GrantmakersMassachusetts

Mds Foundation Inc

Southborough, MA · EIN 04-3466040. Reported 29 grants totalling $447,299 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$15,000median reported grant
$447,299granted, 2021-2024
41%of grantees funded again the next year
16%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Mds Foundation Inc, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 16% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 41% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $15,000; the smallest was $5,794 and the largest $48,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
4 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
21 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires IncGt Barrington, MA$70,000332024
National Foundation of Dentistry for the HandicappedDenver, CO$51,500332024
Dcd (doctors Caring for Doctors)Falmouth, MA$48,000112021
Trustees of Tufts CollegeMedford, MA$40,000322024
Florida Dental AssociationTallahassee, FL$35,000112022
California Dental Association FoundationSacramento, CA$15,000112024
Florida Dental Association Foundation IncTallahassee, FL$15,000112024
Georgia Dental Association Foundation for Oral Health IncMarietta, GA$15,000112024
Hillcrest Dental Care IncPittsfield, MA$15,000112024
North Carolina Dental Society Foundation IncCary, NC$15,000112024
Tda Relief Fund-Tsda 2104 Sunset PlaceFranklin, TN$15,000112024
Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program IncBoston, MA$12,500112024
Holyoke Health Center IncHolyoke, MA$12,350112022
Community Health Connections IncFitchburg, MA$12,155112023
Ada Forsyth Institute IncSomerville, MA$10,000112023
Harvard Action for Children and Teens in Oral Health Need (action) ProgramBoston, MA$10,000112022
Hawaii Dental Association Foundation IncHonolulu, HI$10,000112023
Massachusetts Dental SocietySouthborough, MA$10,000112024
Smiles for Success FoundationPensacola, FL$10,000112024
American Student Dental AssociationBoston, MA$7,000112023
Cambridge Public Health DepartmentCambridge, MA$7,000112024
President and Fellows of Harvard CollegeCambridge, MA$6,000112024
Neighborhealth CorporationBoston, MA$5,794112024

3 of 23 (13%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 15 of 23 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Health Care
6 orgs
Education
4 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Science & Technology
1 org
Diseases & Disorders
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20211$48,000$48,000
20225$94,850$12,500
20238$113,155$11,077
202415$191,294$15,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

59% of its giving went to organizations in Massachusetts. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Massachusetts
$266K
Florida
$60K
Colorado
$52K
California
$15K
Georgia
$15K
North Carolina
$15K
Tennessee
$15K
Hawaii
$10K

Down to the city

Gt Barrington, MA
$70K
Denver, CO
$52K
Tallahassee, FL
$50K
Falmouth, MA
$48K
Medford, MA
$40K
Boston, MA
$35K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund7 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsAmerican Dental Association4 shared recipientsHealth Resources in Action Inc4 shared recipientsMassachusetts League of Community Health4 shared recipientsBoston Medical Center Corporation4 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $15,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Massachusetts.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

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Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Mds Foundation Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 15 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: Two Willow Street 200, Southborough, MA, 01745.

EIN 04-3466040 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.