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Edgar T Cato Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Edgar T Cato Foundation Inc

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$160k
Granted FY2024still arriving
5
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$570kRecreation & Sports$300kHuman Services$200kArts & Culture$85kAnimals$25kPublic Safety & Disaster$20kOther$0
02FY2024 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $60k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
$25,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$3.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING INC$50,000
AZULE$50,000
FRIENDS OF MADISON COUNTY ANIMALS (FOMCA)$25,000
THE SC BATTLEGROUND PRESERVATION TRUST$25,000
REBUILD HOT SPRINGS AREA$10,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY19–24, $630k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 95% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%AREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING INC: $50k → 17%MADISON COUNTY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS: $150k → 15%AREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING INC: $30k → 6%MADISON COUNTY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS: $100k → 15%MADISON COUNTY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS: $100k → 15%MADISON COUNTY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS: $100k → 15%MADISON COUNTY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS: $100k → 15%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.

70%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$870k · 3 repeat orgs$380k to everyone else

3 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
5

Total granted

$870k
$220k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-41%
+309%

Still filing today

100%
40%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $160k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’19’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesPublic Safety & DisasterRecreation & SportsAnimalsOther
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

  • MC
    Madison County Community Learning Centers
    5× · 2019–2023 · $550k · revenue +94%
  • SN
    SAIL NEWPORT
    2× · 2017–2020 · $300k · revenue -41%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF THE AIKEN CO PUBLIC LIBRARY
    2× · 2021–2022 · $20k · revenue -41%

Funded once

  • HS
    HOT SPRINGS COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER
    one grant, 2017 · $120k
  • LO
    LIBRARY OF MADISON COUNTY
    one grant, 2021 · $50k
  • AC
    AREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $30k · revenue +309%
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
Sandy Springs Volunteer Fire and Rescue

Rural fire fighting services

—
2
Swannanoa Volunteer Fire Department & Rescue Squad Inc

Provide fire protection and emergency first responder services to some 3900 citizens and visitors, of and, to the Swannanoa Fire district located in Buncombe County

—
3
Leicester Volunteer Fire Department

Fire protection and rescue

Public Safety & Disaster
4
Bonlee Fire Department Inc

Fire Protection

Public Safety & Disaster
5
Knox County Rescue

Provide rescue and other community emergency services

—
6
The Boonville Community

To provide firefighting and fire prevention to the boonville county

Public Safety & Disaster
7
West Carter County Volunteer Fire Department

West Carter County Fire Department serves West Carter County, Tennessee as a volunteer fire department.

—
8
Conway Volunteer Fire Department Inc

Control of fires

—
9
West Yancey Volunteer Fire Department Inc

Provide an all volunteer fire protection & emergency services for a section of yancey county, north carolina.

Public Safety & Disaster
10
NO9 Township Fire & Rescue

Operation of volunteer fire department in craven county, north carolina

Public Safety & Disaster
11
Hiwassee Dam Volunteer Fire Department

Volunteer fire department

Public Safety & Disaster
12
Area Congregations in Ministry

Area congregations in ministry is an exempt charitable organization under irc sec 501(c)(3) that provides temporary emergency assistance (primarily food) to needy residents of granville county, north carolina

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Area Churches Together Serving Inc; the most unlike its peers is Madison County Community Learning Centers. 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

9 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. 9 of the 13 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
4/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Madison County Community Learning Centers: $550,000 · Human ServicesMadison County Community Learning CentersAREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING: $50,000 · Human ServicesAREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVINGAREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING INC: $30,000 · Human ServicesSAIL NEWPORT: $300,000 · Recreation & SportsSAIL NEWPORTHOT SPRINGS COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER: $120,000 · OtherHOT SPRINGS COMMUNITY LE…LIBRARY OF MADISON COUNTY: $50,000 · OtherLIBRARY OF MADISON COUNT…AZULE: $50,000 · OtherAZULESC BATTLEGROUND PRESERVATION TRUST: $25,000 · OtherSC BATTLEGROUND PRESERVA…FRIENDS OF THE AIKEN CO PUBLIC LIBRARY: $20,000 · OtherFRIENDS OF THE AIKEN CO …HICKORY COMMUNITY THEATER: $10,000 · OtherFriends of Madison County Animals: $25,000 · AnimalsBETHLEHEM COMMUNITY FIRE & RESCUE INC: $10,000 · Public Safety & DisasterRebuild Hot Springs Area: $10,000 · Public Safety & Disaster
Human Services$630,000Recreation & Sports$300,000Other$275,000Animals$25,000Public Safety & Disaster$20,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMadison County Community Learning Centers: $550,000 over 5y, 21% of budgetSAIL NEWPORT: $300,000 over 2y, 5.0% of budgetAREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING: $50,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetAREA CHURCHES TOGETHER SERVING INC: $30,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetFriends of Madison County Animals: $25,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetSC BATTLEGROUND PRESERVATION TRUST: $25,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE AIKEN CO PUBLIC LIBRARY: $20,000 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetRebuild Hot Springs Area: $10,000 over 1y, 2.6% 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.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5× affinity5 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Edgar T Cato Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Edgar T Cato Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 Edgar T Cato Foundation Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Edgar T Cato 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.

    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 13 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Edgar T Cato’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