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Thornton Tomasetti Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Thornton Tomasetti Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$168k
Granted FY2024still arriving
16
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$40k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$510kInternational$309kPublic Safety & Disaster$144kEnvironment$52kPhilanthropy$50kRecreation & Sports$38kEmployment$33kScience & Tech$25kOther$0
02FY2024 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k8 grants · $38k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $130k
$10,000
Median grant
8
States reached
$53k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ENGINEERS IN ACTION$40,000
GEOHAZARDS INTERNATIONAL$20,000
THE URBAN ASSEMBLY$15,000
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$15,000
THE COOPER UNION$10,000
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS$10,000
THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK$10,000
UC REGENTS$10,000
ENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD$9,000
UT AUSTIN$5,000
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA CHAMPAIGN$5,000
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY$5,000
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS$5,000
PARENT ASSOCIATION OF WEST END SECONDARY SCHOOL$5,000
TEXAS AM UNIVERSITY$2,500
02The need
03

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 (FY19–24, $42k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%ENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $9k → 11%ENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $9k → 11%ENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $9k → 11%ENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $8k → 11%ENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $8k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

MT
IL
NY
MA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CA
CO
VA
MD
AZ
OK
TX
FL
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 10% of Thornton Tomasetti Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Thornton Tomasetti Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 5.5% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$818k · 20 repeat orgs$286k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +21% since the first grant, against -8% for those funded once.

20 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

20
23

Total granted

$818k
$249k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
-8%

Still filing today

70%
30%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $37k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesScience & TechInternationalEmploymentYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • EI
    ENGINEERS IN ACTION INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $145k · revenue +84%
  • BC
    BUILD CHANGE
    4× · 2017–2023 · $91k · revenue +37%
  • TU
    THE URBAN ASSEMBLY INC
    7× · 2017–2024 · $75k · revenue +50%

Funded once

  • EI
    ENGINEERS IN ACTION BRIDGE PROGRAM
    one grant, 2019 · $30k
  • IS
    INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR URBAN HEALTH
    one grant, 2023 · $22k · revenue -8%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2022 · $20k
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.

1
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
2
Bar Ilan University in Israel Inc

Biu produces students who excel in the sciences, humanities, law, engineering, business & the arts.

—
3
Illinois Institute of Technology

To provide distinctive and relevant education in an environment of scientific, technological, and professional knowledge creation and innovation.

Education
4
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
5
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
6
World Learning Inc

Creating a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world through education, development, and exchange since 1932. as both an accredited academic institution and an international ngo, world learning, inc. offers the best of theory and practice…

International
7
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
8
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
9
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
10
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
11
University of New Haven

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…

Education
12
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
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Northeastern University; the most unlike its peers is Charity Global Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

26 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. 26 of the 53 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
26/26
Grantees still filing
15/26
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS: $100,000 · OtherENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERSTHE ARCHIVE INSTITUTE A NJ NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $64,207 · OtherTHE ARCHIVE INSTITUTE A NJ NONPROFIT CORPORATIONGEOHAZARDS INTERNATIONAL: $53,000 · OtherGEOHAZARDS INTERNATIONALTHE COOPER UNION: $45,000 · OtherTHE COOPER UNIONUC REGENTS: $40,000 · OtherUC REGENTSBRIDGES TO PROSPERITY: $32,500 · OtherBRIDGES TO PROSPERITYENGINEERS IN ACTION BRIDGE PROGRAM: $30,000 · OtherENGINEERS IN ACTION BRIDGE PROGRAMIndividual grant recipient: $20,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN: $20,000 · Other+21 more: $152,054 · Other+21 moreENGINEERS IN ACTION INC: $145,000 · EducationENGINEERS IN ACTION INCMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $40,000 · EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technolog…THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND …THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $40,000 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY …HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: $21,200 · EducationHOFSTRA UNIVERSITYLEHIGH UNIVERSITY: $20,000 · EducationMARCONI SOCIETY INC: $15,000 · EducationFLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 · Education+8 more: $60,500 · Education+8 moreBUILD CHANGE: $90,500 · Science & TechTHE URBAN ASSEMBLY INC: $75,000 · InternationalENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $41,600 · Human ServicesCHARITY GLOBAL INC: $10,000 · Human ServicesTHOSE AMAZING PROFESSIONS INC: $32,500 · EmploymentINTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR URBAN HEALTH: $22,338 · HealthGEEKS RULE INC: $6,000 · Youth Development
Other$556,761Education$396,700Science & Tech$90,500International$75,000Human Services$51,600Employment$32,500Health$22,338Youth Development$6,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetENGINEERS IN ACTION INC: $145,000 over 5y, 3.2% of budgetBUILD CHANGE: $90,500 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetTHE URBAN ASSEMBLY INC: $75,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetTHE ARCHIVE INSTITUTE A NJ NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $64,207 over 3y, 23% of budgetGEOHAZARDS INTERNATIONAL: $53,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetENGINEERS FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD: $41,600 over 5y, 32% of budgetMassachusetts Institute of Technology: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHOSE AMAZING PROFESSIONS INC: $32,500 over 3y, 63% of budgetINTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR URBAN HEALTH: $22,338 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetHOFSTRA UNIVERSITY: $21,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLEHIGH UNIVERSITY: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMARCONI SOCIETY INC: $15,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetFLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetManhattan University: $12,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $12,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS - MD: $10,000 over 1y, 8.6% of budgetCHARITY GLOBAL INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPARENT ASSOCIATION OF WEST END SECONDARY SCHOOL INCORPORATED: $10,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetUniversity of Notre Dame du Lac: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGEEKS RULE INC: $6,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budget
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.

Paypal Charitable Giv…Vanguard Charitable E…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Paypal Charitable Giving FundDC7.1× affinity4 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 40%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
  • Northeastern University: 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
3report 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
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.

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 53 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

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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