· Public charity
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation
BALLOT INITIATIVE STRATEGY CENTER FOUNDATION (bisc foundation) strengthens democracy by conducting research to better understand public attitudes toward issues and the role ballot measures play in our democracy.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MISSOURI ORGANIZING AND VOTER ENGAGEMENT COLLABORATIVE | $100,000 |
| MAINE VOICES NETWORK | $20,000 |
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 (FY22–22, $50k) 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.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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.
To develop and advocate for legislation, regulations, ballot initiatives, and government programs as a voice of the working class, to promote social justice, and to stimulate the economy; and, to conduct research, educate the public, and…
Advocating for legislation, regulations, ballot initiatives, and government programs as a voice of average missouri citizens, to promote social justice, and to stimulate the economy, and conducting research, educating the public, and…
Through grassroots people-powered advocacy and organizing, lwvnj trains, mobilizes, and educates advocates to have a greater voice in government and influence public policy.
Minnesota Voice is a collaboration of organizations working toward permanent change in social, racial, and economic justice by increasing civic engagement and voter participation across the state.
The mission of voteamerica is to strengthen united states democracy by increasing voter turnout.
The wyoming civic engagement network strives for equitable voter participation by building power in marginalized and under-resourced communities, growing the capacity of their leaders and organizations, facilitating equitable access to…
Civictn and its partners are working individually and collectively to create a more accessible, inclusive, and representative democracy by lifting up the voices of the disenfranchised, restoring the power and accessibility of the vote, and…
To protect and expand the rights of citizens of the state of new jersey, and encourage active citizen involvement in campaigns promoting economic, social and racial equity.
The organization monitors legislation that could impact civil liberties and takes the necessary action to support or oppose such legislation.
To support grassroots organizing, leadership development & public education around important public policy. ky coalition seeks to promote active citizen participation in the democratic process.
A nonpartisan grassroots communication organization that works to raise awareness and increase engagement around community issues in alabama by working directly with civic organizations advocating civic participation in communities across…
Southern coalition for social justice partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities across the south to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights. through an intersectional and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest and the most unlike its peers is Ohio Voice. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 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.
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 TIDES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MISSOURI ORGANIZING AND VOTER ENGAGEMENT COLLABORATIVE ↗
- Who funds LIVING UNITED FOR CHANGE IN ARIZONA ↗
- Who funds NEBRASKA APPLESEED CENTER FOR LAW IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ↗
- Who funds FLORIDA ALLIANCE FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT INC ↗
- Who funds MAINE PEOPLE'S RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds BLUEPRINT NORTH CAROLINA ↗
- Who funds MISSISSIPPI VOTES ↗
- Who funds MISSOURI JOBS WITH JUSTICE ↗
- Who funds OHIO VOICE ↗
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: Tides Foundation · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · New Venture Fund · Demos a Network for Ideas and Action Ltd · Proteus Fund Inc · Common Counsel Foundation · Hopewell Fund · NEO Philanthropy Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation 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.