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Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

Alan & Barbara Ackerman Fdn-Cust

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$5k
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.

Philanthropy$970kArts & Culture$68kEducation$23kRecreation & Sports$9kHuman Services$4kInternational$4kReligion$4kYouth Development$3kOther$0
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$4,575
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JEWISH FEDERATION OF PITTSBURGH$4,575
02The need
03

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 (FY20–23, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%JFCS: $2k → 11%JFCS: $1k → 11%JEWISH ASSOCIATION ON AGING: $500 → 11%JEWISH ASSOCIATION ON AGING: $250 → 11%JEWISH ASSOCIATION OF AGING: $250 → 11%JEWISH ASSOCIATION ON AGING: $250 → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 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.

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.

11%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$124k · 36 repeat orgs$953k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +21% since the first grant, against +3% for the ones you funded once.

36 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2024, 35 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

36
19

Total granted

$124k
$953k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+21%
+3%

Still filing today

81%
16%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationHealthHuman ServicesInternationalRecreation & 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

  • CI
    CARNEGIE INSTITUTE
    4× · 2020–2023 · $27k · revenue +41%
  • PP
    PITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY
    4× · 2020–2023 · $9k · revenue +100%
  • HS
    HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
    4× · 2020–2023 · $9k · revenue +181%

Funded once

  • JF
    JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PGH
    one grant, 2023 · $939k
  • PS
    PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
    one grant, 2023 · $4k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH LAW SCHOOL - TH
    one grant, 2020 · $2k

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.

1
Point Park University

Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…

—
2
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Inc

See schedule o for the description of pittsburgh ballet theatre inc.'s primary mission.the ballet is pittsburgh's source and ambassador for extraordinary ballet experiences that give life to the classical tradition, nurture new ideas and,…

Arts & Culture
3
Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc

Tourism development organization dedicated to expanding the tourism economy across allegheny county.

—
4
Zoological Society of Pittsburgh

The zoological society of pittsburgh is dedicated to being a leader in, and significant contributor to, the conservation of endangered and threatened species. the society provides an enjoyable family experience that fosters understanding,…

Animals
5
Pittsburgh Council On Higher Education

To provide a means for sharing resources and information among members, engage in joint projects, and offer a common voice on educational matters.

Education
6
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
7
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

The western pennsylvania conservancy protects and restores exceptional places to provide our region with clean waters and healthy forests, wildlife and natural areas for the benefit of present and future generations. the conservancy…

Environment
8
Artphilly

The mission of artphilly is to amplify philadelphia's arts and culture by commissioning, presenting, producing, and promoting art of all kinds for local audiences and the world. its vision is to spotlight(continued on schedule o)the city…

Arts & Culture
9
Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation

Pidc plans and implements economic development initiatives (see schedule o) which enhance the competitive environment, generate jobs and produce higher tax ratables throughout philadelphia.

Community Improvement
10
Allegheny Conference On Community Development

See schedule othe allegheny conference on community development (accd) and affiliates - the greater pittsburgh chamber of commerce (chamber), the pennsylvania economy league of greater pittsburgh(pelgp) and the pittsburgh regional alliance…

—
11
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education
12
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures Inc

The mission of pittsburgh arts & lectures is to connect celebrated authors with the community, elevate civic discourse, and inspire creativity and a passion for the literary arts. our commitment to knowledge, learning, integrity, and…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the most unlike its peers is Autumn House Press. 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 55 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number17%0%<5yr13%3%5–10yr20%0%10–20yr21%25%20–35yr15%22%35–55yr13%50%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value17%0%<5yr13%4%5–10yr20%0%10–20yr21%14%20–35yr15%17%35–55yr13%65%55yr+

The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/38
the rest of the field
10%
2,883/30,051

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.

04the grantee network

36 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. 36 of the 59 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
36/36
Grantees still filing
27/36
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PGH — $939,241 · OtherJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PGH+34 more — $54,175 · Other+34 moreCARNEGIE INSTITUTE — $27,000 · Arts & CultureHISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA — $8,516 · Arts & CulturePITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST — $8,000 · Arts & CulturePITTSBURGH SYMPHONY INC — $6,500 · Arts & CulturePITTSBURGH PUBLIC THEATER CORPORATION — $3,000 · Arts & Culture+6 more — $5,075 · Arts & CultureTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA — $9,250 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH — $4,500 · EducationCARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH — $2,000 · EducationTHE CHILDREN'S INSTITUTE OF PITTSBURGH — $1,000 · EducationTHE NEIGHBORHOOD ACADEMY — $650 · EducationTHE UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA — $5,500 · PhilanthropyJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PITTSBURGH — $2,500 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY WORLDWIDE — $1,500 · Philanthropy+1 more — $250 · PhilanthropyPITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY — $8,750 · Recreation & SportsPHIPPS CONSERVATORY AND BOTANICAL GARDENS INC — $4,000 · EnvironmentJEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA — $2,750 · Human ServicesJEWISH ASSOCIATION ON AGING — $1,250 · Human Services
Other$993,416Arts & Culture$58,091Education$17,400Philanthropy$9,750Recreation & Sports$8,750Environment$4,000Human Services$4,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCARNEGIE INSTITUTE — $27,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA — $9,250 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPITTSBURGH PARKS CONSERVANCY — $8,750 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetHISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA — $8,516 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST — $8,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPITTSBURGH SYMPHONY INC — $6,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA — $5,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH — $4,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPHIPPS CONSERVATORY AND BOTANICAL GARDENS INC — $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPITTSBURGH PUBLIC THEATER CORPORATION — $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICE OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA — $2,750 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER PITTSBURGH — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL OF PITTSBURGH — $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCarnegie Mellon University — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER PITTSBURGH COMMUNITY FOOD BANK — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL — $2,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetVASSAR COLLEGE — $1,750 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED WAY WORLDWIDE — $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetQUANTUM THEATRE INC — $1,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPITTSBURGH OPERA INC — $1,300 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH ASSOCIATION ON AGING — $1,250 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWQED MULTIMEDIA — $1,025 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S INSTITUTE OF PITTSBURGH — $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN PARKINSON DISEASE ASSOC — $1,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFRICK ART & HISTORICAL CENTER INC — $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMANCHESTER BIDWELL CORPORATION — $750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NEIGHBORHOOD ACADEMY — $650 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Metropolitan Opera Guild Inc — $600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION — $600 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPITTSBURGH FESTIVAL OPERA — $550 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMANCHESTER BIDWELL DEVELOPMENT TRUST — $250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS ASSN — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAUTUMN HOUSE PRESS — $100 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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.

Hillman Family Founda…The Fine FoundationThe Grable FoundationRichard King Mellon F…The Heinz EndowmentsEqt FoundationEden Hall FoundationMcCune Foundation Pnc…The Pittsburgh Founda…Richard and Dana Gree…The Benter FoundationThe Burke Foundation
Hillman Family FoundationsPA31.5× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Hillman Family Foundations · The Fine Foundation · The Grable Foundation · Richard King Mellon Foundation · The Heinz Endowments · Eqt Foundation · Eden Hall Foundation · McCune Foundation Pnc Bank Na · The Pittsburgh Foundation · Richard and Dana Green Philanthropic Foundation · The Benter Foundation · The Burke 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 Alan & Barbara Ackerman Fdn-Cust 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    16report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 59 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home