Skip to content
Plinth

· Public charity

Blue Sky Educational Foundation

The organization was created to: (I) foster, promote and advance aviation, the physical or biological sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) education by young people of all backgrounds; (ii) encourage interest and personal participation in aviation and related fields; and (iii) provide scholarships to middle school,…

$66k
Granted FY2024still arriving
4
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$30k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Science & Tech$190kPublic Safety & Disaster$175kEducation$132kArts & Culture$68kCommunity Improvement$30kPhilanthropy$18kRecreation & Sports$5kHousing & Shelter$5k
02FY2024 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $61k
$17,882
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BROOKS GIVE BACK$30,000
JIM THOMPSON FOUNDATION$17,882
EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION$13,200
WOODALL RODGERS PARK FOUNDATION$5,150
02The need
03

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 (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 55% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 12%FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM: $30k → 14%BROOKS GIVE BACK: $30k → 16%EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION: $13k → 16%NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $11k → 16%THE JULIA FOUNDATION: $25k → 8%RADFORD FOUNDATION: $8k → 25%AIRCRAFT OWNERS & PILOTS ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION: $125k → 6%FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSUEM: $14k → 14%AOPA FOUNDATION: $50k → 6%FROTNIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM INC: $8k → 14%DALLAS EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $100k → 14%FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM: $5k → 14%JIM THOMPSON FOUNDATION: $18k → 14%WOODALL RODGERS PARK FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein 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 — 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.

66%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$408k · 3 repeat orgs$214k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +58% since the first grant, against -58% for the ones you funded once.

3 repeat relationships — 0 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
5

Total granted

$408k
$148k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+58%
-58%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $66k 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
Arts & CultureEducationScience & TechPublic Safety & DisasterCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyOther

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

  • EA
    EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION INC
    6× · 2017–2023 · $176k · revenue +35%
  • TA
    THE AOPA FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2018–2023 · $175k · revenue +103%
  • FO
    FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM INC
    4× · 2018–2023 · $57k · revenue +58%

Funded once

  • DE
    DALLAS EDUCATION FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue -58%
  • TJ
    THE JULIA FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue -99%
  • NA
    NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $11k · revenue +91%

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
Lone Star Flight Museum

Lone Star Flight Museum (LSFM) celebrates flight and achievements in Texas aviation, engages youth through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and believes aviation inspires achievement and endless possibilities.

Arts & Culture
2
Forty First Foundation

The forty first foundation supports and advances the university of texas at austin in its pursuit of excellence. we work closely with the office of the president to identify, fund, and implement strategic initiatives that enhance the…

Education
3
Military Aviation Museum Foundation

The foundation supports the military aviation museum.

Arts & Culture
4
Aviation Foundation of America

Promote and preserve general aviation and aviation history.

Arts & Culture
5
Museum of Flight Foundation

The primary exempt purposes of the museum of flight are to preserve aviation and space history, and to provide education to the public about subjects related to flight.

Arts & Culture
6
Downtown Dallas Inc Foundation

Downtown Dallas, Inc. Foundation is the charitable arm of Downtown Dallas, Inc. whose purpose is to help make the area in and around Downtown Dallas a more vibrant and livable place for both daytime and permanent residents by promoting the…

Community Improvement
7
Texas a&M Research Foundation

To facilitate research and development within the texas a&m university system and selected other entities.

Education
8
Air University Foundation

Air university foundation seeks to raise funds to provide financial assistance to air university schools and agencies for the advancement of the study of air and space power.

International
9
Dallas Police Helicopter Foundation
Public Safety & Disaster
10
Austin Area Foundation

Support nonprofit organizations by managing & distributing charitable gifts

Philanthropy
11
Washburn University Foundation

The Foundation was created to assist in the promotion, development and enhancement of the financial resources for Washburn University of Topeka, as well as to receive and hold in trust any assets given in benefit of the University.

Education
12
Us Naval Academy Foundation Inc

To support, promote, and advance the mission of the naval academy.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Jim Thompson 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

11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 12 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
5/11
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION INC — $176,491 · Science & TechEXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATIO…THE AOPA FOUNDATION INC — $175,000 · Public Safety & DisasterTHE AOPA FOUNDATION INCDALLAS EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $100,000 · EducationDALLAS EDUCATION FO…RADFORD UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC — $7,500 · EducationRADFORD UNIVERSITY …FRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM INC — $56,800 · Arts & CultureFRONTIERS OF…NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC — $10,760 · Arts & CultureNAVAL AVIATI…THE JULIA FOUNDATION — $25,000 · OtherEXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION — $13,200 · OtherAUSTIN STREET CENTER — $5,000 · OtherBrooks Gives Back Inc — $30,000 · Community ImprovementJIM THOMPSON FOUNDATION — $17,882 · PhilanthropyWoodall Rodgers Park Foundation — $5,150 · Recreation & Sports
Science & Tech$176,491Public Safety & Disaster$175,000Education$107,500Arts & Culture$67,560Other$43,200Community Improvement$30,000Philanthropy$17,882Recreation & Sports$5,150

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetEXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION INC — $176,491 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE AOPA FOUNDATION INC — $175,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetDALLAS EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetFRONTIERS OF FLIGHT MUSEUM INC — $56,800 over 4y, 2.4% of budgetBrooks Gives Back Inc — $30,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetTHE JULIA FOUNDATION — $25,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetJIM THOMPSON FOUNDATION — $17,882 over 1y, 8.2% of budgetNAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM FOUNDATION INC — $10,760 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRADFORD UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC — $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWoodall Rodgers Park Foundation — $5,150 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAUSTIN STREET CENTER — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

Jim Thompson FoundationTX13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jim Thompson Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 organization Blue Sky Educational 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 13%
  • Naval Aviation Museum Foundation Inc13% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
2report 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, FY2025

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 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

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Blue Sky Educational Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Blue Sky Educational 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 12 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph