How much does The Vanderbilt Family Foundation give?

The Vanderbilt Family Foundation reported 22 grants totaling $358,000 in its FY2026 IRS filing. It funded between 23 and 32 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2025.

What does The Vanderbilt Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2026, its largest causes are Education (26%), Environment (16%), Public Benefit (10%).

Who are The Vanderbilt Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2026: Wade Institute for Science Education Inc ($338k), The Childrens Storefront ($329k), Connecticut Farmland Trust Inc ($84k).

Does The Vanderbilt Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2025, 19% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Vanderbilt Family 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 Vanderbilt Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Impactassetsinc, Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc, The Annenberg Foundation.

Where is The Vanderbilt Family Foundation based?

The Vanderbilt Family Foundation is based in NY.

The Vanderbilt Family Foundation

The Vanderbilt Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Vanderbilt Family Foundation

Its FY2026 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$358k

Granted FY2026still arriving

Grants FY2026still arriving

States reached

$70k

Largest

01What it funds

0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2026.

Education$694kEnvironment$430kPublic Benefit$265kInternational$229kHuman Services$207kFood & Nutrition$120kCivil Rights$97kAnimals$90kOther$0

02FY2026 · 22 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2026

Under $10k10 grants · $56k
$10k–50k9 grants · $127k
$50k–250k3 grants · $175k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$4.3M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
DEMOCRACY FORWARD FOUNDATION	$70,000
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC	$55,000
CHILDRENS STOREFRONT	$50,000
NEIGHBORS LINK	$22,000
PROTECT DEMOCRACY PROJECT	$20,000
WOOD RIVER LAND TRUST	$15,000
PUBLIC CITIZEN FOUNDATION	$12,500
TENNESSEE JUSTICE FOR OUR NEIGHBORS	$12,500
COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS	$12,500
PRISM	$12,500
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA	$10,000
IDAHO CONSERVATION LEAGUE	$10,000
CONNECTICUT FARMLAND TRUST	$9,400
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB	$8,000
FIRST LITERACY	$7,500

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–26, $106k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 24% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.2M · 38 repeat orgs$492k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +32% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

38 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2026, 23 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2026 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.2M

$348k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+32%

Still filing today

74%

48%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2026, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $144k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EnvironmentInternationalCivil RightsHuman ServicesFood & NutritionAnimalsOther

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

WI
WADE INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION INC
6× · 2017–2024 · $338k · revenue +56%
TC
THE CHILDRENS STOREFRONT
6× · 2020–2026 · $329k · revenue +12%
CF
Connecticut Farmland Trust Inc
8× · 2017–2026 · $84k · revenue +46%

Funded once

SHELBURNE FARMS
one grant, 2025 · $58k · revenue 0%
FI
Fuse Innovation Fund
one grant, 2020 · $35k · revenue -45%
SP
SEEDS PROGRAMS INTERNATIONAL
one grant, 2017 · $32k

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.

World Wildlife Fund Inc

Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)

Environment

Asociacion Interamericana Para La Defensa Del Ambiente

To strenghten people's ability to guarantee their individual and collective right to a healthy environment, via the development, implementation, and effective enforcement of national and international law.

Crime & Legal

Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Foundation

To engage and catalyze global seafood supply chains in rebuilding depleted fish stocks and reducing the environmental impacts of fishing and fish farming.

Animals

Conservation International Foundation

Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.

Environment

Project Drawdown

Project drawdown's mission is to drive meaningful climate action by advancing science-based solutions and strategies. project drawdown's work is focused on three pillars: science - advancing science-based climate solutions and strategies;…

Education

Grist Magazine Inc

Grist is an independent, non profit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.

Environment

Friends of the Earth

Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…

Environment

The Union of Concerned Scientists Inc

The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.

International

Rainforest Foundation Inc

The purpose of rainforest foundation us is to support indigenous peoples and forest communities in their efforts to secure their lands, protect their environment, and uphold their rights.

Environment

Amazon Watch Inc

To protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with Indigenous communities in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon Basin's…

Environment

Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Democracy Forward Foundation; the most unlike its peers is South Bay Families Connected. 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

53 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 53 of the 75 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

50/53

Grantees still filing

35/53

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,665,909Environment$345,832Civil Rights$189,000International$169,330Human Services$105,583Food & Nutrition$102,338Crime & Legal$79,000

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.

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.

ImpactassetsincMD15.2× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Impactassetsinc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · The Annenberg Foundation · Seattle Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · California Community Foundation · Jewish Communal Fund · Tides Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Pfizer Foundation Inc

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

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

6get no government money at all

10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%

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 Vanderbilt Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Vanderbilt 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.

Play a game based on Vanderbilt 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