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Cranswick-Black Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Cranswick-Black Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$46k
Granted FY2025still arriving
4
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Education$65kArts & Culture$40kHealth$26kCivil Rights$6kPhilanthropy$5kAnimals$5kRecreation & Sports$3kFood & Nutrition$3k
02FY2025 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $1k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $45k
$15,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$650k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LAFAYETTE COLLEGE$20,000
DENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIR$15,000
FREE MINDS BOOK CLUB WRITING WORKSH$10,000
THIRD STREET ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN$1,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%SCLERODERMA FOUNDATION: $5k → 10%LAFAYETTE COLLEGE: $20k → 11%FREE MINDS BOOK CLUB WRITING WORKSH: $10k → 14%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BOULDER COUNTY: $5k → 12%FOOD FOR THOUGHT DEVER: $3k → 12%LAFAYETTE COLLEGE: $10k → 11%MILE HIVE BEE CLUB: $5k → 12%LAFAYETTE COLLEGE: $10k → 11%STANLEY BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOL: $15k → 12%THIRD STREET ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN: $5k → 11%WESTERN STOCK SHOW ASSOCIATION: $3k → 12%THIRD STREET ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN: $1k → 11%NATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH: $11k → 12%MILE HIGH YOUTH THEATRE: $10k → 12%NATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH: $10k → 12%DENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIR: $15k → 12%DENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIR: $15k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

66%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$97k · 4 repeat orgs$50k to everyone else

4 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
6

Total granted

$97k
$40k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+16%
+110%

Still filing today

75%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthArts & CultureRecreation & SportsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • LC
    LAFAYETTE COLLEGE
    3× · 2021–2025 · $40k · revenue +43%
  • DC
    DENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIR
    2× · 2024–2025 · $30k · revenue +16%
  • NATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH
    2× · 2021–2023 · $21k · revenue 0%

Funded once

  • SB
    STANLEY BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +26%
  • MH
    MILE HIGH YOUTH THEATRE INC
    one grant, 2024 · $10k
  • MH
    MILE HIVE BEE CLUB
    one grant, 2024 · $5k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
University of Denver

The university of denver (du) is a higher educational institution, providing both undergraduate and graduate degrees - the mission of the university of denver is to promote learning by engaging with students (continued on schedule o)in…

Education
2
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
3
Colorado Academy

Creating curious, kind, courageous, and adventurous learners and leaders.

Education
4
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
6
The Colorado College

At colorado college our goal is to provide the finest liberal arts education in the country. drawing upon the adventurous spirit of the rocky mountain west, we challenge students, one course at a time, to develop those habits of intellect…

Education
7
Fountain Valley School of Colorado

Fountain valley school of colorado provides a transformative curriculum in a supportive environment where students are challenged to think critically, become leaders, and live by our core values: courage, compassion, curiosity,…

Education
8
Colorado Ballet

Colorado ballet's mission is to present exceptional classical ballet and contemporary dance through performances, training, education and community engagement while inspiring and growing an increasingly diverse audience base.

Arts & Culture
9
Education Commission of the States

The mission of education commission of the states is to advocate for attaining educational excellence for all and to help state leaders identify, develop and implement public policy for education that addresses current and future needs of…

Education
10
Cleveland Institute of Music

The cleveland institute of music's mission is to empower the world's most talented classical music students to fulfill their dreams and potential.

Education
11
Kent Denver Country Day School

Excellence in scholarship and character is the goal of a kent denver education. the school seeks to build a caring, diverse community of responsible citizens. to that end, the school provides a challenging college preparatory curriculum…

Education
12
Hillsdale College

Hillsdale college is a private liberal arts college with approximately 1,500 students. founded in 1844, the college remains, in the words of its articles of association, "grateful to god for the inestimable blessings resulting from the…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Foundation Boulder County; the most unlike its peers is National Jewish Health. 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 grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 12 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LAFAYETTE COLLEGE: $40,000 · EducationLAFAYETTE COLLEGESTANLEY BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOL: $15,000 · EducationSTANLEY BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOLDENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIR: $30,000 · Arts & CultureDENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIRMILE HIGH YOUTH THEATRE INC: $10,000 · Arts & CultureMILE HIGH YOUTH THEATRE INCNATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH: $21,078 · HealthNATIONAL JEWISH HEA…NATIONAL SCLERODERMA FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 · HealthNATIONAL SCLERODERM…FREE MINDS BOOK CLUB WRITING WORKSH: $10,000 · OtherFREE MINDS BOOK C…THIRD STREET ALLIANCE FOR WOMEN: $6,000 · OtherTHIRD STREET ALLI…MILE HIVE BEE CLUB: $5,000 · OtherMILE HIVE BEE CLU…FOOD FOR THOUGHT DEVER: $2,500 · OtherFOOD FOR THOUGHT …COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BOULDER COUNTY: $5,000 · PhilanthropyTHE WESTERN STOCK SHOW ASSOCIATION: $2,500 · Recreation & Sports
Education$55,000Arts & Culture$40,000Health$26,078Other$23,500Philanthropy$5,000Recreation & Sports$2,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLAFAYETTE COLLEGE: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetDENVER CHILDREN'S CHOIR: $30,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetNATIONAL JEWISH HEALTH: $21,078 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTANLEY BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOL: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMILE HIGH YOUTH THEATRE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 6.2% of budgetNATIONAL SCLERODERMA FOUNDATION INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION BOULDER COUNTY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WESTERN STOCK SHOW ASSOCIATION: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Cranswick-Black Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Cranswick-Black Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s 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 · 0–15%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Cranswick-Black Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Cranswick-Black 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 12 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Cranswick-Black’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home