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· Private foundation

The Stairway Fund

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.

$597k
Granted FY2024still arriving
69
Grants FY2024still arriving
9
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0199% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.

Arts & Culture$894kEducation$786kEnvironment$336kFood & Nutrition$282kHealth$146kCommunity Improvement$118kRecreation & Sports$78kCivil Rights$70kOther$0
02FY2024 · 69 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k49 grants · $166k
  • $10k–50k19 grants · $331k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
$5,000
Median grant
9
States reached
$3.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY$100,000
THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE (TFANA)$35,000
TRINITY COLLEGE$25,000
STEEP ROCK ASSOCIATION$25,000
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART - NEW YORK$25,000
UNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP INC$25,000
MADISON SQUARE PARK CONSERVANCY (MSPC)$23,000
STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM$20,000
GIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE$20,000
UNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP INC$20,000
TARGET ALS FOUNDATION$15,000
NYU LANGONE HEALTH$15,000
JACQUES PEPIN FOUNDATION$12,500
HUDSON VALLEY WRITING PROJECT VIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR SUNY (FS)$10,000
WASHINGTON AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION$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:

Your human-services grants (FY21–24, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 74% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%THE JEWISH BOARD: $3k → 9%HOT BREAD KITCHEN: $5k → 17%HOT BREAD KITCHEN LTD: $2k → 17%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.

Which US states your grants reach

WI
NY
MA
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
CO
MO
NM
DC

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 edge
repeat funding

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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.6M · 61 repeat orgs$201k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +17% since the first grant, against +9% for the ones you funded once.

61 repeat relationships — 46 still active in FY2024, 15 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

61
21

Total granted

$2.6M
$103k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+17%
+9%

Still filing today

82%
52%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $98k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationEnvironmentHealthRecreation & SportsEmploymentOther

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

  • WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
    4× · 2020–2024 · $325k · revenue +16%
  • MS
    MADISON SQUARE PARK CONSERVANCY INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $190k · revenue +39%
  • US
    UNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $105k · revenue +71%

Funded once

  • HV
    HUDSON VALLEY WRITING PROGRAM RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR SUNY AS FISCAL SPONS
    one grant, 2022 · $15k
  • LF
    LEMONTREE FOODS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +96%
  • HV
    HUDSON VALLEY WRITING PROJECT RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR SUNY AS FISCAL SPONSO
    one grant, 2023 · $10k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your 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
Museum of the City of New York

The museum of the city of new york fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world's most influential metropolis. it engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city's past, present, and…

Arts & Culture
2
Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan school of music is deeply committed to excellence in education, performance, and creative activity; to the humanity of the school's environment; and to the cultural enrichment of the larger community. a premiere international…

Arts & Culture
3
American Museum of Natural History

The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

Arts & Culture
4
The Jewish Museum

The mission of the jewish museum is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and jewish culture. see schedule o for more information.

Arts & Culture
5
New York Hall of Science

Nysci's mission is to nurture generations of passionate learners, critical thinkers, and active citizens through design make play - an approach to learning and engagement that is deeply rooted in research on stem learning and guides the…

Arts & Culture
6
The Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association

For over 150 years, the 92nd street y, new york has been serving its communities and the larger world by bringing people together (continued on schedule o)and providing exceptional, groundbreaking programs in the performing and visual…

Religion
7
New York Public Radio

To make the mind more curious, the heart more open, and the spirit more joyful through excellent audio programming that is deeply rooted in new york.

Arts & Culture
8
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
9
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute

Munson-williams-proctor arts institute (mwpai) is a fine arts center dedicated to serving diverse audiences by advancing the appreciation, understanding, and enjoyment of the arts. the art institute aims to promote interest and…

Arts & Culture
10
The Graduate Center Foundation Inc

The graduate center foundation is committed to promoting and safe-guarding the success of the graduate center by raising funds and managing and investing donations for use by the graduate center. the board of trustees of the foundation…

—
11
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
12
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Inc

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…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Harlem Educational Activities Fund Inc and the most unlike its peers is Camp Nebagamon Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity FoundationsLocal History MuseumsHealth Access Advocacy and …Policy Research and AdvocacyCommunity Arts CentersJewish Community Organizati…Orchestra and Ensemble Perf…School District FoundationsAddiction Recovery ServicesPublic Library OperationsIndependent K-12 SchoolsChristian Youth CampsYouth Sports ProgramsDance Arts OrganizationsWomen & Girls Leadership De…Food Banks and PantriesLocal Food System Organizat…Volunteer Fire & Ems Servic…Environmental Conservation …
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 39 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number19%6%<5yr14%10%5–10yr20%14%10–20yr19%14%20–35yr13%26%35–55yr16%29%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value19%4%<5yr14%5%5–10yr20%11%10–20yr19%7%20–35yr13%30%35–55yr16%44%55yr+

The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/73
the rest of the field
10%
11,858/120,687

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.

04the grantee network

73 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. 73 of the 99 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)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
73/73
Grantees still filing
45/73
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE INC (TFANA) — $467,000 · OtherTHEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE INC (TFANA)TRINITY COLLEGE TRUSTEES — $221,762 · OtherTRINITY COLLEGE TRUSTEESSHARE OUR STRENGTH — $154,800 · OtherSHARE OUR STRENGTHUNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP INC — $105,000 · OtherUNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP INCMUSEUM OF MODERN ART - NEW YORK — $82,031 · OtherMUSEUM OF MODERN ART - NEW YORKNYU LANGONE HEALTH — $55,000 · OtherPARK AVENUE ARMORY — $50,000 · Other+43 more — $355,000 · Other+43 moreWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY — $325,000 · EducationWASHINGTON UNIVERSITYTHE COLORADO COLLEGE — $100,000 · EducationTHE COLORADO COLLEGETARGET ALS FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 · EducationTRINITY COLLEGE — $25,000 · EducationCULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA — $20,000 · Education+8 more — $64,600 · Education+8 moreMADISON SQUARE PARK CONSERVANCY INC — $190,276 · EnvironmentMADISON SQUAR…STEEP ROCK ASSOCIATION INC — $99,531 · EnvironmentSTEEP ROCK AS…BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN CORPORATION — $20,000 · EnvironmentBROOKLYN BOTA…LAKE WARAMAUG TASK FORCE INC — $13,500 · Environment+2 more — $7,500 · EnvironmentGRAMERCY PARK BLOCK ASSOC INC — $50,000 · Arts & CultureGRAMERCY …THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM — $32,500 · Arts & CultureTHE STUDI…THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES — $25,000 · Arts & CultureTHE BROOK…CHICKEN & EGG FILMS INC — $23,000 · Arts & CultureCHICKEN &…WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — $22,500 · Arts & CultureWHITNEY M…SPRING HILL ARTS GATHERING INC — $15,000 · Arts & CultureSPRING HI…APOLLO THEATER FOUNDATION INC — $12,500 · Arts & CultureMunicipal Art Society of New York — $11,900 · Arts & Culture+12 more — $54,500 · Arts & Culture+12 moreWASHINGTON AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION INC — $45,000 · HealthCHILD MIND INSTITUTE INC — $22,500 · HealthDanbury Hospital & New Milford Hospital Foundation Inc — $13,500 · HealthNYU LANGONE HOSPITALS — $5,000 · Health+1 more — $1,000 · HealthGIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE — $65,000 · Civil RightsAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE — $5,000 · Civil RightsJACQUES PEPIN FOUNDATION THE — $27,500 · EmploymentCAREERS THROUGH CULINARY ARTS PROGRAM DBA CULINARY CAREERS PROGRAM — $16,000 · EmploymentHIM FOR HER INC — $12,500 · Employment
Other$1,490,593Education$564,600Environment$330,807Arts & Culture$246,900Health$87,000Civil Rights$70,000Employment$56,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY — $325,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMADISON SQUARE PARK CONSERVANCY INC — $190,276 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetSHARE OUR STRENGTH — $154,800 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetUNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP INC — $105,000 over 5y, 7.9% of budgetTHE COLORADO COLLEGE — $100,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSTEEP ROCK ASSOCIATION INC — $99,531 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetGIFFORDS LAW CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE — $65,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetGRAMERCY PARK BLOCK ASSOC INC — $50,000 over 5y, 1.8% of budgetWASHINGTON AMBULANCE ASSOCIATION INC — $45,000 over 4y, 17% of budgetROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION — $37,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM — $32,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTARGET ALS FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJACQUES PEPIN FOUNDATION THE — $27,500 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetSTUDIO IN A SCHOOL ASSOCIATION INC — $27,500 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTRINITY COLLEGE — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES — $25,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCHICKEN & EGG FILMS INC — $23,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetWHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — $22,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCHILD MIND INSTITUTE INC — $22,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA — $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetBROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN CORPORATION — $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCITY HARVEST INC — $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCAREERS THROUGH CULINARY ARTS PROGRAM DBA CULINARY CAREERS PROGRAM — $16,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetPUBLIC ART FUND INC — $15,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetRETHINK FOOD NYC INC — $15,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSPRING HILL ARTS GATHERING INC — $15,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetFOOD EDUCATION FUND INC — $15,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetGOD'S LOVE WE DELIVER INC — $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLEMONTREE FOODS INC — $15,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetDanbury Hospital & New Milford Hospital Foundation Inc — $13,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetLAKE WARAMAUG TASK FORCE INC — $13,500 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetBROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY — $12,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAPOLLO THEATER FOUNDATION INC — $12,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHIM FOR HER INC — $12,500 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetMunicipal Art Society of New York — $11,900 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTHE HOW INSTITUTE FOR SOCIETY — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE AMERICAN INDEPENDENT FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTREETSQUASH INC — $10,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEDIBLE SCHOOLYARD NEW YORK — $9,600 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNEW YORK SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL — $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $7,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHOT BREAD KITCHEN LTD — $7,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCAMP NEBAGAMON FOUNDATION — $6,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budget54 BELOW INC — $5,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNYU LANGONE HOSPITALS — $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PUJOLS FAMILY FOUNDATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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 Goldman Sachs Cha…The Kestrel FoundationThe Connecticut Commu…Jewish Communal FundMurray & Susan Haber …FjcThe Ford FoundationThe New York Communit…California Community …Bitar Foundation IncColeman Family Charit…Dungannon Foundation …
The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift FundNY28.2× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · The Kestrel Foundation · The Connecticut Community Foundation · Jewish Communal Fund · Murray & Susan Haber Charitable Foundation · Fjc · The Ford Foundation · The New York Community Trust · California Community Foundation · Bitar Foundation Inc · Coleman Family Charitable Foundation · Dungannon Foundation 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 Stairway Fund 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 · 70%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 1%
  • Steep Rock Association Inc — 19% of income from government
  • Greenwoods Counseling & Referrals Inc — 7% of income from government
  • Bantam Cinema & Arts Center Inc — 1% of income from government
  • Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Inc — 1% of income from government
  • Trinity College — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
19report 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

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Stairway Fund?

Find your warmest path to The Stairway Fund 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 99 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 2024, released 2024. 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