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Blackwood Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Blackwood Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$4k
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$1k
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 2024.

Religion$8kEducation$6kEnvironment$5kInternational$5kRecreation & Sports$1kHealth$1kCrime & Legal$500Arts & Culture$150Other$0
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$500
Median grant
1
States reached
$120k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Boulder Climbing Community$1,000
Thorne Nature Experience$1,000
Protect Our Winters$500
Michael S Jacobs Foundation$433
Grace Commons Church$350
Compassion International$350
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 (FY17–19, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Paradox Sports: $750 → 12%PARADOX SPORTS: $500 → 12%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.
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.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$23k · 9 repeat orgs$4k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
6

Total granted

$23k
$2k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+48%
+454%

Still filing today

56%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 49% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesInternationalReligionArts & CultureOther
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

  • Compassion International Incorporated
    7× · 2018–2024 · $5k · revenue +7%
  • TE
    THORNE ECOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
    4× · 2017–2024 · $4k · revenue +48%
  • MS
    Michael S Jacobs Foundation
    2× · 2023–2024 · $2k · revenue +6%

Funded once

  • UM
    UNITED MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2019 · $1k · revenue +14%
  • NC
    NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FA
    one grant, 2018 · $500
  • IS
    INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS INC
    one grant, 2019 · $300
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
Colorado Museum of Natural History

Be a catalyst! Ignite our community's passion for nature and science.

Arts & Culture
2
Wild Rockies Field Institute Inc

To broaden the nature of a liberal arts education; teach critical thinking about social & environmental issues; foster understanding of & respect for natural & human communities; & cultivate a sense of place that encourages personal,…

Education
3
Colorado Outward Bound School

Colorado outward bound school changes lives through challenge and discovery.

Environment
4
Colorado Youth Outdoors Charitable Trust

Building Relationships through Traditional Outdoor Recreation

Environment
5
San Juan Mountains Association

To empower visitors and locals to explore, learn about and protect the spectacular public lands of Southwest Colorado.

Environment
6
Canyonlands Field Institute Inc

To promote understanding and appreciation of the colorado plateau environment through educational programs in natural and cultural history.

Arts & Culture
7
Rocky Mountain Wild

Rocky mountain wild works to protect, connect, and restore wildlife and wild lands in the southern rocky mountain region. we work to secure the biodiversity of the mountains, plains, and desert ecosystems of colorado, wyoming, utah, and…

Environment
8
Colorado Fourteeners Initiative

To protect and preserve the natural integrity of colorado's 14,000 foot peaks through active stewardship and public education.

Recreation & Sports
9
Cowiche Canyon Conservancy

Protecting our shrub-steppe and connecting people to this vanishing landscape.

—
10
The Colorado Parks Foundation Inc
Recreation & Sports
11
Hills to Climb

Hills to Climb supports organizations serving urban youth populations, by providing inspirational, immersive and high quality outdoor experiences in a camp setting.

Youth Development
12
Aia Colorado

AIA Colorado,is the voice of the architecture profession in Colorado. Through advocacy, leadership development, education and resources for architects, the organization supports architecture professionals in designing a better world where…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Paradox Sports; the most unlike its peers is Michael S Jacobs Foundation. 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

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 18 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)
9/10
Grantees still filing
7/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $4,850 · OtherFIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHSACRED HEART OF JESUS SCHOOL: $1,550 · OtherSACRED HEART OF JESUS SCHOOLINTERVARSITY: $1,250 · OtherINTERVARSITYNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FA: $500 · OtherNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAFIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BOULDER: $350 · OtherINTERNATIONAL STUDENTS INC: $300 · Other+2 more: $150 · OtherTHORNE ECOLOGICAL INSTITUTE: $3,566 · EnvironmentTHORNE ECOLOGICAL INS…BOULDER CLIMBING COMMUNITY: $1,000 · EnvironmentBOULDER CLIMBING COMM…PROTECT OUR WINTERS: $500 · EnvironmentPROTECT OUR WINTERSCompassion International Incorporated: $4,646 · InternationalCompassion Internat…Michael S Jacobs Foundation: $2,490 · EducationMichael S Jacob…FLATIRONS ELEMENTARY PTO: $1,180 · EducationFLATIRONS ELEME…The Denver Institute: $1,725 · ReligionPARADOX SPORTS: $1,250 · Human ServicesUNITED MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 · HealthOLD BRICK HOUSE FOUNDATION: $150 · Arts & Culture
Other$8,950Environment$5,066International$4,646Education$3,670Religion$1,725Human Services$1,250Health$1,000Arts & Culture$150

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 budgetCompassion International Incorporated: $4,646 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTHORNE ECOLOGICAL INSTITUTE: $3,566 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetMichael S Jacobs Foundation: $2,490 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetThe Denver Institute: $1,725 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPARADOX SPORTS: $1,250 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetFLATIRONS ELEMENTARY PTO: $1,180 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetUNITED MITOCHONDRIAL DISEASE FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOULDER CLIMBING COMMUNITY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPROTECT OUR WINTERS: $500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

Felker Family Foundat…American Endowment Fo…Morgan Stanley Global…Vanguard Charitable E…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Felker Family Foundation IncGA13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Felker Family Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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 Blackwood Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Blackwood Family Foundation 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 18 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.

    Source object · view filing

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    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