· Private foundation
Besser Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $27k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $198k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
- $250k+3 grants · $854k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BESSER MUSEUM | $343,554 |
| BESSER MUSEUM | $260,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA | $250,000 |
| THUNDER BAY THEATRE | $100,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA | $44,000 |
| ALPENA PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $39,645 |
| CHILD & FAMILY SERVICES | $25,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA | $22,000 |
| ALPENA PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $20,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA | $19,000 |
| CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER | $15,000 |
| AMA EDUCATIONAL SERVICE DISTRICT | $13,500 |
| HOPE SHORES ALLIANCE | $9,000 |
| BESSER MUSEUM | $7,500 |
| BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA | $5,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $139k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 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.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +69% since the first grant, against +24% for the ones you funded once.
28 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2024, 18 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- BABOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA8× · 2017–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +348% · 52% of their budget
- NMNORTHEAST MICHIGAN FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER INC8× · 2017–2024 · $315k · revenue +51%
- MMMYMICHIGAN MEDICAL CENTER ALPENA3× · 2020–2022 · $300k · revenue +149%
Funded once
- TBTHUNDER BAY MARINE SANCTUARYone grant, 2017 · $100k
- PIPROJECT INTERCONNECTIONSone grant, 2018 · $30k
- GSGIRL SCOUTSone grant, 2017 · $25k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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 promote business and economic development for eight towns in southwest michigan.
To promote conditions favorable to job creation and business success in michigan.
The Center's mission is to inspire, entertain, educate, and serve all in Northern Michigan year-round by presenting exceptional experiences across the full spectrum of the performing arts and offering impactful educational opportunities.
To be a catalyst for economic and community progress within the great lakes bay region.
Support and enhance the development of the arts in northwestern minnesota. facilitate and encourage the creation and appreciation of the arts.
The allegan county agricultural society presents various events during the year which provide entertainment, educational and work opportunities for the youth groups such as 4-h.
Creating healthy communities - together
The organization's mission is to foster positive change by providing opportunities that promote self-sufficiency, improving the quality of life and building stronger, more connected communitites. northwest michigan community action agency,…
Inspire awareness, appreciation and passion for michigan's history and stories, culture and environment through the arts.
Assisting the community mental health boards of michigan in developing methods for mental health planning, care and treatment.
The organization's mission is to promote a healthy business climate for its members and all businesses in macomb county, michigan.
The mission of the northwest michigan arts & culture network ("the network") is to harness the collective power of the creative sector to cultivate vibrant communities by strengthening the regional ecosystem that supports arts and culture.…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Mymichigan Medical Center Alpena and the most unlike its peers is Thunder Bay Theatre Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
14 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. 14 of the 50 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.
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 BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA ↗
- Who funds NORTHEAST MICHIGAN FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MYMICHIGAN MEDICAL CENTER ALPENA ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds THUNDER BAY THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER OF LAPEER CO ↗
- Who funds THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS TOGETHER ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL OF MICHIGAN FOUNDATIONS ↗
- Who funds NORTHEAST MICHIGAN CENTER FOR FINE ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds Hospice of Michigan Inc ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF NORTHEAST MICHIGAN ↗
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: First Federal of Northern Michigan Legacy Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · 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 Besser 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.