Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation DossiersMostly funded, not a grantmaker — see who funds it →
Plinth

· Public charity

Bellwether Education Partners Inc

Bellwether is a national nonprofit, founded in 2010, that works to ensure young people, especially those furthest from opportunity, achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities.

$225k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.

Education$7.2MEmployment$2.6MSocial Science$84k
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $17k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
$100,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$17M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AMIGOS POR VIDA FRIENDS FOR LIFE HOUSING & EDUCATION CORP DBA PUBLIC CHARTE$100,000
PORTICO EDUCATION FOUNDATION DBA TRIVIUM ACADEMY$100,000
CATALYST VISIONARY EDUCATION DBA VISTIONARY STEM ACADEMY$16,966
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA$7,582
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 (FY21–24, $415k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%EDWARD CHARLES FOUNDATION: $400k → 14%OHIO EXCELS: $15k → 15%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.

Which US states your grants reach

NH
ID
MN
IL
NY
OR
IN
OH
NJ
CT
CA
CO
VA
NM
TN
SC
DC
AL
GA
TX
FL

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.

18%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.7M · 10 repeat orgs$8.1M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +7% since the first grant, against -3% for the ones you funded once.

10 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
41

Total granted

$1.7M
$7.9M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+7%
-3%

Still filing today

70%
88%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 3% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $217k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentScience & TechEmploymentOther

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

  • TI
    TNTP INC
    2× · 2021–2022 · $954k · revenue +63%
  • CS
    Colorado Succeeds
    2× · 2022–2023 · $200k · revenue +60%
  • CR
    COMPASS ROSE EDUCATION INC
    2× · 2022–2023 · $100k · revenue +64%

Funded once

  • E
    EDBUILD
    one grant, 2024 · $1.7M · revenue -69% · 50% of their budget
  • P
    PROMISE54
    one grant, 2020 · $1.5M · revenue -65%
  • CH
    CLIMB HIRE INC
    one grant, 2020 · $1.1M · revenue -3% · 55% of their budget

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
Enroll Indy Inc

Enroll indy helps families choose schools that meet their children's needs by providing a one-stop enrollment process, school information that is relevant and easy to understand, and data to inform school improvement in indianapolis,…

Education
2
New Classrooms Innovation Partners Inc

To create and inspire better ways to give every student an educational foundation for lifelong success. we imagine a world where every student attends a school that meets them where they are, adapts to the unique ways they learn, and…

Education
3
Stamford Charter School for Excellence

The stamford charter school for excellence prepares young people in stamford, connecticut to compete for admission to and succeed in top public, private and parochial high schools by cultivating their intellectual, artistic, social,…

Education
4
South Shore Charter School

The mission of south shore charter school is to cultivate students the tenacity, integrity, and curiosity needed to become innovative and socially responsible leaders, ready to face and solve the ever-changing challenges facing our…

Education
5
Silicon Schools Fund Inc

The mission of the silicon schools fund is to improve education through supporting the launch of excellent new schools, improving academic instruction in existing schools, and by funding some of the boldest innovations in education…

Education
6
Bronx Charter School for Excellence

Excellence community schools prepares young people in new york city and stamford to compete for admission to and succeed in top public, private and parochial high schools by cultivating their intellectual, artistic, social, emotional, and…

Education
7
The Royal School System

The mission of Royal Public Schools is to spark students' natural curiosity and love of learning while providing the knowledge and skills they need to lead successful and fulfilling lives.

Education
8
Blue Engine Inc

Blue engine optimizes how educators work together to create engaging, individualized learning experiences for students.

Education
9
Learning Policy Institute

The Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducts and disseminates independent, high-quality research to improve learning for all children. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, LPI connects policymakers and stakeholders at the local, state,…

Education
10
The Philadelphia School

The philadelphia school educates children for a future that is impossible to know but not impossible to shape. learn here. go anywhere.

—
11
Partners in School Innovation

To transform teaching and learning in the lowest-performing public schools so that every student, regardless of background, thrives.

Philanthropy
12
Deans for Impact

See Schedule ODeans for Impact supports educator-preparation programs to bring the science of learning into teaching practice; partners with policymakers to ensure pathways into teaching are accessible, practice-based, and…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kids First Chicago for Education and the most unlike its peers is Edbuild. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyIndependent K-12 SchoolsCommunity FoundationsSchool District FoundationsChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Environmental Conservation …Policy Research and Advocacy
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 17 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%2%<5yr14%12%5–10yr19%47%10–20yr16%28%20–35yr13%5%35–55yr16%7%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%32%5–10yr19%40%10–20yr16%23%20–35yr13%2%35–55yr16%2%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% 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 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/54
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,511

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

45 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. 45 of the 54 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
45/45
Grantees still filing
19/45
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

PROMISE54 — $1,484,171 · EducationPROMISE54TNTP INC — $953,686 · EducationTNTP INCTHE CHILDRENS SCHOLARSHIP FUND — $400,000 · EducationTHE CHILDRENS SCHOLARSHIP FUNDExcellent Schools New Mexico — $346,645 · EducationExcellent Schools New MexicoColorado Succeeds — $200,000 · Education+31 more — $2,054,000 · Education+31 moreEDBUILD — $1,676,921 · Science & TechEDBUILDCLIMB HIRE INC — $1,112,897 · EmploymentCLIMB HIRE I…4MATIV TECHNOLOGIES INC — $450,000 · Other4MATIV TECH…LONGVIEW ISD — $135,000 · OtherLONGVIEW IS…TULOSO-MIDWAY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT — $135,000 · OtherTULOSO-MIDW…MERIDIAN WORLD SCHOOL LLC — $100,000 · OtherMERIDIAN WO…ODYSSEY — $100,000 · OtherODYSSEYPEOPLE FOR PSEO — $50,000 · Other+3 more — $49,548 · OtherEDWARD CHARLES FOUNDATION — $400,000 · Human ServicesOHIO EXCELS — $15,000 · Human ServicesTEJANO CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CONCERNS INC — $100,000 · Youth DevelopmentSTAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC — $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentAMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH IN THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES — $66,667 · Social ScienceINNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $10,000 · PhilanthropyNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL INITIATIVE — $2,500 · Philanthropy
Education$5,438,502Science & Tech$1,676,921Employment$1,112,897Other$1,019,548Human Services$415,000Youth Development$115,000Social Science$66,667Philanthropy$12,500

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 budgetEDBUILD — $1,676,921 over 1y, 50% of budgetPROMISE54 — $1,484,171 over 1y, 20% of budgetCLIMB HIRE INC — $1,112,897 over 1y, 55% of budgetTNTP INC — $953,686 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE CHILDRENS SCHOLARSHIP FUND — $400,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetEDWARD CHARLES FOUNDATION — $400,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetExcellent Schools New Mexico — $346,645 over 1y, 21% of budgetColorado Succeeds — $200,000 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetYouthprise — $150,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetCITYSCHOOLS COLLABORATIVE — $150,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetBLUUM INC — $150,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetRESPONSIVEED TEXAS — $135,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPORTICO EDUCATION FOUNDATION dba TRIVIUM ACADEMY — $100,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetCOMPASS ROSE EDUCATION INC — $100,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEDUCATION FOUNDATION OF SARASOTA COUNTY — $100,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetGREATSCHOOLS INC — $100,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetAUP — $100,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetOdyssey 2020 Academy Inc — $100,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR QUALITY EDUCATION INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetVILLAGE TECH SCHOOLS — $100,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTEJANO CENTER FOR COMMUNITY CONCERNS INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPaul Quinn College — $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTRINITY BASIN PREPARATORY INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFAMILIES EMPOWERED — $100,000 over 1y, 9.1% of budgetAMERICAN INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH IN THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES — $66,667 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Education Trust Inc — $45,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION INC — $30,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetKIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION — $25,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetGROUNDSWELL NETWORK INC — $24,000 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetSTAND FOR CHILDREN LEADERSHIP CENTER INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget50CAN INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetEDUCATION REFORM NOW INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThomas B Fordham Institute — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetADVANCE ILLINOIS NFP — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetEdChoice Inc — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOHIO EXCELS — $15,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetTHE MIND TRUST INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFAITHACTS FOR EDUCATION INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetGO Public Schools — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE A EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPAVE INC DBA PARENTS AMPLIFYING VOICES IN EDUCATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetINNOVATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $10,000 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.

Walton Family Foundat…Gates FoundationCharter Fund Inc D/B/…New Schools FundLumina Foundation for…The Bloomberg Family …Strada Education Foun…City FundCarnegie Corporation …The Joyce FoundationCommunities Foundatio…Silicon Valley Commun…
Walton Family Foundation IncAR44.7× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Walton Family Foundation Inc · Gates Foundation · Charter Fund Inc D/B/A Charter School Growth Fund · New Schools Fund · Lumina Foundation for Education Inc · The Bloomberg Family Foundation Inc · Strada Education Foundation Inc · City Fund · Carnegie Corporation of New York · The Joyce Foundation · Communities Foundation of Texas Inc · Silicon Valley Community 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 Bellwether Education Partners 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 50%4%15%34%60%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    5get no government money at all
    12report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    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: 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 54 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. 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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines