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· Private foundation
COLIN HIGGINS FOUNDATION
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$51k
Granted FY2024
2
Grants
2
Communities
$39k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 61% of COLIN HIGGINS FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2018
youth couragecourage award
2019
youth couragecourage award
2020
youth couragecourage award
2021
youth couragecourage award
2022
—
2023
queermediaframeline's
2024
queermediaframeline's
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 2 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
$39,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$464k
Total assets
Largest grants
- FRAMELINE INC$39,000
- THE FUTURE PERFECT PROJECT INC$12,000
02The need
04
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:
Your human-services grants (FY21–21, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14% — the area typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your 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
Transgender Film Center Ltd
To help trans creators bring finished films to audiences around the world.
Arts & Culture
2
Filmprojects
We are a non-profit dedicated to promoting the advancement of LGBTQ+ people, other marginalized groups, and the film community as an independent film company. We strive to make films and celebrate cinematic works that are culturally…
Arts & Culture
3
Center for Contemporary Documentation Inc
Philanthropy
4
Contemporary Policy Institute
Philanthropy
5
Film Independent
To support independent filmmakers and to promote independent filmmaking to the public.
Arts & Culture
6
California Film Institute
The california film institute celebrates film and videos as art and education. its goal is to present and support emerging and established independent filmakers whose works address issues relevant to contemporary society. this is…
Arts & Culture
7
Full Spectrum Features Nfp
Committed to driving equity in the independent film industry by producing, exhibiting, and supporting the work of women, bipoc, and lgbtq+ filmmakers. educate the public about important social and cultural issues, utilizing the power of…
Arts & Culture
8
San Francisco Independent Film Festival
SF IndieFest presents important independent narrative, documentary, and short films from around the world.
Arts & Culture
9
Independent Arts & Media
Independent Arts & Media's mission is to steward and empower independent arts and media projects that foster community and civic participation, and facilitate cultural engagement and free expression.
Arts & Culture
10
Queer Art Inc
To create a diverse and vibrant community through the support of lgbtq art and artist across generations and disciplines.
Arts & Culture
11
Citizen Film Inc
Collaborate with cultural institutions and community organizations to create films and online media that foster active engagement in cultural and civic life.
Education
12
The New Festival Inc
New Festival, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax exempt media arts organization whose objective is to showcase international, domestic, and New York-centric film, video and other media to foster greater awareness and community among LGBTQ+…
Arts & Culture
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Partners and the most unlike its peers is Windrider Institute Inc. 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
8 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
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
Other$295,500Arts & Culture$143,000Civil Rights$27,000Community Improvement$10,000Human Services$5,000
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.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organisation COLIN HIGGINS 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
’20’21’22’23’24
- The Center for Independent Documentary — 6% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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. 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.
04Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: THE FUTURE PERFECT PROJECT INC.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
medium risk
~5 months of operating runway; revenue held over 2 filed years.
Track record & reputation
medium risk
2 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 874650805 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on THE FUTURE PERFECT PROJECT INC, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- WatchFinancial stability— Roughly 5 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue held over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 3% of their budget — diversified.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Colin Higgins Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Colin Higgins Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines