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Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Private foundation

Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$9k
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$16kEducation$12kEnvironment$7kPublic Benefit$3kPhilanthropy$1kReligion$700Human Services$500Animals$400Other$0
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,100
Median grant
4
States reached
$159k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE AMERICAN LEGION POST 169$3,000
LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS$2,500
RASA LITHUANIAN SCHOOL$1,100
BERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$1,000
NEIGHBOR BY NEIGHBOR$500
UW-MADISON GEOLOGY MUSEUM$500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY24–24, $500) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%NEIGHBOR BY NEIGHBOR: $500 → 15%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Lithuanian Center

Lithuanian Center supports the Lithuanian charitable and educational programs by providing space to other not for profit Lithuanian organizations to promote the advancement of the Lithuanian heritage & culture in the Chicago land area.

Community Improvement
2
Lithuanian Museum of Art Inc

Art gallery, exhibits, and educational programs related to artists of Lithuanian descent and heritage.

—
3
Lithuanian Opera Co

To Promote Lithuanian Language Culture.The Lithuanian Opera Company of Chicago was founded by Lithuanian imigrants in 1956 and presents operas in Lithuanian . It celebrated fifty years of existence in 2006 , and operates as a…

Arts & Culture
4
Lithuanian Alliance of America

To promote lithuanian culture and education.

—
5
Lithuanian Days
Arts & Culture
6
Ligzda Latvian Center

Ligzda is an organization that supports and promotes cultural, ethnic, religious, educational and artistic activities for Latvians in the Chicago area and wherever they may be. Ligzda is home to more than a dozen Latvian organizations…

Human Services
7
Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Sciences Inc

Operation and maintenance of museum and library of the lithuanian catholic academy

Religion
8
Lithuanian Research & Studies Center Inc

Lithuanian archives research and publishing.

Social Science
9
Lithuanian Cultural Center of Philadelphia

To encourage, promote and support lithuanian ethnic culture.

—
10
Museum of Russian Culture
Arts & Culture
11
Lithuanian American Club Inc

Cultural & Religious Meetings

Arts & Culture
12
American Lithuanian Press & Radio

To publish a newspaper in the lithuanian language covering us and world news as well as its culture and heritage locally and around the world.

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lithuanian Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Vermilion County War Museum. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

13 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 13 of the 19 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
6/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FRIENDSHIP BOTANIC GARDENS: $6,800 · OtherFRIENDSHIP BOTANIC GARDENSNEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP LIBRARY: $6,000 · OtherNEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP LIBRARYRASOS LITHUANIAN SCHOOL INC: $4,400 · OtherRASOS LITHUANIAN SCHOOL INCMICHIGAN CITY HISTORICAL SOCIE: $2,500 · OtherMICHIGAN CITY HISTORICAL SOCIERASA LITHUANIAN SCHOOL: $1,100 · Other+3 more: $1,650 · Other+3 moreLithuanian Cultural School of Chicago: $3,200 · Arts & CultureLithuanian Cultural School of Chic…THE JACK AND SHIRLEY LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $2,500 · Arts & CultureTHE JACK AND SHIRLEY LUBEZNIK CENT…DUNES ART FOUNDATION INC: $2,500 · Arts & CultureDUNES ART FOUNDATION INCVermilion County War Museum: $2,500 · Arts & CultureVermilion County War MuseumBALZEKAS MUSEUM OF LITHUANIAN CULTURE: $1,000 · Arts & CultureBALZEKAS MUSEUM OF LITHUANIAN CULT…LITHUANIAN FOUNDATION INC: $500 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN LEGION POST 169 INC: $3,000 · Public BenefitBERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 · PhilanthropyNeighbor by Neighbor: $500 · Human ServicesMICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY: $400 · AnimalsCHILD'S GATE TO LEARNING: $300 · Youth Development
Other$22,450Arts & Culture$12,200Public Benefit$3,000Philanthropy$1,000Human Services$500Animals$400Youth Development$300

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLithuanian Cultural School of Chicago: $3,200 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetAMERICAN LEGION POST 169 INC: $3,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetTHE JACK AND SHIRLEY LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDUNES ART FOUNDATION INC: $2,500 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetVermilion County War Museum: $2,500 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetMICHIGAN CITY HISTORICAL SOCIE: $2,500 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetBALZEKAS MUSEUM OF LITHUANIAN CULTURE: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNeighbor by Neighbor: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLITHUANIAN FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetLITHUANIAN WORLD CENTER: $450 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY: $400 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHILD'S GATE TO LEARNING: $300 over 1y, 0.6% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO3.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd?

    Find your warmest path to Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 19 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Balzekas Family Foundation Ltd’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
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    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