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Big Cat Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Big Cat Foundation

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.

$62k
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
5
States reached
$13k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02Its granteesRead
03Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0189% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Environment$147kCommunity Improvement$54kArts & Culture$4kHealth$4kInternational$500Other$0
02FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 12 grants below total $50,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $62,000 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $12,000 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k9 grants · $15k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $35k
$1,500
Median grant
5
States reached
$105k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Woodstock Institute$12,500
Corporate Accountability International$12,500
Land Conservancy of McHenry County$10,000
Center fo Climate and Energy Solutions$5,000
Land Conservancy of McHenry County$2,500
Voyageur Outward Bound School$1,500
Chicago Public Media WBEZ$1,000
Center for Neighborhood Technology$1,000
Environmental Defenders of McHenry County$1,000
Openlands Project$1,000
Environmental Law & Policy Center$1,000
Planned Parenthood Federation of America$1,000
02Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$208k · 12 repeat orgs$2k to everyone else

12 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
2

Total granted

$208k
$2k

Still filing today

83%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentHealthOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TL
    THE LAND CONSERVANCY OF MCHENRY COUNTY
    4× · 2021–2024 · $50k · revenue +121%
  • WI
    Woodstock Institute
    4× · 2021–2024 · $50k · revenue +267%
  • PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $4k · revenue +26%

Funded once

  • ED
    Environmental Defenders of McHenry
    one grant, 2021 · $1k
  • IP
    Internation Planned Parenthood Western Hemisphere Region
    one grant, 2021 · $500
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

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
Partnership for Policy Integrity

Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) uses data-driven advocacy and litigation to fight for forests, communities and the climate.

Environment
2
Nature for Justice

To empower frontline communities to lead nature-based solutions that advance climate justice, ecosystem restoration, and resilient livelihoods through connecting locally-led initiatives to funding, markets, and technical support.

Environment
3
Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment
4
Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International
5
International Rivers Network

International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them.

Environment
6
Green Cities Accord

Green Cities Accord is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering climate resilient communities through investments in tree canopy infrastructure to improve environmental health, climate resilience, and equity in communities. We focus…

Environment
7
CarbonPlan

Improving the transparency and scientific integrity of climate solutions through open data and tools.

Environment
8
The Climate Center

The Climate Center is a climate and energy policy nonprofit working to rapidly reduce climate pollution at scale, starting in California.

Education
9
Minnesota Land Trust

The minnesota land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.

Environment
10
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

Educational & charitable. to provide legal and scientific information to public interest attorneys and scientists in numerous countries.

—
11
Climate Catalyst Inc

Climate catalyst sparks collective action to tackle the biggest climate challenges we face today: cutting emissions in heavy industries.

Environment
12
Climate Leadership Council Inc

To develop and promote a carbon dividends framework - based on carbon fees whose revenues are rebated to citizens through dividends - as the most cost-effective, equitable, and politically viable climate solution.

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Openlands; the most unlike its peers is Woodstock Institute. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
03the grantee network

10 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. 10 of the 14 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
7/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE LAND CONSERVANCY OF MCHENRY COUNTY: $50,000 · OtherTHE LAND CONSERVANCY OF MCHENRY COUNTYWoodstock Institute: $50,000 · OtherWoodstock InstituteCenter fo Climate and Energy Solutions: $20,000 · OtherCenter fo Climate and Energy Solutions+4 more: $9,500 · Other+4 moreInfact DBA Corporate Accountability: $50,000 · EnvironmentInfact DBA Corporate AccountabilityTHE ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION: $10,000 · EnvironmentTHE ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE PROTECTIONVOYAGEUR OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL: $4,500 · EnvironmentVOYAGEUR OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOLCENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY: $4,000 · EnvironmentENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER OF THE MIDWEST: $4,000 · EnvironmentENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF McHENRY COUNTY: $3,000 · EnvironmentPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $4,000 · Health
Other$129,500Environment$75,500Health$4,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE LAND CONSERVANCY OF MCHENRY COUNTY: $50,000 over 4y, 1.7% of budgetWoodstock Institute: $50,000 over 4y, 1.3% of budgetInfact DBA Corporate Accountability: $50,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTHE ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE PROTECTION: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetVOYAGEUR OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL: $4,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR NEIGHBORHOOD TECHNOLOGY: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetOPENLANDS: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER OF THE MIDWEST: $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF McHENRY COUNTY: $3,000 over 3y, 0.5% 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.

Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA5.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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.

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 14 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.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $65k of grant expense with no grantee named in the published copy. A private foundation itemizes every grant it makes, so a return carrying none has filed its list as an attachment that the public copy does not include. The figures above are therefore from FY2024, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Big Cat’s filings →

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 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