· Private foundation
Arcana Foundation Inc
Its FY2023 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 FY2021–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k1 grant · $8k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SAMARITAN INN | $50,000 |
| BROAD FUTURES | $10,000 |
| NEW ENDEAVORS BY WOMEN | $8,000 |
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 (FY21–23, $265k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, 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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +10% since the first grant, against -12% for the ones you funded once.
11 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2023, 8 since wound down.
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 FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- CHChrist House2× · 2021–2022 · $200k · revenue +8%
- SISAMARITAN INNS INC3× · 2021–2023 · $135k · revenue +30%
- NENEW ENDEAVORS BY WOMEN2× · 2021–2023 · $108k · revenue +10%
Funded once
- CWCALVARY WOMENS SHELTERone grant, 2022 · $200k
- SBSASHA BRUCE YOUTHWORK INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $50k · revenue +31%
- NSNASHVILLE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVALone grant, 2022 · $35k · revenue +7%
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.
Pathways to housing dc prevents and ends homelessness for persons living with serious psychiatric disabilities and other complex health challenges.
Covenant house washington, dc ("chw") provides shelter, crisis care, community services, and outreach services to youth in the washington dc area.
Our mission is to dramatically improve the early career outcomes of dc youth and young adults of color by creating innovative programs and by mobilizing employers, educators, and city leaders to create a local, diverse talent pipeline. our…
Friendship Place is a leader in the Washington, DC, metro area in developing solutions to homelessness that have measurable results and a lasting impact. Friendship Place's mission is to empower people who are experiencing or at risk of…
We support the holistic needs of individuals and families at risk of or experiencing homelessness. Housing is our starting point. Seeing people thrive is our finish line.
House of ruth helps women, children and families in greatest need and with very limited resources to build safe, stable lives and achieve their highest potential. serving the district of columbia since 1976, house of ruth provides…
We deliver healthy delicious meals to our home-bound neighbors. With a vision of creating a more interconnected resilient and compassionate community our program supports entire family systems. In 2024 236 volunteers delivered 55,642 meals…
District alliance for safe housing, inc. (dash) is an innovator in providing access to safe housing and services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their families as they rebuild their lives on their own terms.
Woodley house enables district of columbia residents with mental health disorders to live full and healthy lives with dignity by providing supportive housing and services.
Community of hope's mission is to improve health, end homelessness, and partner with communities to make washington, dc more equitable.
Dcc is for the purpose of strengthening the social and economic well-being of individuals, families, and communities in the greater washington, dc area. dcc is a full-time, bilingual social service organization that provides comprehensive…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Thrive Dc and the most unlike its peers is Broadfutures Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
17 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. 17 of the 26 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 THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds THRIVE DC ↗
- Who funds Christ House ↗
- Who funds SAMARITAN INNS INC ↗
- Who funds NEW ENDEAVORS BY WOMEN ↗
- Who funds Iona Senior Services ↗
- Who funds SASHA BRUCE YOUTHWORK INC ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL FOR COURT EXCELLENCE ↗
- Who funds NASHVILLE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL ↗
- Who funds DC POLICY CENTER ↗
- Who funds TEENS RUN DC ↗
- Who funds MY SISTER'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds BROADFUTURES INC ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL UNION MISSION ↗
- Who funds WASHINGTON SCHOOL FOR GIRLS ↗
- Who funds NICK'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds WASHINGTON DC POLICE FOUNDATION ↗
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: Greater Washington Community Foundation · Clark-Winchcole Foundation · Philip L Graham Fund co Graham Holdings Company · United Way of the National Capital Area · The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · William S Abell Foundation Inc · Dimick Foundation John M Lynham Jr Trustee · John Edward Fowler Memorial Foundation · Venable Foundation Inc · The Washington Home Inc · Joseph E & Marjorie B Jones Foundation Corporation · Corina Higginson Trust Co Laura Ford Trustee
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 Arcana Foundation Inc 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Arcana Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Arcana Foundation Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.