· Private foundation
Walter and Phyllis Ann Borten Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k16 grants · $56k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $72k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SHARON FIRE DEPT | $37,000 |
| SHARON DAY CARE CENTER | $15,000 |
| BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN | $10,000 |
| THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN | $10,000 |
| EQUUS EFFECT | $6,000 |
| NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC | $6,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK | $6,000 |
| WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY | $5,000 |
| CHORE SERVICE INC | $5,000 |
| PROJECT SAGE INC | $5,000 |
| THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY | $4,500 |
| CORNELL UNIVERSITY | $3,000 |
| WILD BIRD FUND INC | $3,000 |
| SHARON HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $3,000 |
| THE FRIENDS OF GOVERNORS ISLAND | $2,500 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–25, $41k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 16%. 6% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein 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 — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
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.
21 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- SFSHARON FIRE DEPARTMENT INC6× · 2020–2025 · $183k · revenue +47%
- SDSHARON DAY CARE CENTER INC6× · 2020–2025 · $88k · revenue +125%
- HYHOUSATONIC YOUTH SERVICE BUREAU INC5× · 2020–2024 · $58k · revenue +76%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $20k
- BIBLOOMAGAINBKLYN INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $3k · revenue +207%
- CLCORNELL LAB OF ORNITHOLOGYone grant, 2020 · $1k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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 greenwich tree conservancy is open to all interested citizens, governed by a board and advised by an advisory board. it was created to preserve and enhance the tree and forest resources of greenwich, ct to benefit the community, its…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
Brooklyn bridge park corporation's mission, d/b/a brooklyn bridge park ("bbp") mission is to provide an exceptional public space that connects people, nature, and the waterfront, through inclusive, innovative, and sustainable management…
Zoo new york, by example and action, provides knowledge and motivation for conserving nature in new york state through science-based natural and cultural experiences.
The adirondack council ensures the ecological integrity (clean water and air, wildlife habitat, etc.), wild character (solitude, scenic beauty, etc.), and vibrant communities of new york's six-million-acre adirondack park. the adirondack…
Conserve, enhance, and celebrate our distinctive catskill sanctuary through sustainable horticulture, responsible land stewardship, and innovative educational programming
The mission of carl schurz park conservancy is to restore and beautify carl schurz park, complementing the efforts of the new york city department of parks and recreation. our goal is to enhance the public's enjoyment and involement in the…
Conserving the land. connecting the community. greenwich land trust conserves open space, connects our community with the natural world, and inspires the next generation of conservationists. the land trust permanently protects and cares…
Queens botanical garden is an urban oasis where people, plants and cultures are celebrated through inspiring gardens, innovative educational programs and demonstrations of environmental stewardship.
Avalonia land conservancy, founded in 1968, is a land trust dedicated to conservation through the acquisition of open space. it is a non-profit, non-political, tax-exempt organization. we believe that the conservation of natural resources…
Nyc bird alliance is a grassroots community that protects wild birds and habitat in the five boroughs, improving the quality of life for all new yorkers.
The mission of the brooklyn institute of arts and sciences, d/b/a brooklyn museum (the "museum") is to bring people together through art and experiences that inspire celebration, compassion, courage, and the will to act. (see schedule o).
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sharon Historical Society Inc and the most unlike its peers is Wildlife Conservation Society. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 41 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
20 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 20 of the 25 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
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.
- Who funds SHARON FIRE DEPARTMENT INC ↗
- Who funds SHARON DAY CARE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HOUSATONIC YOUTH SERVICE BUREAU INC ↗
- Who funds BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds THE EQUUS EFFECT INC ↗
- Who funds CHORE SERVICE INC ↗
- Who funds NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN ↗
- Who funds HOTCHKISS LIBRARY OF SHARON INC ↗
- Who funds GOVERNORS ISLAND ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds The New York Public Library Astor Lenox and Tilden Foundations ↗
- Who funds SHARON HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds Wildlife Conservation Society ↗
- Who funds Cornell University ↗
- Who funds SHARON LAND TRUST INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK INC ↗
- Who funds CONNECTICUT FOREST & PARK ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds WILD BIRD FUND INC ↗
- Who funds PROJECT SAGE INC ↗
- Who funds NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT ARTS COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds BLOOMAGAINBKLYN INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation Inc · Peter and Helen Haje Foundation · The Rhoades-Robinson Fund · The Mortimer & Barbara Klaus Family Foundation · The Hallingby Family Foundation Inc · Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Inc · MJPM Foundation · The Robert L and Jean Clarke Family Foundation · Low Road Foundation · Foundation for Community Health Inc · The Jm Kaplan Fund Inc · Steven Aresty Foundation
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 organization Walter and Phyllis Ann Borten 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Northwest Connecticut Arts Council Inc — 35% of income from government
- Housatonic Youth Service Bureau Inc — 33% of income from government
- The Equus Effect Inc — 16% of income from government
- Connecticut Forest & Park Association — 16% of income from government
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 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.