· Private foundation
The William & Lia G Poorvu Family Foundation
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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k21 grants · $103k
- $10k–50k67 grants · $1.2M
- $50k–250k22 grants · $1.7M
- $250k+9 grants · $7.1M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| YALE UNIVERSITY | $2,505,000 |
| ECOAMERICA | $1,100,000 |
| DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE | $1,000,000 |
| WBUR | $600,000 |
| BRIGHAM & WOMEN'S HOSPITAL | $510,000 |
| HARVARD UNIVERSITY | $500,000 |
| GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE | $350,000 |
| WELLESLEY COLLEGE | $260,000 |
| HARVARD UNIVERSITY | $250,000 |
| AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES | $200,000 |
| BROAD INSTITUTE | $200,000 |
| COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES | $150,000 |
| SUMMER SEARCH BOSTON | $100,000 |
| ADOLESCENT CONSULTATION SERVICES | $100,000 |
| BARD COLLEGE - FISHER CENTER | $100,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–24, $928k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 5% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +31% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.
113 repeat relationships: 99 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $150k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc5× · 2020–2024 · $3.9M · revenue +95%- EECOAMERICA5× · 2020–2024 · $3.3M · revenue +16% · 37% of their budget
TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY5× · 2020–2024 · $1.3M · revenue +34%
Funded once
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INCone grant, 2021 · $650k · revenue +23%- TGTHE GARDNER MUSEUM INCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $125k · revenue +108%
- BMBOSTON MEDICAL CENTER (GROW CLINIC)one grant, 2020 · $100k
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.
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.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
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.
The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.
Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…
New england law/boston dedicates itself to preparing students to be successful lawyers and leaders in the public and private sectors through integrated practical, theoretical and ethical education of the highest caliber and to contributing…
Wheaton college provides a transformative liberal arts education, combining theory and practice, for intellectually curious students within a collaborative and vibrant extended community and network that values and strives to create an…
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…
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…
The mission of the cambridge chamber of commerce is to make cambridge a better place in which to live, to work, to do business, to visit and to study.
Bridgespan's mission is to build a better world by strengthening the ability of mission-driven organizations and philanthropists to achieve breakthrough results in addressing society's most important challenges and opportunities.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
Our mission is to ensure that the people of greater boston benefit from a vibrant, resilient, and inclusive waterfront, harbor, and islands; these spaces are equitable, accessible, and adapted to climate change; and to ensure our public,…
How this is measured
119 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. 119 of the 154 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds ECOAMERICA ↗
- Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Wellesley College ↗
- Who funds The Broad Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES ↗
- Who funds Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc ↗
- Who funds WGBH Educational Foundation ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds ADOLESCENT CONSULTATION SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds SUMMER SEARCH ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ↗
- Who funds ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds FACING HISTORY & OURSELVES INC ↗
- Who funds CRADLES TO CRAYONS INC ↗
- Who funds HILLEL FOUNDATION OF CAMBRIDGE INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON BAROQUE INC ↗
- Who funds CAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BOSTON AREA GLEANERS INC ↗
- Who funds SPOONFULS ↗
- Who funds PROJECT BREAD-THE WALK FOR HUNGER INC ↗
- Who funds FOOD FOR FREE COMMITTEE INC ↗
- Who funds The Boston Camerata Inc ↗
- Who funds LET'S GET READY INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Boston Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · Stevenson Family Charitable Trust · Eastern Cambridge Foundation · The Klarman Family Foundation · Liberty Mutual Foundation Inc · Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · Bushrod H Campbell & Adah F Hall Charity Fund · The Hamilton Company Charitable Foundation · Cambridge Savings Charitable Foundation Inc · The Cabot Family Charitable Trust
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The William & Lia G Poorvu Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The William & Lia G Poorvu Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- The Dream Program Inc: 100% of income from government
- Hias Inc: 88% of income from government
- Bridges Homeward Inc: 77% of income from government
- Bridge Over Troubled Waters Inc: 32% of income from government
- Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
- More Than Words Inc: 24% of income from government
- United Way of Massachusetts Bay Inc: 23% of income from government
- Massachusetts Historical Society: 22% of income from government
- Greater Boston Food Bank Inc: 22% of income from government
- HomeStart Inc: 20% of income from government
- Boston Area Gleaners Inc: 20% of income from government
- The Broad Institute Inc: 19% of income from government
- Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative Inc: 16% of income from government
- Trustees of Boston University: 12% of income from government
- Families First Parenting Program Inc: 10% of income from government
- The Boston Landmarks Orchestra Inc: 9% of income from government
- Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston Inc: 8% of income from government
- 2LIFE Communities Inc: 8% of income from government
- President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
- Perkins School for the Blind: 7% of income from government
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: 7% of income from government
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc: 7% of income from government
- From the Top Inc: 6% of income from government
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc: 6% of income from government
- Boston By Foot Inc: 4% of income from government
- The Boston Camerata Inc: 4% of income from government
- Familyaid Boston Inc: 4% of income from government
- Silk Road Project Inc: 4% of income from government
- Shelter Music Boston Inc: 4% of income from government
- Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts Inc: 3% of income from government
- Boston Lyric Opera Company: 3% of income from government
- Greater Boston Legal Services Inc: 3% of income from government
- American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 3% of income from government
- Food for Free Committee Inc: 3% of income from government
- Boston Baroque Inc: 2% of income from government
- Cradles to Crayons Inc: 2% of income from government
- Breakthrough Greater Boston Inc: 2% of income from government
- Boston Book Festival Inc: 2% of income from government
- Island Housing Trust Corporation: 1% of income from government
- New England Conservatory of Music: 1% of income from government
- Wellesley College: 1% of income from government
- Wgbh Educational Foundation: 1% of income from government
- The Bottom Line Inc: 0% of income from government
- Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc: 0% of income from government
- Museum of Fine Arts: 0% of income from government
- Philanthropy Massachusetts Inc: 0% of income from government
- Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
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