· Private foundation
David and Barbara Whitwam 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| SILVER BEACH SHADOWLAND | $50,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN | $25,000 |
| CORNERSTONE ALLIANCE | $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 (FY23–23, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% 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.
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.
8 repeat relationships — 2 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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 FY2025, 38% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k 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
- CLCHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH3× · 2019–2021 · $125k
- UWUNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN6× · 2020–2025 · $115k · revenue -36%
- AIARTIS-NAPLES INC4× · 2019–2022 · $90k · revenue -1%
Funded once
- TMTHE MORGRIDGE INSTITUTE FOUNDATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +134%
- UCUNIFIED CIVIC MONUMENTS PROJECTone grant, 2023 · $25k
- AAATTIC ANGELS FOUNDATIONone grant, 2022 · $10k
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.
Mission statement: to gather, grow, and give endowed charitable financial resources to build stronger, more vibrant communities now and into the future.value statement:we are committed to managing our clients' philanthropic endowments in…
The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
To stimulate and sustain a vibrant regional economy by facilitating economic growth and prosperity.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
To provide the highest level of stewardship for university donors through professional management and oversight of the university of minnesota foundation's assets by creating a focused investment environment with clarity of purpose,…
The mission of the michigan science center is to inspire curious minds of all ages to discover, explore and appreciate science, technology, engineering and math in a creative, dynamic learning environment.
To empower the region's business community through leadership, business and community development.
Dedicated to supporting innovative, transformative learning for all students in michigan. the foundation collects, invests, and distributes funds to board designated initiatives, like the detroit promise, as part of our mission to improve…
The Lake Superior State University Foundation exists for the sole purpose of promoting, receiving, managing, and disbursing donations and contributions for the benefit of Lake Superior State University.
1) to plan and conduct nonpartisan public education programs regarding free enterprise, productivity and basic economic issues affecting the state of michigan.2) to establish and operate a leadership institute designed to provide promising…
For all state residents, diverse civic stakeholders and philanthropy, the center for michigan (the center) and its nonprofit newsrooms - bridge michigan and bridgedetroit - make michigan better through high-quality, nonpartisan journalism…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Southwest Michigan and the most unlike its peers is Artis-Naples Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 19 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 UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds ARTIS-NAPLES INC ↗
- Who funds SILVER BEACH SHADOWLAND ↗
- Who funds CORNERSTONE ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds LAKE MICHIGAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MORGRIDGE INSTITUTE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds LAKESHORE EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS INC ↗
- Who funds READINESS 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: Berrien Community Foundation Inc · The Marzke Family Foundation · 1st Source Bank Foundation Inc Xxx-Xx-Xxxx · 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 David and Barbara Whitwam 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.
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 David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation?
Find your warmest path to David and Barbara Whitwam 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.