The Edward H Butler Foundation
Buffalo, NY · EIN 16-6019785. Reported 103 grants totalling $1,241,000 to 44 recipients across tax years 2021-2025. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.
Does this foundation accept applications?
Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. The Edward H Butler Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $5,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $5,000 and $10,000; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $50,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elmwood Franklin School | Buffalo, NY | $246,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| One Symphony Circle | Buffalo, NY | $150,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Water Compass | Boston, MA | $110,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens | Buffalo, NY | $80,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Buffalo Zoological Gardens | Buffalo, NY | $57,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Nardin Academy - Montessori Early Childhood Program | Buffalo, NY | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| West Side Community Services | Buffalo, NY | $47,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology | Buffalo, NY | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Boys & Girls Club of Buffalo | Buffalo, NY | $35,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Grassroots Garden Wny | Buffalo, NY | $32,500 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center | Buffalo, NY | $31,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| 716 Squash Inc | Buffalo, NY | $25,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| The Zoological Society of Buffalo Foundation Inc | Buffalo, NY | $25,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Adirondack Historical Association | Blue Mountain Lake, NY | $20,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Assembly House 150 | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Old Forge Fire Department | Old Forge, NY | $20,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Old Forge Volunteer Ambulance Corps | Old Forge, NY | $20,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| The Tool Library | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Buffalo State College Butler Library | Buffalo, NY | $15,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute | Buffalo, NY | $15,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Roswell Park Alliance Foundation | Buffalo, NY | $15,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| SPCA of Erie County | West Seneca, NY | $15,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Buffalo Museum of Science | Buffalo, NY | $13,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Town of Webb Health Center Fund Inc | Old Forge, NY | $12,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Gigi's Playhouse | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Leveling the Playing Field | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Library of American Landscape History | Amherst, MA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lupus Foundation of America | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Richardson Center Corporation | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Cardigan Mountain School | Canaan, NH | $8,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Danceability | Depew, NY | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Buffalo, NY | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Bertrand Chaffee Hospital | Springville, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Buffalo City Mission | Buffalo, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo | Buffalo, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Nichols School | Buffalo, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Summit Center | Getzville, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Via (formerly Olmstead Center for Sight) | Buffalo, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| West Side Rowing Club Inc | Buffalo, NY | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks | Tupper Lake, NY | $4,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Salvation Army | Buffalo, NY | $2,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Old Forge Volunteer Fire Department | Old Forge, NY | $2,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Nature Conservancy of Western and Central New York | Rochester, NY | $1,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
28 of 44 (64%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold.
Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 59%, across 4 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is about typical. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.
- Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology
TO SUPPORT THE OPPORTUNITY WITHIN REACH CAPITAL CAMPAIGN - Nardin Academy - Montessori Early Childhood Program
CONSTRUCTION OF OUTDOOR MONTESSORI EDUCATION FACILITY - Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN - EXPANSION PROJECT - Boys & Girls Club of Buffalo
BUTLER MITCHELL HOUSE RENOVATION - Assembly House 150
TO SUPPORT THE MODERN CITY BUILDERS PROGRAM - The Tool Library
DESIGNATION - TO SUPPORT CAPACITY-BUILDING PROJECTS TO IMPROVE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 76 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22 | $216,500 | $5,000 |
| 2022 | 29 | $272,000 | $5,000 |
| 2023 | 16 | $242,000 | $5,000 |
| 2024 | 20 | $240,500 | $7,000 |
| 2025 | 16 | $270,000 | $10,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.
Already committed for future years
Form 990-PF has a separate schedule for grants approved but not yet paid. The Edward H Butler Foundation has 13 of them, worth $900,000. This is the one part of the filing that looks forward rather than back.
| Organization | Location | Approved |
|---|---|---|
| Elmwood Franklin School | Buffalo, NY | $250,000 |
| Elmwood Franklin School | Buffalo, NY | $200,000 |
| Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology | Buffalo, NY | $160,000 |
| One Symphony Circle | Buffalo, NY | $100,000 |
| One Symphony Circle | Buffalo, NY | $50,000 |
| Water Compass | Boston, MA | $30,000 |
| Water Compass | Boston, MA | $25,000 |
| Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 |
| West Side Community Services | Buffalo, NY | $20,000 |
| Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center | Buffalo, NY | $15,000 |
| Boys & Girls Club of Buffalo | Buffalo, NY | $15,000 |
| West Side Community Services | Buffalo, NY | $10,000 |
| Adirondack Historical Association | Blue Mountain Lake, NY | $5,000 |
Where its money goes
88% of its giving went to organizations in New York. If your organization is based elsewhere, look in the recipient list for grants to your area before writing.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this foundation
- Check you are its size. The median grant is $5,000. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in New York.
- Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
- Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Edward H Butler Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: 369 Franklin St, Buffalo, NY, 14202. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.
EIN 16-6019785 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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