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· Public charity
BIG TENT PROJECT FUND
Educatingthepubliconcurrenteventsandissuessuchashealthcare,tax,energy,andeducationpolicy.
$7.0M
Granted FY2020
8
Grants
5
Communities
$3.0M
Largest
01What you fund
01FY2020 · 8 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2020
- $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
- $250k+6 grants · $7.0M
$750,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$120k
Total assets
Largest grants
- CENTER ACTION NOW$2,950,000
- THE THIRD WAY FOUNDATION INC$1,250,000
- NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITIZENSHIP$750,000
- NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE$750,000
- FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL IMPACT$750,000
- AZ CENTER FOR EMPOWERMENT$500,000
- CITIZENS FOR STRENGTH & SECURITY FUND$50,000
- THE WELCOME PARTY$25,000
02The need
02
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 (FY20–20) land where the poverty rate runs at 15% — the area typically sits at 11%. 93% of your 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 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
Economic Security Project Inc
The economic security project (esp) challenges the status quo by catalyzing ideas that build economic power for all americans.
Civil Rights
2
Contemporary Policy Institute
Philanthropy
3
Center for Empowered Politics
Cep specializes in people of color-led grassroots movement building 501(c)(4) organizations that have been on the cutting edge of c3/c4 innovations, engagement in ethnic communities, campaign consultation, and integrated voter engagement…
Civil Rights
4
Center for New Democratic Processes
The mission of the center is to strengthen democracy by advancing citizen-led solutions to challenging public issues.
Public Benefit
5
National Endowment for Democracy
Ned has a singular mission - advancing democracy in support of freedom around the world. our targeted, demand-driven small grants program responds to the needs of local ngos that defend human rights, strengthen independent media and civic…
Public Benefit
6
The National Foundation for
The national foundation for americn policy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to public policy research on trade, immigration, and other issues of national importance. the organization seeks to expand the debate over the…
Public Benefit
7
Economic Security Project Action Inc
Economic security project action advocates for ideas that build economic power for all americans. we aim to check corporate power through antimonopoly action and shaping markets, champion a guaranteed income, and advocate for cash tax…
Public Benefit
8
Secure Election Project Inc
To preserve & protect the sanctity of our vote by promoting common sense, nonpartisan election security reforms that prevent hacking & fraud, without restricting eligible citizens from accessing the polls.
Public Benefit
9
Center for Empowered Politics
CEPEF operates as a grassroots, community-based organization, promoting civic education and engagement, conducting research on the effects of policies on poverty and racial inequity, training and developing leaders for racial injustice,…
Civil Rights
10
Democracy Works
International
11
Congressional Progressive Caucus Center
CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS CENTER identifies and develops research-based, people-led solutions to build a more just, equitable, and resilient nation. Through educational programming and policy analysis, we bring together community…
Public Benefit
12
Center for Popular Democracy
The center for popular democracy action (cpda) and its affiliates know that everyday people have the power to change the world. we upend business and politics as usual to forge a representative, multiracial government and society where we…
Education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is National Conference On Citizenship and the most unlike its peers is Citizens for Strength and Security Fund. 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
8 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.
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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
6/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Public Benefit$2,950,000Other$2,825,000Civil Rights$1,250,000
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.
- Who funds CENTER ACTION NOW ↗
- Who funds THE THIRD WAY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITIZENSHIP ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL IMPACT ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE ↗
- Who funds AZ CENTER FOR EMPOWERMENT ↗
- Who funds CITIZENS FOR STRENGTH & SECURITY FUND ↗
- Who funds THE WELCOME PARTY ↗
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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA4.7× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 BIG TENT PROJECT FUND 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
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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.
04Through 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: CENTER ACTION NOW.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
low risk
~288 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 2 filed years.
Track record & reputation
medium risk
2 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 2.6× since.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 844552289 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 CENTER ACTION NOW, 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 288 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 70% 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 Big Tent Project Fund?
Find your warmest path to Big Tent Project Fund 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