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Plinth

· Private foundation

Braren 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.

$3k
Granted FY2024still arriving
7
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$600
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 FY20202024.

Religion$17kHousing & Shelter$6kHuman Services$4kEducation$3kCivil Rights$3kEmployment$2kFood & Nutrition$900International$875Other$0
02FY2024 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$300
Median grant
3
States reached
$8k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DSF Diocesan Service Fun$600
EWTN$500
Magnificat House$500
Coming Home Network$300
Star of Hope$200
Created Equal$200
St Ignatius$200
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 82% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%Houston Food Bank: $300 → 16%Carl Farlyes Boys Ranch: $100 → 20%Monastery of Christ in the Desert: $600 → 12%Hillsdale College: $300 → 14%EWTN: $500 → 16%Knights of Columbus: $2k → 12%Fiftey Fore the Fallen: $2k → 9%The Leadership Institute: $250 → 7%The Water Project: $875 → 7%DSF Diocesan Service Fun: $600 → 16%Hillsdale College: $300 → 14%EWTN: $500 → 16%DSF Diocesan Service Fun: $600 → 16%Hillsdale College: $300 → 14%EWTN: $500 → 16%DSF Diocesan Service Fun: $600 → 16%EWTN: $300 → 16%DSF Diocesan Service Fun: $600 → 16%EWTN: $300 → 16%DSF Diocesan Service Fund: $500 → 16%Sending Out Servants: $3k → 16%St Thomas High School: $1k → 16%The Hope Center: $875 → 16%St Thomas High School: $875 → 16%Star of Hope: $200 → 16%St Ignatius Of Loyola: $2k → 16%St: $2k → 16%St Ignatius: $2k → 16%St Ignatius: $2k → 16%St Ignatius: $200 → 16%Star of Hope: $300 → 16%Star of Hope: $150 → 16%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.

Which US states your grants reach

NH
MI
OH
CT
CO
VA
NM
AL
TX

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 15% of Braren Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

Braren Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

61%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$22k · 10 repeat orgs$14k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +66% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.

10 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
11

Total granted

$22k
$14k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+66%
+16%

Still filing today

50%
27%

New vs renewed · share of each year

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

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
ReligionHuman ServicesHealthInternationalHousing & ShelterOther

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

  • CJ
    CASA JUAN DIEGO
    4× · 2020–2023 · $3k · revenue +34%
  • EW
    ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $2k · revenue +76%
  • MH
    Magnificat Houses Inc
    5× · 2020–2024 · $2k · revenue +199%

Funded once

  • SO
    Sending Out Servants
    one grant, 2020 · $3k · revenue -56%
  • S
    St
    one grant, 2021 · $2k
  • SI
    St Ignatius Of Loyola
    one grant, 2020 · $2k

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
Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation

Partners In Health (PIH) is a non-profit, global health organization that fights social injustice by bringing the benefits of modern medical science first and foremost to the most vulnerable communities worldwide. In Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda,…

Health
2
Mary's Meals Usa Inc

To raise donations to (i) provide a daily meal in a place of education for children in the world's poorest communities; (ii) occasionally provide relief for those suffering, in any part of the world, as a result of humanitarian crises…

International
3
The Dynamic Catholic Institute

The dynamic catholic mission is to re-energize the catholic church in america by developing world-class resources that inspire people to rediscover the genius of catholicism.

Religion
4
The Catholic University of America

As the national university of the catholic church in the united states, founded and sponsored by the bishops of the country with the approval of the holy see, the catholic university of america is committed to being a comprehensive…

Education
5
Floresta Usa Incorporated

Plant with purpose, a christian nonprofit organization, reverses deforestation and poverty around the world by transforming the lives of the rural poor. we do this through: - watershed restoration & regenerative agriculture - savings…

International
6
Hope for Haiti's Children Ministries Incorporated

To demonstrate christian compassion to poverty-bound haitian children and their families, providing opportunities for these children to become leaders in their homes, churches and communities.

Health
7
Covenant House Washington Dc

Covenant house washington, dc ("chw") provides shelter, crisis care, community services, and outreach services to youth in the washington dc area.

Human Services
8
Harvest Mission International

Christian missions and ministries oversea countries; in Cambodia and Mali, church planting, evangelism, medical mission, schools (K - 12), helping the poor and the needy, Crusades, mercy missions (distributing rice, medicine, etc),…

Religion
9
The Children's Initiative Inc

To provide support and services to poor, rural villages in asia and africa. the activities are dedicated and focused on improving the current and future standards of living for the children in these areas. specific focus includes…

International
10
World Relief Corp of National Association of Evangelicals

To boldly engage the world's greatest crises in partnership with the church.

International
11
World Learning Inc

Creating a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world through education, development, and exchange since 1932. as both an accredited academic institution and an international ngo, world learning, inc. offers the best of theory and practice…

International
12
Frontline Missions Inc

Frontline missions actively develops and cultivates dynamic partnerships within the global church to empower and equip leaders to reach their nations for christ. instead of arriving at a community with our preconceived notions, frontline…

Religion

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Star of Hope Mission and the most unlike its peers is Sending Out Servants. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

10 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. 10 of the 23 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)
10/10
Grantees still filing
8/10
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

St Ignatius — $4,400 · OtherSt IgnatiusDSF Diocesan Service Fun — $2,400 · OtherDSF Diocesan Service FunSt — $2,350 · OtherStSt Ignatius Of Loyola — $2,350 · OtherSt Ignatius Of LoyolaDAV Disabled American Veterans — $2,125 · OtherDAV Disabled American VeteransComing Home Network — $1,900 · OtherComing Home NetworkST THOMAS HIGH SCHOOL — $1,875 · OtherST THOMAS HIGH SCHOOLKnights of Columbus — $1,500 · OtherKnights of ColumbusFiftey Fore the Fallen — $1,500 · OtherFiftey Fore the FallenHOPE CENTER INC — $875 · Other+4 more — $1,500 · Other+4 moreSending Out Servants — $2,900 · ReligionSending Out Servant…ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK INC — $2,100 · ReligionETERNAL WORD TELEVI…REFORM AMERICA — $1,250 · ReligionREFORM AMERICACASA JUAN DIEGO — $2,900 · Human ServicesMagnificat Houses Inc — $2,100 · HealthHILLSDALE COLLEGE — $900 · EducationTHE WATER PROJECT INC — $875 · InternationalSTAR OF HOPE MISSION — $650 · Housing & ShelterLeadership Institute — $250 · Public Benefit
Other$22,775Religion$6,250Human Services$2,900Health$2,100Education$900International$875Housing & Shelter$650Public Benefit$250

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCASA JUAN DIEGO — $2,900 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSending Out Servants — $2,900 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK INC — $2,100 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMagnificat Houses Inc — $2,100 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetREFORM AMERICA — $1,250 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE — $900 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WATER PROJECT INC — $875 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTAR OF HOPE MISSION — $650 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetThe Houston Food Bank — $300 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLeadership Institute — $250 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.

  • Who funds CASA JUAN DIEGO
  • Who funds Sending Out Servants
  • Who funds ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK INC
  • Who funds Magnificat Houses Inc
  • Who funds REFORM AMERICA
  • Who funds HILLSDALE COLLEGE
  • Who funds THE WATER PROJECT INC
  • Who funds STAR OF HOPE MISSION
  • Who funds The Houston Food Bank
  • Who funds Leadership Institute

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.

Greater Houston Community FoundationTX12.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · 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 Braren Family 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 · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%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 · 0–15%
    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.

    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 23 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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