How much did UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY grant in FY2024?

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 57% of UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY’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

children's successcreating assetsassets savingssavings hopeaddictionapprenticeship federalgap improvement

2020

generation pitchapprenticeship federalgap improvementempire povertypoverty reductionjewishtargeted food

2021

disaster reliefrelief covidjustice sovereigntyworkforce apprenticeshipapprenticeship toolsgap improvementapprenticeship federal

2022

nys covidcovid communnitycommunnity responsebennettapprenticeship federaljewishtargeted food

2023

mills foodsupplmental allocationsallocations responseresponse resilienceresilience blizzardblizzard responseeducate

2024

educaterefugees immigrantspositive youthgap clevehillengagement specialclevehill improvementwny girls

2025

blizzardpositive youthgap clevehillclevehill improvementemergentengagement specialwny girls

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

03FY2024 · 98 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k9 grants · $63k
$10k–50k52 grants · $1.4M
$50k–250k34 grants · $3.2M
$250k+3 grants · $3.1M

$27,000

Median grant

States reached

$29M

Total assets

Largest grants

DONOR DESIGNATIONS TO AGENCIES$2,191,952
BPS ADULT LEARNING CENTERBUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION$546,451
VIA - VISUALLY IMPAIRED ADVANCEMENT$347,000
BESTSELF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH$178,000
BELMONT HOUSING RESOURCES FOR WNY$166,500
LT COLONEL MATT URBAN HUMAN SERVICES CENTER OF WNY$158,269
BELMONT HOUSING RESOURCES FOR WNY$149,385
NORTHWEST BUFFALO COMMUNITY CENTER INC$136,952
YWCA OF WNY$134,657
ERIE REGIONAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORP (BELLE CENTER)$124,911
BUFFALO FEDERATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD CENTERS INC (BFNC)$120,000
BUFFALO PRENATAL PERINATAL SERVICES$119,400
CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES OF ERIE COUNTY$113,520
FAMILY HELP CENTER$112,020
FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF ERIE COUNTY$105,600

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 (FY18–24, $12.5M) 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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$72M · 118 repeat orgs$3.0M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +44% since the first grant, against +33% for the ones you funded once.

118 repeat relationships — 78 still active in FY2024, 40 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

118

Total granted

$72M

$3.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%

+33%

Still filing today

77%

32%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $64k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesEducationYouth DevelopmentHealthPhilanthropyRecreation & SportsOther

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

VIA - VISUALLY IMPAIRED ADVANCEMENT
7× · 2018–2024 · $2.4M · revenue +101%
BESTSELF BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCATS
7× · 2018–2024 · $2.3M · revenue +61%
JERICHO ROAD COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
7× · 2018–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +206%

Funded once

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALOgraduated
one grant, 2023 · $1.7M · revenue +37%
HC
HEALTHY CORNER STORE INITIATIVE
one grant, 2018 · $183k
TE
THRIVE EMERGENCY SERVICES
one grant, 2020 · $121k

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.

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

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

Hispanos Unidos De Buffalo

Respond to economic, social, educational, and cultural needs of hispanic/latinos in western new york with bilingual, bicultural services that promote self sufficiency and improve quality of life.

Human Services

Wyoming County Community Action Inc

To focus on the needs of the low-income and disadvantaged population in wyoming county, ny.

Community Improvement

Cny Works Inc

To bring businesses, job seekers and training providers together to provide skilled workers for every business and employement for every job seeker.

—

Western Ny Coalition of Farmworker

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

Human Services

Invest Buffalo Niagara Inc

To attract job and investment wealth to the 8 counties in western new york.

Community Improvement

State University College At Buffalo

At buffalo state child care center, we believe each child is a unique individual. we are sensitive to their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical needs. we provide developmentally appropriate programs that focus on the process of…

—

United Way of Northern Chautauqua C

The united way of northern chautauqua co inc envisions a community that works together, striving to improve the lives of others, while promoting ideals that facilitate lasting positive changes. empowering our local communities through…

—

Legal Assistance of Western New York Inc

Lawny increases access to justice through excellent legal representation, advocacy and service.

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

Community Health Center of Buffalo Inc

To provide quality,culturally sensitive, preventive and primary health care to the underserved of our community through state of the art clinical and business practices in a teaching environment in order to reduce health care disparities.

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Connections of Ny Inc and the most unlike its peers is Kaleida Health. 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 31 years old; the field is 22. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 16% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 7% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

1%2/170

the rest of the field

676/9,465

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

119 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)

113/119

Grantees still filing

94/119

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$47,765,822Human Services$12,541,758Philanthropy$4,639,999Youth Development$2,987,467Housing & Shelter$2,835,441Health$2,181,675Religion$2,147,004

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 BuffaloNY155.6× affinity100 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 · First Niagara Foundation · The Western New York Foundation · Buffalo Bills Foundation Inc · James H Cummings Foundation Inc · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · Cullen Foundation · Buffalo Sabres Foundation · Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Inc · The Peter and Elizabeth C Tower · Health Foundation for Western & Central

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 UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY 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: MAGIC PENNY EARLY LEARNING INSTITUTE.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

insufficient risk

Limited financial data in public filings.

Track record & reputation

high risk

5 years of Form 990 filings, no recent filing; revenue up +76% since.

Legal standing

medium risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 205359720 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 MAGIC PENNY EARLY LEARNING INSTITUTE, 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

Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
FlagSustained operations— No recent filing on record.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 91% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
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 United Way of Buffalo and Erie County?

Find your warmest path to United Way of Buffalo and Erie County 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.

UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY

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

119 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to United Way of Buffalo and Erie County?

More from the funding graph

UNITED WAY OF BUFFALO AND ERIE COUNTY

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

119 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to United Way of Buffalo and Erie County?

More from the funding graph