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· Private foundation
BESSER FOUNDATION
This foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications.
$1.2M
Granted FY2024
16
Grants
1
Communities
$344k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 98% of BESSER FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.
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
meeting place
2019
meeting placecapital
2020
stem
2021
—
2022
—
2023
—
2024
—
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 16 grants
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
$22,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$17M
Total assets
Largest grants
- 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
02The need
04
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 (FY17–21, $34k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16% — the area typically sits at 12%. 100% of those 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.
96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$8.4M · 28 repeat orgs$314k to everyone else
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +101% since the first grant, against +46% for the ones you funded once.
28 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2024, 18 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
28
24
Total granted
$8.4M
$314k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+101%
+46%
Still filing today
21%
13%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Human ServicesEnvironmentArts & CulturePhilanthropyOther
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
- BGBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA8× · 2017–2024 · $1.7M · revenue +348% · 52% of their budget
- HFHABITAT FOR HUMANITY7× · 2017–2023 · $248k · revenue +240%
- TBTHUNDER BAY THEATRE3× · 2017–2024 · $133k · revenue +17% · 45% of their budget
Funded once
- MMMID MICHIGAN MEDICAL CENTER - ALPENone grant, 2020 · $100k
- TBTHUNDER BAY MARINE SANCTUARYone grant, 2017 · $50k
- PIPROJECT INTERCONNECTIONSone grant, 2018 · $30k
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
Friends of Thunder Bay National
To fund and support the operations and programs of the thunder bay national marine sanctuary. this includes providing educational opportunities at the sanctuary building and within the sanctuary boundaries.
Philanthropy
2
Mymichigan Medical Center Alpena
Creating healthy communities together by providing excellent health services to improve the quality of life for people in our communities.
Health
3
Grand Traverse Hockey Association
To encourage the playing of ice hockey by the youth of the northern michigan area, teaching ice hockey skills, and fostering fair play and sportsmanship.
Recreation & Sports
4
Michigan Lakes and Streams
Preservation and protection of michigan inland lakes and streams
Environment
5
Macomb County Chamber of Commerce
The organization's mission is to promote a healthy business climate for its members and all businesses in macomb county, michigan.
Unclassified
6
Huron Area Wellness and Recreation
To promote the physical health of the community by providing the facilities for daily excercise and physical activity.
Recreation & Sports
7
The Calumet Theatre Company
The Calumet Theatre Company is committed to offering a quality entertainment experience that provides diverse cultural and artistic opportunities while preserving the historic character of the theater.
Arts & Culture
8
Greater Saginaw Amateur Hockey
To provide an opportunity for youth and others to play and learn hockey and other ice skating sports, while placing an emphasis on the enhancement of good character, sportsmanship and citizenship.
Recreation & Sports
9
Little Traverse Bay Humane Society
To offer a warm shelter, veterinary care, and personal attention to all animals while they are in our care and proactive methods in controlling pet overpopulation. little traverse bay humane soceity has committed ourselves to educate the…
Animals
10
Grand Traverse Ski Club
Dedicated to offering quality instructional ski and ski racing programs with a focus on fun and sportsmanship
—
11
Huron Humane Society Inc
Caring for the health and well-being of various animals - mainly dogs and cats.
Animals
12
Art Shanty Projects
Creation of an art village on lake ice
Arts & Culture
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Northeast Michigan and the most unlike its peers is Alpena Figure Skating Club. 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, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
9/9
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$8,533,661Environment$90,500Arts & Culture$85,956Human Services$34,432Philanthropy$5,000
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.
First Federal of Northern MichiganMI20.4× affinity7 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: First Federal of Northern Michigan · 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 organisation 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.
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
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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: BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
low risk
~11 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 4.5× since.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 381405280 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 BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA, 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 11 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 52% 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 Besser Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Besser 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.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
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