How much did Balmer Foundation grant in FY2024?

Environment$12MPhilanthropy$3.2MEducation$535kArts & Culture$455kAnimals$254kHousing & Shelter$100kCommunity Improvement$100kPublic Benefit$74kFood & Nutrition$50kOther$1.7M

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2018

educationmedical

2019

excellencepalactive livinghealthyhealthrespondingcommitted improving

2020

farmlovefinancialjuriedadvocacycompassionatemobile meals

2021

northsidespay neuterchoosestayrespondingcommitted improvingimproving lives

2022

propertydevelopeducational advancementcultural educationalnorthsidespay neuterchoose

2023

corporationownershomelessnessmuseumcultural educationalveteransout

2024

corporationownerswritershomelessnesspalactive livingwell

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k5 grants · $26k
$10k–50k4 grants · $90k
$50k–250k1 grant · $100k
$250k+3 grants · $3.5M

$20,000

Median grant

States reached

$33M

Total assets

Largest grants

The Tyger River Foundation$3,022,991
The Anderson Mill Historical Fund$250,000
Walnut Grove Plantation Fund$250,000
Upstate Forever$100,000
Partners for Active Living General Fund$25,000
Spartanburg Philharmonic$25,000
Service Dogs for Veterans$20,000
Northside Development Group$20,000
Hub City Animal Project (HCAP) Fund$6,000
TreesUpstate$5,000
Hub City Writers Project Inc$5,000
USC Upstate Foundation$5,000
Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve Inc$5,000

02The need

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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14% — the area typically sits at 12%. 98% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — 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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$16M · 19 repeat orgs$1.8M to everyone else

19 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 10 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$16M

$1.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+51%

+54%

Still filing today

95%

80%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $605k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureAnimalsEnvironmentEducationFood & NutritionPhilanthropyOther

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

TT
The Tyger River Foundation
8× · 2017–2024 · $12M · revenue +2899% · 98% of their budget
TN
THE NOBLE TREE FOUNDATIONORG
7× · 2017–2023 · $3.2M · revenue +200%
CM
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF THE UPSTATE INC
2× · 2017–2020 · $265k · revenue +11%

Funded once

CONVERSE COLLEGEgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $250k · revenue +54%
AS
A Spot of Pride Beautification Fund
one grant, 2023 · $150k
SC
SPARTANBURG COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT SEVEN
one grant, 2018 · $150k

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.

Spartanburg Science Center

To provide science enrichment and interactive educational programs and exhibits to supplement and enhance the science education of children and adults of spartanburg county sc.

—

South Carolina National Heritage

The organization's primary mission is a grassroots initiative that advances sustainable development of natural, cultural, and historic resources for enhanced quality of life and economic revitalization of communities in south carolina.

Arts & Culture

Hub City Roots

The hub city farmers' market is a nonprofit community organization that aims to increase supply, demand, and access to healthy, local foods in spartanburg, south carolina.

Food & Nutrition

South Carolina Wildlife Partnership

To connect public hunters with private landowners who are willing to provide hunting opportunities that promote respect for the land and ethical hunting for the future.

Animals

Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System Foundation

The Foundation's purpose is to provide financial support for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System (SRHS). The Foundation promotes health by funding specific projects that benefit the wellbeing of the community in accordance with…

Health

Southern Bancorp Capital Partners

Creating economic opportunities in distressed rural communities.

—

South Carolina Aquarium

Our mission is to inspire conservation of the natural world by exhibiting and caring for animals, by excelling in education and research, and by providing an exceptional visitor experience.

Animals

Sc Battleground Preservation Trust

The purpose of the trust is to preserve historic military sites in south carolina.

—

Spartanburg Methodist College

Spartanburg Methodist College is a private residential institution offering associate and baccalaureate degrees within the United Methodist Connection. At SMC, lives are transformed in a values-oriented, student-centered atmosphere in the…

Education

Sc Chamber of Commerce

Be the leading voice for business in south carolina.

—

Spartanburg Area Housing Corporation

The purpose of the organization is to provide affordable housing opportunities for economically disadvantage d families and individuals.

Housing & Shelter

Spartanburg Day School

Sds is a college preparatory, co-educational day school for students in grades 3-k through 12.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Spartanburg Area Conservancy Inc and the most unlike its peers is Hub City Writers Project. 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 32 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 24% 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%0/45

the rest of the field

10%

128/1,252

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.

05the grantee network

40 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

40/40

Grantees still filing

31/40

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Environment$11,703,056Philanthropy$3,211,850Other$1,916,011Education$535,000Arts & Culture$455,000Animals$253,500Housing & Shelter$100,000

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.

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.

Spartanburg County FoundationSC78× affinity35 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Spartanburg County Foundation · Milliken & Company Charitable Foundation · Black & Phillips Foundation Inc · Arkwright Foundation · J M Smith Foundation · Barnet Foundation · Mary Black Foundation Inc · Harry H Gibson Family Foundation · Ivey Family Foundation · Betty & James K Stone Foundation · United Community Bank Foundation · Chapman Cultural Center Inc

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 organisation Balmer 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.

2025

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

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. 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.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: The Tyger River Foundation.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

low risk

~17 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 8 filed years.

Track record & reputation

low risk

8 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 30.0× since.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 261213214 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on The Tyger River Foundation, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 17 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 98% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Balmer Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Balmer Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

Balmer Foundation

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

40 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Balmer Foundation?

More from the funding graph

Balmer Foundation

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

40 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Balmer Foundation?

More from the funding graph