Skip to content
Foundation DossiersAlso receives grants: funding profile →

Pennsylvania · Private foundation

The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation

THE ORGANIZATION'S MISSION IS TO PROVIDE GRANTS FOR INNOVATIVE AND CREATIVE PROJECTS AND RESEARCH THAT WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE AND ENHANCE THE DEVELOPMENT, HEALTH, SAFETY, EDUCATION OR QUALITY OF LIFE OF CHILDREN FROM INFANCY THROUGH SEVEN YEARS OF AGE. Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take…

$432k
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
9
Grants FY2024
3
Organizations funded FY2023
67%
First-time grantees FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$49,998
Largest grant, FY2024
$63,000
Organizations funded a year
3 to 11
FY2017 to FY2023
States reached, FY2024
6
Total assets, FY2024
$12M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2023, 67% of the organizations The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 64% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 36% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $140k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23
EducationHealthScience & TechOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2024still arriving8$371k75%
FY20233$220k67%
FY20227$417k100%
FY20218$405k100%
FY20207$347k100%
FY20198$366k75%
FY20185$236k100%
FY201711$564kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$2.1MHealth$691kScience & Tech$451kEnvironment$69kHuman Services$45k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
MO
VA
MD
DE
KS
TN
DC
AL
GA
TX
FL

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Drexel University$132,35320%
New York University$100,00010%
National Academy of Sciences$99,96520%
Trustees of Boston College$91,42420%
Vanderbilt University$86,99320%
Carnegie Mellon University$82,90110%
American Academy of Pediatrics$65,52710%
Hope College$65,00010%
Trustees of Tufts College$64,86510%
University of Connecticut Health Center$57,5001n/a
Show all 36 grantees
All grantees of The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Drexel University$132,35320%
New York University$100,00010%
National Academy of Sciences$99,96520%
Trustees of Boston College$91,42420%
Vanderbilt University$86,99320%
Carnegie Mellon University$82,90110%
American Academy of Pediatrics$65,52710%
Hope College$65,00010%
Trustees of Tufts College$64,86510%
University of Connecticut Health Center$57,5001n/a
Trustees of Purdue University$56,2401n/a
Utah State University$52,3331n/a
The Nemours Foundation$50,00310%
University of Illinois at Chicago$50,0001n/a
South End Community Health Center Inc$50,00010%
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation$50,00010%
The University of Texas Foundation Inc$50,00010%
Florida International University Foundation Inc$50,00010%
Trustees of Boston University$49,99810%
Purdue Research Foundation$49,89610%
Augusta University Research Institute Inc$49,53710%
Johns Hopkins University$47,61020%
The Frazer Center Inc$45,00011%
Thomas Jefferson University$45,00010%
The Ohio University Foundation$44,32610%
Connecticut College$44,28710%
George Mason University$40,0001n/a
Boston Medical Center Corporation$40,00010%
Smithsonian Institution$40,00010%
Portland State University Foundation$39,67510%
University of Florida$37,5521n/a
Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc$37,50010%
University of Kansas Center for Research Inc$36,12010%
University of South Florida$34,6711n/a
Rutgers University Foundation$32,00010%
North American Association for Environmental Educa$31,50011%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 16 recipients with no EIN on record ($923k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDrexel University: $132,353 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNew York University: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNational Academy of Sciences: $99,965 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Boston College: $91,424 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetVanderbilt University: $86,993 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University: $82,901 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Academy of Pediatrics: $65,527 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHope College: $65,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $64,865 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Nemours Foundation: $50,003 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSouth End Community Health Center Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetChildren's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe University of Texas Foundation Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFlorida International University Foundation Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTrustees of Boston University: $49,998 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPurdue Research Foundation: $49,896 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAugusta University Research Institute Inc: $49,537 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetJohns Hopkins University: $47,610 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Frazer Center Inc: $45,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetThomas Jefferson University: $45,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Ohio University Foundation: $44,326 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetConnecticut College: $44,287 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBoston Medical Center Corporation: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSmithsonian Institution: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPortland State University Foundation: $39,675 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMassachusetts Audubon Society Inc: $37,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of Kansas Center for Research Inc: $36,120 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRutgers University Foundation: $32,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorth American Association for Environmental Educa: $31,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 29.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Fidelity Investments …
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA5.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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.

Compare The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation with peer funders

About The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation

How much does The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation give?
The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation reported 9 grants totaling $431,701 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 11 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.
What does The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (62%), Health (21%), Science & Tech (14%).
Who are The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Drexel University ($132k), New York University ($100k), National Academy of Sciences ($100k).
Does The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2023, 67% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund.
Where is The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation based?
The Theresa and Frank Caplan Foundation is based in PA.

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 56 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Theresa and Frank Caplan’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