES: $1k → 8%FRIENDS OF LITURGICAL MUSIC: $500 → 17%ST IGNATIUS HIGH SCHOOL: $1k → 17%GROTON SCHOOL: $3k → 8%CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON: $1k → 16%INTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES: $1k → 8%CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA: $3k → 17%LAUREL SCHOOL: $1k → 17%HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND: $5k → 8%MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $250 → 16%CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA: $3k → 17%GROTON SCHOOL: $3k → 8%BOSTON ATHENAEUM: $75 → 16%CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA: $3k → 17%HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND: $5k → 8%WGBH: $250 → 16%CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA: $3k → 17%GROTON SCHOOL: $3k → 8%HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND: $5k → 8%GROTON SCHOOL: $3k → 8%LONGY SCHOOL OF MUSIC OF BARD COLLEGE: $250 → 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.
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.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$60k · 5 repeat orgs$8k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2019, 0 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, 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

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
3

Total granted

$60k
$3k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-17%
+364%

Still filing today

60%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21
EducationInternationalArts & CultureOther
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

  • HG
    HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND
    5× · 2017–2021 · $33k
  • CI
    CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA
    4× · 2017–2020 · $12k · revenue -24%
  • GROTON SCHOOL
    4× · 2017–2020 · $10k · revenue +21%

Funded once

  • TG
    The George Washington Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue +30%
  • MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETYgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $250 · revenue +364%
  • W
    WGBH
    one grant, 2018 · $250
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
President and Fellows of Harvard College

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

Education
2
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
3
Boston Architectural College

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

—
4
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
5
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
6
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
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
Trustees of Boston University

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.…

—
9
Trustees of Boston College

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…

Education
10
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
11
The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge

The mission of the university of cambridge is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. organizationally, we achieve this through two divisions…

—
12
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Manhattanville University; the most unlike its peers is Friends of Liturgical Music Inc. 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

12 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. 12 of the 18 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
9/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUND: $32,500 · OtherHARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL FUNDINTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIES: $3,000 · OtherINTER-UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDIE…THE CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON INC: $2,500 · OtherTHE CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON INC+5 more: $2,250 · Other+5 moreDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $18,260 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE…GROTON SCHOOL: $10,000 · EducationGROTON SCHOOLThe George Washington University: $2,500 · EducationThe George Washingt…LAUREL SCHOOL: $1,000 · EducationLAUREL SCHOOLMANHATTANVILLE UNIVERSITY: $1,000 · EducationMANHATTANVILLE UNIV…+1 more: $75 · EducationCAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA: $12,000 · InternationalCAMBRIDGE IN AME…UNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF: $500 · InternationalMUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: $300 · Arts & CultureMASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $250 · Arts & Culture
Other$40,250Philanthropy$18,260Education$14,575International$12,500Arts & Culture$550

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA: $12,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetGROTON SCHOOL: $10,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON INC: $2,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe George Washington University: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLAUREL SCHOOL: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMANHATTANVILLE UNIVERSITY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF LITURGICAL MUSIC INC: $500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetUNITED STATES FUND FOR UNICEF: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: $300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROPRIETORS OF THE BOSTON ATHENAEUM: $75 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

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.

The Pfizer Foundation…National Philanthropi…American Endowment Fo…Vanguard Charitable E…Morgan Stanley Global…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
The Pfizer Foundation IncNY12.5× affinity5 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Pfizer Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Massachusetts Historical Society: 22% of income from government
  • The Celebrity Series of Boston Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Proprietors of the Boston Athenaeum: 0% of income from government
  • Museum of Fine Arts: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get 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
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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 Silvermansutherland Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Silvermansutherland 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.

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 18 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 2019, released 2019. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Silvermansutherland Family’s 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