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Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

Elizabeth Shiras Tw

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$72k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$24k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
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 FY2017–2025.

Education$180kYouth Development$141kHuman Services$116kReligion$45kArts & Culture$31kCommunity Improvement$30kCrime & Legal$25kScience & Tech$20kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $64k
$15,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
STOREHOUSE FOR TEACHERS$23,983
POINT PARK UNIVERSITY$15,000
CARRIAGE HOUSE CHILDREN'S CENTER$15,000
SERVANT STAGE COMPANY$10,000
PEOPLE AND STORIES - GENTE Y CUENTOS INC$8,209
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:

Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $162k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 80% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%RUBYE'S KIDS INC: $3k → 7%CASA SAN JOSE: $20k → 11%CHRISTIAN LAYMANS CORPS: $8k → 10%WAYPOINT YOUTH AND COMMUNITY: $13k → 10%MOMMY'S IMAGINATION STATION INC: $15k → 11%WAYPOINT YOUTH AND COMMUNITY: $9k → 10%CARRIAGE HOUSE CHILDREN'S CENTER: $15k → 11%MOMMY'S IMAGINATION STATION INC: $10k → 11%METHODIST UNION OF SOCIAL AGENCIES: $8k → 11%URBAN IMPACT FOUNDATION: $20k → 11%NEW SUN RISING: $12k → 11%INDEPENDENT FAMILY RESOURCE GROUP: $10k → 11%OUTREACH TEEN & FAMILY SERVICES: $20k → 11%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.

27%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$168k · 6 repeat orgs$461k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +272% since the first grant, against +20% for the ones you funded once.

6 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
29

Total granted

$168k
$413k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+272%
+20%

Still filing today

67%
79%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 33% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $48k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesEducationYouth DevelopmentCommunity ImprovementReligionPublic BenefitOther

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

  • SF
    STOREHOUSE FOR TEACHERS D/B/A THE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP
    2× · 2018–2025 · $31k · revenue +272%
  • TC
    THE CROSSROADS FOUNDATION
    3× · 2018–2022 · $28k · revenue +99%
  • MI
    MOMMYS IMAGINATION STATION INC
    2× · 2022–2024 · $25k · revenue +168%

Funded once

  • YS
    YESHIVA SCHOOLS OF PITTSBURGH
    one grant, 2023 · $50k
  • AC
    ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS
    one grant, 2019 · $25k
  • TK
    THE KISKI SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $23k · revenue +27%

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
Urban Pathways K-5 College Charter

A charter school for k-5 whose mission is to help every child find a pathway to a successful adult life in the city and beyond.

Education
2
Community Day School

At community day school, we are committed to raising proud jews, confident leaders, and accomplished learners who value excellence and prioritize community. as educators, administrators, and staff, we hold ourselves to the highest ethical…

—
3
Urban Pathways 6-12 Charter School

Charter school providing education to students from sixth through twelfth grade.

Education
4
Young Scholars of Western Pennsylvania Charter School

To establish a unique, proactive alternative to traditional public education which provides an ideal international environment for the intellectual & social development of its students

Education
5
The Waldorf School of Pittsburgh

Waldorf school of pittsburgh fosters each child's capacity to become an independent thinking, compassionate, courageous, and purposeful human being.

—
6
Angels Place Inc

The mission of Angels Place, Inc. is to provide exceptional family support and quality early childhood education to help parents in need and their children become lifelong learners and create a brighter future.

—
7
Western Pennsylvania Montessori School

To provide a safe, secure, and nurturing atmosphere in which each child may develop and grow emotionally, socially, intellectually, and physically by receiving a well-rounded experience based on montessori philosophy.

Education
8
Young Scholars of Greater Allegheny Charter School

To establish a unique, proactive alternative to traditional public education which provides an ideal environment for the intellectual & social development of its students

Education
9
Kennett Square Preschool Cooperative

Preschool education for 3, 4 and 5 year old children in the kennett square, pennsylvania area

Education
10
Park Slope Schoolhouse Child Care Center Inc

Striving to create a caring, diverse, nurturing and stimulating child care environment that provides children the opportunity to grow at their own individual pace.

Human Services
11
Saint James School

St. james school is a faith-based philadelphia middle school in the episcopal tradition, committed to educating students from an under-resourced neighborhood within a nurturing environment. the school is a community that provides a…

Education
12
Shady Side Academy

Shady side academy offers an exceptional pre-k through twelfth grade academic and balanced educational experience by challenging each student to realize his or her potential in a stimulating and nurturing environment.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Urban Impact Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Sister Thea Bowman Black Catholic Educational Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 32 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number17%0%<5yr12%3%5–10yr19%26%10–20yr19%23%20–35yr16%32%35–55yr17%16%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value17%0%<5yr12%6%5–10yr19%28%10–20yr19%18%20–35yr16%34%35–55yr17%15%55yr+

The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 7% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/32
the rest of the field
7%
927/12,724

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

32 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. 32 of the 39 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
31/32
Grantees still filing
23/32
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

YESHIVA SCHOOLS OF PITTSBURGH — $50,000 · OtherYESHIVA SCHOOLS OF PITTSBURGHALLIANCE FOR REFUGEE YOUTH SUPPORT — $42,500 · OtherALLIANCE FOR REFUGEE YOUTH SUPPORTTHE CROSSROADS FOUNDATION — $27,838 · OtherTHE CROSSROADS FOUNDATIONALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS — $25,000 · OtherALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEASPITTSBURGH CHAPTER NATIONAL TOOLING — $19,879 · OtherPITTSBURGH CHAPTER NATIONAL TOOLINGALBERT SCHWEITZER FELLOWSHIP — $17,500 · OtherALBERT SCHWEITZER FELLOWSHIPBOYS HOPE GIRLS HOPE — $15,000 · OtherBOYS HOPE GIRLS HOPEPOINT PARK UNIVERSITY — $15,000 · OtherPOINT PARK UNIVERSITYWESTMORELAND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $12,800 · OtherANCHORPOINT COUNSELING MINISTRY INC — $10,500 · OtherJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF WESTERN — $10,000 · OtherSISTER THEA BOWMAN BLACK CATHOLIC EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $10,000 · Other+2 more — $12,720 · OtherMOMMYS IMAGINATION STATION INC — $25,000 · Human ServicesMOMMYS IMAGINATION STATION IN…WAYPOINT YOUTH AND COMMUNITY CENTER INC — $21,046 · Human ServicesWAYPOINT YOUTH AND COMMUNITY …Outreach Teen and Family Services Inc — $20,000 · Human ServicesOutreach Teen and Family Serv…CASA SAN JOSE — $20,000 · Human ServicesCASA SAN JOSEURBAN IMPACT FOUNDATION — $20,000 · Human ServicesURBAN IMPACT FOUNDATIONCARRIAGE HOUSE CHILDREN'S CENTER INC — $15,000 · Human ServicesCARRIAGE HOUSE CHILDREN'S CEN…NEW SUN RISING — $11,527 · Human ServicesNEW SUN RISINGINDEPENDENT FAMILY RESOURCE GROUP — $10,000 · Human ServicesINDEPENDENT FAMILY RESOURCE G…THE CHRISTIAN LAYMANS CORPS — $8,495 · Human ServicesMaple Unified Student Academy Inc — $8,000 · Human Services+1 more — $3,000 · Human ServicesSTOREHOUSE FOR TEACHERS D/B/A THE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP — $31,483 · EducationSTOREHOUSE FOR…THE KISKI SCHOOL — $22,884 · EducationTHE KISKI SCHO…Schools That Can — $15,000 · EducationSchools That C…HOPE PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION — $10,000 · EducationHOPE PARTNERSH…CONNECTING CHAMPIONS — $16,000 · Youth DevelopmentTICKETS FOR KIDS FOUNDATION — $15,000 · Youth DevelopmentPittsburgh Botanic Garden — $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentBLOOMFIELD-GARFIELD CORPORATION — $14,384 · Community ImprovementNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN PITTSBURGH SECTION — $12,500 · Community ImprovementNATRONA COMES TOGETHER — $4,463 · Community ImprovementLAURELVILLE MENNONITE CHURCH CENTER — $15,000 · ReligionSOUTH HILLS INTERFAITH MINISTRIES — $12,807 · ReligionSERVANT STAGE COMPANY — $10,000 · Public BenefitPEOPLE AND STORIES GENTE Y CUENTOS — $8,209 · Arts & Culture
Other$268,737Human Services$162,068Education$79,367Youth Development$41,000Community Improvement$31,347Religion$27,807Public Benefit$10,000Arts & Culture$8,209

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetSTOREHOUSE FOR TEACHERS D/B/A THE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP — $31,483 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTHE CROSSROADS FOUNDATION — $27,838 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetMOMMYS IMAGINATION STATION INC — $25,000 over 2y, 9.5% of budgetTHE KISKI SCHOOL — $22,884 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetWAYPOINT YOUTH AND COMMUNITY CENTER INC — $21,046 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetOutreach Teen and Family Services Inc — $20,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetCASA SAN JOSE — $20,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetURBAN IMPACT FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSchools That Can — $15,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetCARRIAGE HOUSE CHILDREN'S CENTER INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetLAURELVILLE MENNONITE CHURCH CENTER — $15,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTICKETS FOR KIDS FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBLOOMFIELD-GARFIELD CORPORATION — $14,384 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetSOUTH HILLS INTERFAITH MINISTRIES — $12,807 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetWESTMORELAND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $12,800 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN PITTSBURGH SECTION — $12,500 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetNEW SUN RISING — $11,527 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetANCHORPOINT COUNSELING MINISTRY INC — $10,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetHOPE PARTNERSHIP FOR EDUCATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetINDEPENDENT FAMILY RESOURCE GROUP — $10,000 over 1y, 27% of budgetPittsburgh Botanic Garden — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE CHRISTIAN LAYMANS CORPS — $8,495 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetMaple Unified Student Academy Inc — $8,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetGlen Montessori School — $7,720 over 1y, 0.3% of budget100 BLACK MEN OF WESTERN PA INC — $5,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetNATRONA COMES TOGETHER — $4,463 over 1y, 27% of budgetRUBYE'S KIDS INC — $3,000 over 1y, 3.0% 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.

The Pittsburgh Founda…The Grable FoundationThe Heinz EndowmentsRichard King Mellon F…The United Way of Sou…Staunton Farm Foundat…Hillman Family Founda…The Jack Buncher Foun…Eqt FoundationMcCune Foundation Pnc…McElhattan FoundationJewish Federation of …
The Pittsburgh FoundationPA50.3× affinity25 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Pittsburgh Foundation · The Grable Foundation · The Heinz Endowments · Richard King Mellon Foundation · The United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania · Staunton Farm Foundation 540-054 Dba Staunton Farm Foundation · Hillman Family Foundations · The Jack Buncher Foundation · Eqt Foundation · McCune Foundation Pnc Bank Na · McElhattan Foundation · Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh

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 Elizabeth Shiras Tw 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%8%17%30%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • People and Stories Gente Y Cuentos — 7% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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.

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 39 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 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