Skip to content
Blackbird Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Blackbird Foundation Inc

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.

$75k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$185kInternational$124kPhilanthropy$53kPublic Safety & Disaster$49kHealth$38kEnvironment$28kCommunity Improvement$20kHuman Services$13kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $70k
$15,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER$25,100
URBAN LEAGUE OF METROPOLITAN ST LOUIS$20,000
LANDER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$15,000
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDAITON INC$10,000
KIDSMART$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $180k) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%BECAUSE INTERNATIONAL: $2k → 11%SAFE CONNECTIONS: $3k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $25k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $20k → 21%SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $10k → 21%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.

Which US states its grants reach

ID
MN
IL
NY
MA
WY
IN
CO
MO
VA
DC
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

82%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$385k · 8 repeat orgs$87k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +75% since the first grant, against +9% for those funded once.

8 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
11

Total granted

$385k
$57k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+75%
+9%

Still filing today

88%
55%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 50% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $30k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthHuman ServicesInternationalEducationCivil RightsYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • SE
    SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER
    9× · 2017–2025 · $175k · revenue +75%
  • TW
    THE WOMEN'S BAKERY INC
    3× · 2017–2019 · $100k · revenue +382%
  • PARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $22k · revenue +33%

Funded once

  • CR
    COVID-19 REGIONAL RESPONSE FUND
    one grant, 2020 · $14k
  • MH
    MERCY HEALTH FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $10k
  • MM
    MEGAN MEIER FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue +9%
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.

04Its 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
Coop Careers Inc

Building a movement of diverse, upwardly mobile college grads overcoming underemployment through digital skills and peer connections.

Education
2
Earthenable Inc

Earthenable works to solve the housing crisis in africa by revolutionizing the rural housing industry through innovative, affordable, and sustainable home-building solutions. its mission is to create healthier, safer, and climate-resilient…

International
3
Union Health System

To serve our communities by provding innovative and compassionate healthcare.

Health
4
Common Good Iowa

Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.

—
5
Goodwill Industries of Northern Il and Wi Stateline Area Inc

The mission of goodwill is to create opportunities for individuals with barriers to enhance their lives. barriers include physical or mental disabilities, lack of education and job preparation, socio-economic disadvantages, and others.…

—
6
Midwives College of Utah

Educate and train midwives to provide safe, professional, affordable and personal maternity and general health care.

Education
7
Achieve Now

Achieve now is a philadelphia-based social justice organization that sees literacy as a mechanism to effect social change. our mission is to provide k-2 school children in greater philadelphia with high-quality, culturally competent…

Education
8
Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Michigan Inc

Goodwill provides exceptional opportunities for people facing employment barriers.

—
9
Impact Community Action Partnership Inc

Reducing the barriers and burdens that families in poverty experience by increasing access to essential needs.

—
10
Connections for Life

Empowering people with disabilities by providing services that promote independence, equality and intergration, enhancing their quality of life.

Health
11
Project Concern International

Pci is a global development organization that drives innovation from the ground up to enhance health end hunger, overcome hardship and advance women & girls-resulting in meaningful and measurable change in people's lives.

International
12
Girls Education Collaborative Inc

GEC partners with locally-led organizations to catalyze and support sustainable, community-driven solutions that remove social, economic, and gender-based barriers keeping girls out of school in under-resourced regions of the global south.

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Southside Early Childhood Center; the most unlike its peers is Gratitude House Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

17 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. 17 of the 23 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
11/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $175,100 · Human ServicesSOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER+2 more: $4,700 · Human ServicesTHE WOMEN'S BAKERY INC: $100,000 · InternationalTHE WOMEN'S BAKERY INCWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $35,000 · InternationalWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INCLANDER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $52,500 · EducationLANDER COMMUNITY…INDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: $13,000 · EducationINDIGENOUS ENVIR…KIDSMART INC: $10,000 · EducationKIDSMART INCURBAN LEAGUE OF METROPOLITAN ST LOUIS: $20,000 · OtherURBAN LEAGUE O…COVID-19 REGIONAL RESPONSE FUND: $14,000 · OtherCOVID-19 REGIO…MERCY HEALTH FOUNDATION: $10,000 · OtherMERCY HEALTH F…NATURE CONSERVANCY HEALTHY RIVERS INITIATIVE: $9,500 · OtherNATURE CONSERV…THE CARE CENTER: $5,000 · OtherTHE CARE CENTE…ANAM CARA CAREGIVING LLC: $5,000 · OtherANAM CARA CARE…ST LOUIS AREA FOOD BANK INC: $3,000 · OtherILLINOIS CLIMBERS ASSOCIATION: $2,500 · OtherPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $22,000 · HealthPARTNERS I…GRATITUDE HOUSE INC: $20,000 · HealthGRATITUDE …HEARCARE CONNECTION INC: $5,000 · HealthHEARCARE C…The Ranken-Jordan Home For Convalescent Crippled Children: $2,500 · HealthAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 · Civil RightsGLOBAL GREENGRANTS FUND: $5,000 · EnvironmentMEGAN MEIER FOUNDATION: $5,000 · Youth Development
Human Services$179,800International$135,000Education$75,500Other$69,000Health$49,500Civil Rights$10,000Environment$5,000Youth Development$5,000

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 budgetSOUTHSIDE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER: $175,100 over 9y, 0.7% of budgetTHE WOMEN'S BAKERY INC: $100,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetLANDER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $52,500 over 5y, 1.5% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC: $35,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPARTNERS IN HEALTH A NONPROFIT CORPORATION: $22,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGRATITUDE HOUSE INC: $20,000 over 2y, 8.7% of budgetINDIGENOUS ENVIRONMENTAL NETWORK: $13,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKIDSMART INC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGLOBAL GREENGRANTS FUND: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMEGAN MEIER FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetST LOUIS AREA FOOD BANK INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAFE CONNECTIONS: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Ranken-Jordan Home For Convalescent Crippled Children: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBecause International Corp: $2,200 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

St Louis Community Fo…Brown Dana Charitable…Youthbridge Community…United Way of Greater…Employees Community F…Commerce Bancshares F…The Pfizer Foundation…The Blackbaud Giving …Morgan Stanley Global…Natl Christian Charit…Donor Advised Charita…The Bank of America C…
St Louis Community Foundation IncMO17.3× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: St Louis Community Foundation Inc · Brown Dana Charitable Trust · Youthbridge Community Foundation · United Way of Greater St Louis Inc · Employees Community Fund of the Boeing Company · Commerce Bancshares Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Blackbird Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Blackbird Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Blackbird Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to Blackbird Foundation Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

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 23 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Blackbird’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