How much did THE WESTERN NEW YORK FOUNDATION grant in FY2025?

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 62% of THE WESTERN NEW YORK FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2019

president's grant-capacitygrant-capacity buildingtrustee buildingbusiness planningprofessionalimprovementccny

2020

emergency reliefcaresplymouthrichardsonsuccessionfoundryboardsource assessments

2021

covid emergencyemergency reliefboardsource assessmentlearningchautauqua stridersmow agingcovid response

2022

covid recoveryafghan evacueelisc awardaward recipientvolunteercovid micrograntrecovery technology

2023

everybuffalo togethercustomer experienceerie botanicalbotanical gardensmealsfull

2024

series speakericap consultingconsulting feesdirector searchimplementation strategictrustee educationeducation series

2025

elmwood aveave festivalfestival artspeer experiencedexperienced presentersite visitvisit coordination

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2025 · 130 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k83 grants · $284k
$10k–50k43 grants · $651k
$50k–250k4 grants · $254k

$5,000

Median grant

States reached

$23M

Total assets

Largest grants

JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES$100,000
CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION CHAUTUAQUA$52,500
MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE PROJECT$51,100
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES IN ACTION$50,000
NY FUNDERS ALLIANCE$41,797
ROYCROFT CAMPUS CORPORATION$40,000
PROVIDENCE FARM COLLECTIVE$31,421
INFINITY VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS INC$30,000
PROVIDENCE FARM COLLECTIVE$30,000
BUFFALO PREP$26,000
MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES$21,400
CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION OF NIAGARA$21,000
SENECA STREET CDC$20,500
GERARD PLACE$20,000
GOOD FOOD BUFFALO COALITION$17,335

02The need

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 (FY18–25, $841k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

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, United Way ALICE — 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.

80%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$6.5M · 123 repeat orgs$1.6M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +57% since the first grant, against +31% for the ones you funded once.

123 repeat relationships — 57 still active in FY2025, 66 since wound down; 34 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

123

151

Total granted

$6.5M

$1.4M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+57%

+31%

Still filing today

54%

43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $250k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementEducationHealthPhilanthropyOther

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

PROVIDENCE FARM COLLECTIVE
5× · 2021–2025 · $192k · revenue +370%
RURAL OUTREACH CENTER
6× · 2018–2024 · $159k · revenue +220%
MA
MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE PROJECT
5× · 2018–2025 · $156k · revenue +59%

Funded once

FB
FOOD BANK OF WESTERN NEW YORKgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $58k · revenue +66%
ST
SOUTHERN TIER WEST DEVELOPMENT
one grant, 2021 · $50k
MADONNA OF THE STREETS INCgraduated
one grant, 2024 · $47k · revenue +100%

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.

Buffalo Commons Charter School

Establish and operate a charter school to prepare our diverse community of students to succeed academically and professionally regardless of background and circumstance.

Education

Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art

The Buffalo Institiute for Contemporary Art (Bica) is a art and educational project for Buffalo, NY. Through Innovative exhibitions, cross-discipplinary skills-based programming, and arts ecology development, bica mission is to break down…

Arts & Culture

Western Ny Coalition of Farmworker

Facilitate information exchange, advocacy, collaboration among organizations that serve farmworkers.

Human Services

The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo

The legal aid bureau of buffalo, inc., a not-for-profit organization, provides legal representation to financially needy men, women and children in western new york. through its skilled staff, the legal aid bureau seeks equal justice for…

Crime & Legal

East Buffalo Development Corporation

East Buffalo Development Corporation is a community-based real estate development corporation committed to our mission of leveraging private and public funds to drive equitable and inclusive eastside planning, construction, land use, and…

Community Improvement

African Cultural Center of Buffalo Inc

To promote, sponsor and develop an appreciation of and allegiance to African and African-American heritage and commit to enhance social behavior among African-American youths through multi-disciplinary education and training in the arts.

Arts & Culture

Buffalo Niagara Convention Center

To provide supporting services to the tourism and hospitality industries in buffalo and erie county.

Community Improvement

Buffalo Niagara River Land Trust Inc

To acquire, remediate, and steward lands along wny's waterfronts prioritizing public access.

Environment

Buffalo Urban Development Corporation

Support the urban economic development efforts of the region through the acquisition, remediation and management of distressed properties

Community Improvement

Buffalo Media Resources Inc

We envision a community that uses film & digital media to celebrate freedom of expression and to continue a legacy of innovation in media arts through education, exhibitions, and equipment access programs.

Arts & Culture

Cny Arts Inc

CNY Arts' mission is to promote, support, and celebrate arts and culture in Central New York.

Arts & Culture

Worker Justice Center of New York Inc

Provides legal assistance to farmworkers and other low wage workers in New York State.

Crime & Legal

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Resource Council of Wny Inc and the most unlike its peers is Enlightenment Bookstore and. 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.

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 30 years old; the field is 22. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 7% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

2%3/160

the rest of the field

497/6,893

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.

05the grantee network

151 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

144/151

Grantees still filing

115/151

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$5,439,705Human Services$832,149Arts & Culture$759,486Philanthropy$390,919Food & Nutrition$268,034Community Improvement$238,790Education$163,376

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

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.

Community Foundation for Greater BuffaloNY185.7× affinity118 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo · The John R Oishei Foundation · United Way of Buffalo and Erie County · Buffalo Bills Foundation Inc · The Frank G Raichle Foundation · James H Cummings Foundation Inc · Cullen Foundation · First Niagara Foundation · The Margaret L Wendt Foundation · The Baird Foundation · Rich Family Foundation · The Peter and Elizabeth C Tower

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 organisation THE WESTERN NEW YORK FOUNDATION 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

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: BUFFALO PEACE HOUSE.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

low risk

~21 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 8 filed years.

Track record & reputation

low risk

8 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 3.6× since.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 611681692 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on BUFFALO PEACE HOUSE, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 21 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 25% of their budget — diversified.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to The Western New York Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Western New York Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

THE WESTERN NEW YORK FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

151 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to The Western New York Foundation?

More from the funding graph

THE WESTERN NEW YORK FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

151 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to The Western New York Foundation?

More from the funding graph