· Private foundation
Brown Family Foundation Inc
Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
98% of Brown Family Foundation Inc’s FY2023 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2023 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year Brown Family Foundation Inc named its own grantees at scale: 29 organizations, $146k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k28 grants · $81k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $66k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD MINNESOTA ETC | $15,000 |
| FEED MY PEOPLE FOOD BANK | $15,000 |
| CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS | $13,000 |
| SECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND | $12,500 |
| WOMEN'S FOUNDATION OF MINNESOTA | $10,000 |
| LUCY BURNS INSTITUTE | $5,000 |
| LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW | $5,000 |
| VOTEORG | $5,000 |
| CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS | $5,000 |
| PARTNERSHIP FOR A HEALTHIER AMERICA INC | $5,000 |
| WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER | $5,000 |
| NAMI MINNESOTA | $5,000 |
| ED ALLIES | $5,000 |
| CENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS | $5,000 |
| AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–22, $26k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +31% since the first grant, against +13% for the ones you funded once.
27 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2022, 12 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- SHSECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND3× · 2020–2022 · $38k · revenue +31%
THE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC3× · 2020–2022 · $37k · revenue +69%- TCTHE CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE2× · 2020–2021 · $22k · revenue +23%
Funded once
- GCGREEN CITIES ACCORDone grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue -26%
THE YOUNG CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDRENS RIGHTSgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $6k · revenue +177%- AFAPPETITE FOR CHANGE INCone grant, 2020 · $4k · revenue -15%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The minnesota chamber of commerce proactively leads the business community statewide to: advance pro-business, responsible minnesota public policy that creates jobs and grows the econony; provde member services to address evolving business…
Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.
The minnesota business partnership's mission is to maintain a high quality of life for all minnesotans by ensuring that the state's economy remains strong, globally competitive and its prospects for growth bright by working with elected…
MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.
To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.
The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…
Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…
See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…
To encourage, promote, support, and elect pro-choice women of all political parties to all levels of public office in minnesota.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
The foundation works to defend and promote the constitution of the united states, focusing especially on the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and 14th amendments. the foundation also works to defend and promote the constitution of the…
The purpose of the water research foundation (wrf) is a definitive research organization to advance the science of all things water to better meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. to engage exclusively in…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the most unlike its peers is JY6 Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 35 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
54 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 54 of the 61 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
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 FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds FEED MY PEOPLE INC ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND ↗
- Who funds THE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC ↗
- Who funds Women's Foundation of Minnesota ↗
- Who funds THE CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds COMMON HOPE ↗
- Who funds SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE CONSERVATION FUND A NONPROFIT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds NAMI MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ↗
- Who funds GREEN CITIES ACCORD ↗
- Who funds RICE LAKE COMMUNITY HEALTH FOUNDATI ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH ↗
- Who funds Ed Allies ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT CHILDRENS RIGHTS ↗
- Who funds HENNEPIN THEATRE TRUST ↗
- Who funds BARRON AREA COMMUNITY CENTER ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS ↗
- Who funds Partnership for a Healthier America Inc ↗
- Who funds Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc ↗
- Who funds VOTEORG ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS INC ↗
- Who funds LUCY BURNS INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law ↗
- Who funds WARREN W CHERRY PRESCHOOL ↗
- Who funds APPETITE FOR CHANGE INC ↗
- Who funds MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN ↗
- Who funds AMIGOS OF COSTA RICA INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL INDIGENOUS WOMENS RESOURCE CENTER INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Mortenson Family Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Hrk Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The K Foundation · Minnesota Community Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving 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 organization Brown Family Foundation Inc 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.
- National Indian Womens Health Resource Center — 52% of income from government
- Woodwell Climate Research Center Inc — 11% of income from government
- Shriners Hospitals for Children — 0% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Brown Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Brown Family 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.