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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

Mary Lyon Foundation Inc

Mary Lyon Foundation Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $764,418 to it, the largest being Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program ($307,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$448k
Revenue FY2025
14
Funders on record
$764k
Grants received
$4.2M
Net assets
8/14 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 25%

Against its field

Mary Lyon Foundation Inc is better cushioned than half of the 15,926 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−22% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve14.1mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)17% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15,926 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($125k) Expenses 100 ($136k) Net assets 100 ($614k)2018 Revenue 159 ($198k) Expenses 83 ($113k) Net assets 108 ($664k)2019 Revenue 143 ($179k) Expenses 107 ($146k) Net assets 114 ($699k)2021 Revenue 352 ($440k) Expenses 223 ($304k) Net assets 164 ($1.0M)2022 Revenue 1680 ($2.1M) Expenses 412 ($561k) Net assets 392 ($2.4M)2023 Revenue 980 ($1.2M) Expenses 335 ($457k) Net assets 527 ($3.2M)2024 Revenue 804 ($1.0M) Expenses 322 ($438k) Net assets 682 ($4.2M)2025 Revenue 359 ($448k) Expenses 402 ($548k) Net assets 691 ($4.2M)
'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (359)Expenses (402)Net assets (691)Peer revenue range

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

73% of Mary Lyon Foundation Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,851 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$11k
17
$85k
18
$33k
19
$136k
21
$1.5M
22
$768k
23
$567k
24
$100k
25
14
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $31k → $240k.

5 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)76% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of Mary Lyon Foundation Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

Mary Lyon Foundation Inc leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

84% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Mary Lyon Foundation Inc.

40%
largest funder
73%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 100% · 2019 54% · 2020 52% · 2021 53% · 2022 47% · 2023 71%growing more concentrated.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

50% of Mary Lyon Foundation Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

76% of Mary Lyon Foundation Inc's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $186k that is directly attributable, 70% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 5 states.

MN
NY
MA
RI
CA

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $579k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 statesis excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 14 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Government funding Mary Lyon Foundation Inc receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $97k on record.

State$97k
17
20
23
24
25
Top programs
  • (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$90k
  • (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$4k
  • (FF) FACILITY OPERATIONAL EXPENSES$3k

Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.

Organizations like Mary Lyon Foundation Inc

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Massachusetts

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

65% of spending goes to programs.

Program 65%Management 12%Fundraising 23%

Governance

15
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

93%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Mary Lyon Foundation Inc: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds Mary Lyon Foundation Inc?
Mary Lyon Foundation Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $764,418 to it, the largest being Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program ($307,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 76% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does Mary Lyon Foundation Inc have?
IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $764,418 in grants to Mary Lyon Foundation Inc, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Mary Lyon Foundation Inc?
Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program is the largest funder on record, with $307,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Mary Lyon Foundation Inc find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 14funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing