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Plinth

· Private foundation

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$11k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$5k
Largest
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 FY20192025.

Education$97kArts & Culture$14kPublic Benefit$8kReligion$7kHealth$3kPhilanthropy$2kEmployment$1kCrime & Legal$1k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$1,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$3.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FREE PRESS$5,000
SHLB$2,500
UCC OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION$1,500
TRPC INC$500
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY$500
PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE$500
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 92% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%FREE PRESS: $5k → 12%SCHOOLS HEATLH & LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION: $6k → 14%NATIONAL DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE: $1k → 15%CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%UCC OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION: $2k → 4%SCHOOLS HEATLH & LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION: $5k → 14%UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST OC INC: $2k → 4%SCHOOLS HEATLH & LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION: $5k → 14%UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST OC INC: $2k → 4%SCHOOLS HEATLH & LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION: $5k → 14%UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST OC INC: $2k → 4%SCHOOLS HEATLH & LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION: $3k → 14%UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST OC INC: $2k → 4%SHLB: $3k → 14%UCC OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION: $2k → 4%SHLB: $3k → 14%UNITED CHURCH OF CHRISTOCINC: $1k → 4%SCHOOLS HEATLH & LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION: $2k → 14%HOPEWELL FUND: $1k → 14%NEW VENTURE FUND: $518 → 14%FREE PRESS DC: $500 → 14%FREE PRESS DC: $500 → 14%FREE PRESS DC: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%FREE PRESS DC: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%FREE PRESS DC: $500 → 14%PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: $500 → 14%GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $70k → 14%NEW VENTURE FUND: $500 → 14%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.

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 6% of Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

Benton Institute for Broadband & Societylessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$127k · 9 repeat orgs$3k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +64% since the first grant, against +39% for the ones you funded once.

9 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
3

Total granted

$127k
$3k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+64%
+39%

Still filing today

56%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationPublic BenefitArts & CultureEmploymentOther

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

  • GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2019–2025 · $71k · revenue +35%
  • SH
    SCHOOLS HEALTH AND LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION
    5× · 2019–2023 · $26k · revenue +64%
  • FP
    FREE PRESS
    6× · 2019–2025 · $8k · revenue +88%

Funded once

  • ND
    NATIONAL DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE
    one grant, 2024 · $1k · revenue -48%
  • UC
    UNITED CHURCH OF CHRISTOCINC
    one grant, 2019 · $1k
  • TC
    THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $1k · revenue +39%

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
Technology Policy Institute
International
2
National Public Radio Inc

National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…

Arts & Culture
3
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
4
Free Press Action Fund

Free press action fund fights for your rights to connect and communicate. we fight to save the free and open internet, curb runaway media consolidation, protect press freedom, and promote digital civil rights. we believe that change…

Civil Rights
5
United States Telecom Association

See schedule oustelecom exists to ensure members can compete, grow and thrive to build a world where families, enterprises and communities are connected through the power of broadband.our member companies have committed a considerable…

6
Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

7
Center for Democracy and Technology

Advocating for public policies that advance democratic values in the digital age.

Civil Rights
8
Chamber of Progress

Chamber of progress is a center-left tech industry coalition devoted to a progressive society, economy, workforce, and consumer climate. we back public policies that will build a fairer, more inclusive country in which all people benefit…

Community Improvement
9
News Media Alliance

The news media alliance (nma) is a nonprofit organization representing nearly 2,000 news media organizations and their multi-media platform businesses in the us, canada and europe.

10
World Wide Web Consortium Inc

Making the web work for everyone. W3C brings together global stakeholders to develop open standards that enable a World Wide Web that connects and empowers humanity.

Science & Tech
11
National Cable Satellite Corporation

Provide the public access to the live gavel-to-gavel proceedings of both houses of the us congress, and other forums where public policy is discussed, debated, and decided - all without editing, commentary or analysis and with a balanced…

Arts & Culture
12
Federal Communications Bar Association

To promote the development, interpretation and practice of communications law and policy.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New Venture Fund and the most unlike its peers is Telecommunications Policy Research Conference Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

9 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 14 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
7/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY — $70,609 · EducationGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITYSCHOOLS HEALTH AND LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION — $26,088 · EducationSCHOOLS HEALTH AND LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION+1 more — $1,000 · EducationUNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST OC INC — $6,000 · OtherUNITED CHURCH…SHLB — $5,000 · OtherSHLBUCC OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION — $3,000 · OtherUCC OFFICE OF…UNITED CHURCH OF CHRISTOCINC — $1,000 · OtherUNITED CHURCH…TRPC INC — $1,000 · OtherTRPC INCFREE PRESS — $7,500 · Arts & CultureTelecommunications Policy Research Conference Inc — $4,000 · Public BenefitPUBLIC KNOWLEDGE — $3,500 · Public BenefitNATIONAL DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE — $1,193 · EmploymentNEW VENTURE FUND — $1,018 · EnvironmentHOPEWELL FUND — $1,000 · Philanthropy
Education$97,697Other$16,000Arts & Culture$7,500Public Benefit$7,500Employment$1,193Environment$1,018Philanthropy$1,000

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 budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY — $70,609 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSCHOOLS HEALTH AND LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION — $26,088 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetFREE PRESS — $7,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTelecommunications Policy Research Conference Inc — $4,000 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetPUBLIC KNOWLEDGE — $3,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE — $1,193 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEW VENTURE FUND — $1,018 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOPEWELL FUND — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
  • Who funds SCHOOLS HEALTH AND LIBRARIES BROADBAND COALITION
  • Who funds FREE PRESS
  • Who funds Telecommunications Policy Research Conference Inc
  • Who funds PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE
  • Who funds NATIONAL DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE
  • Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND
  • Who funds THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION
  • Who funds HOPEWELL FUND

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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.9× 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

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 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report 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, FY2025

    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 14 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-PF 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