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Cglr Foundation

The CGLR FOUNDATION brings together great lakes leaders from government, business, academia, and the nonprofit sector together to find new ways of harnessing the region's economic strengths, improving the well-being of the region's citizens, and protecting the environment for future generations through educational events, public policy…

$334k
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$77k
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 FY20242025.

Environment$295kEducation$105kHealth$75kScience & Tech$27kCommunity Improvement$6k
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 8 grants below total $303,539 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $333,699 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $30,160 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $6k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $146k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $152k
$27,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TIP OF THE MITT WATERSHED COUNCIL$77,000
GRAND TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED INITIATIVE INC$74,500
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN$49,789
MILWAUKEE RIVERKEEPER$27,000
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY$27,000
GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY$25,500
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN$16,500
BELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY$6,250
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 (FY24–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 15%. 7% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 15%WATERSHED CENTRE OF GRAND TRAVERSE BAY: $42k → 7%TIP OF THE MITT WATERSHED COUNCIL: $77k → 9%HOPE COLLEGE: $16k → 10%BAY AREA RECYCLING FOR CHARITIES: $10k → 13%HURON RIVER WATERSHED COUNCIL: $23k → 14%GRAND TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED INITIATIVE INC: $75k → 15%BELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY: $6k → 21%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: $25k → 11%MILWAUKEE RIVERKEEPER: $27k → 17%OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $65k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: $50k → 14%GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY: $26k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: $17k → 11%OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: $27k → 9%GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY: $25k → 15%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.

51%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$259k · 3 repeat orgs$250k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +9% since the first grant, against +7% for the ones you funded once.

3 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
4

Total granted

$259k
$90k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+9%
+7%

Still filing today

33%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 47% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $160k went to new ones.

50%100%’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’24’25
EnvironmentHealthEducationCommunity ImprovementOther

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

  • GV
    GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2024–2025 · $125k
  • TO
    THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2024–2025 · $92k
  • UO
    University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation Inc
    2× · 2024–2025 · $42k · revenue +9%

Funded once

  • GT
    GRAND TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED INITIATIVE INC
    one grant, 2024 · $42k · revenue 0%
  • HR
    HURON RIVER WATERSHED COUNCILgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $23k · revenue +137%
  • HC
    HOPE COLLEGE
    one grant, 2024 · $16k · revenue +7%

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
Fund for Lake Michigan Inc

Lake Michigan is one of Wisconsin's greatest assets, and its water is critical to the state's future. The Fund for Lake Michigan is here to help sustain the Lake on behalf of the people and places that depend on it. Our goal is to have a…

Environment
2
Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment
3
Coalition to Protect Michigan Resources

The coalition to protect michigan resources's mission is to be a strong voice for the equitable co-management of michigan's fisheries, with both the great lakes and inland lakes and streams, to insure that conservation principles remain in…

Environment
4
Merrimack River Watershed Council Inc

Merrimack river watershed council's mission is to protect the merrimack river watershed and promote the wise use of its watershed. this is accomplished through water quality monitoring, land restoration and protection, watershed education…

Environment
5
Michigan Water Environment Association

Be and create stewards for the water environment of michigan. provide high quality education for michigan's water professionals. educate and inform policy makers and the general public. promote scientifically sound environmental practices…

Environment
6
Milwaukee Water Commons Inc

Milwaukee water commons is helping catalyze milwaukee as a true model water city-a place where we all have a stake in the health of our waters and all share in their stewardship and benefits. we are advancing our community envisioned water…

Environment
7
Huron Pines Resource Conservation & Development Council Inc

It is our mission at huron pines to conserve and enhance northern michigan's natural resources to ensure healthy water, protected places and vibrant communities. for alomst 50 years, our work across the forests, lakes and streams of…

Environment
8
Chippewa Watershed Conservancy Inc

To protect and restore central michigan's land, water, and wildlife resources to improve the quality of life for all.

Environment
9
Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council Inc

To coordinate actions for protecting and restoring the health of owasco lake and its watershed to ensure that owasco lake will serve as a source of public drinking water, a recreational asset, an economic driver, and an important natural…

Environment
10
30 Mile River Watershed Association

The mission of the 30 Mile River Watershed Association (30 Mile) is to work as a community for clean and healthy lakes, ponds and streams in our watershed. Since 2008, 30 Mile has led efforts to protect these waters from the growing…

Environment
11
Tippecanoe Environmental Lake & Watershed Foundation

We work to protect and improve water quality in the lakes and streams of the upper tippecanoe river watershed. we do this by implementing solutions to stop pollution, engaging youth & adults and uniting partners.

Public Safety & Disaster
12
West Michigan Environmental Action Council Educational Foundation

Wmeac's mission is to "inform and engage an inclusive community which acts together to protect natural resources and create a climate resilient west michigan."

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Huron River Watershed Council and the most unlike its peers is Bay Area Recycling for Charities. 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

8 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. 8 of the 11 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
4/8
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY — $125,000 · OtherGRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITYTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY — $91,800 · OtherTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITYREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN — $49,789 · OtherREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANTIP OF THE MITT WATERSHED COUNCIL — $77,000 · EnvironmentTIP OF THE MITT WATERSHED COUNCILGRAND TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED INITIATIVE INC — $41,600 · EnvironmentGRAND TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED INITIATIVE…MILWAUKEE RIVERKEEPER INC — $27,000 · EnvironmentMILWAUKEE RIVERKEEPER INCHURON RIVER WATERSHED COUNCIL — $23,200 · EnvironmentHURON RIVER WATERSHED COUNCILBay Area Recycling for Charities — $10,150 · EnvironmentBay Area Recycling for CharitiesUniversity of Wisconsin Medical Foundation Inc — $41,700 · HealthUniversit…HOPE COLLEGE — $15,500 · EducationBELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY — $6,250 · Community Improvement
Other$266,589Environment$178,950Health$41,700Education$15,500Community Improvement$6,250

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUniversity of Wisconsin Medical Foundation Inc — $41,700 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGRAND TRAVERSE BAY WATERSHED INITIATIVE INC — $41,600 over 1y, 6.4% of budgetMILWAUKEE RIVERKEEPER INC — $27,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetHURON RIVER WATERSHED COUNCIL — $23,200 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetHOPE COLLEGE — $15,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBay Area Recycling for Charities — $10,150 over 1y, 0.9% 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.

PatagoniaorgCA13.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Patagoniaorg · 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 Cglr 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%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get 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
    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 Cglr Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Cglr 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 11 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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