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Elks National Foundation Inc

The foundation's mission is to help the benevolent and protective order of elks of the united states of america (bpoe) build stronger communities by offering college scholarships, funding programs that build the character and confidence of youth, serving veterans, and providing elks lodges and state associations with resources they need…

$36M
Granted FY2025still arriving
1,485
Grants FY2025still arriving
51
States reached
$5.6M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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.

Community Improvement$90MRecreation & Sports$65MHuman Services$35MHealth$11MYouth Development$5.7MArts & Culture$4.2MEducation$3.9MPhilanthropy$1.7MOther$0
02FY2025 · 1485 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 1,485 grants below total $31,866,745 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $35,781,683 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $3,914,938 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1286 grants · $11M
  • $10k–50k150 grants · $2.0M
  • $50k–250k29 grants · $3.3M
  • $250k+20 grants · $16M
$8,500
Median grant
51
States reached
$885M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ELKS NATIONAL VETERANS SERVICE COMMISSION$5,621,210
CALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC$1,631,420
ELKS DISASTER RELIEF PROGRAM INC$1,000,000
ELKS NATIONAL DRUG AWARENESS COMMISSION$810,441
N J STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC$782,960
FLORIDA ELKS CHARITIES INC$646,330
ELKS VETETERANS MEMORIAL RESTORATION TRUST$551,949
NEW YORK ELKS MAJOR PROJECTS INC$501,370
OHIO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST$422,880
OREGON STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION TRUST$422,110
ARIZONA ELKS ASSOCIATION$392,630
PENNSYLVANIA ELKS MAJOR PROJECTS INC$376,290
ILLINOIS ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST$367,540
MASSACHUSETTS ELKS CHARITABLE TRUST$358,730
COLORADO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC$352,210
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 (FY23–25, $9.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 86% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC: $1.7M → 19%CALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC: $1.6M → 19%CALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC: $1.5M → 19%OKLAHOMA ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST: $109k → 10%ALABAMA ELKS ASSOCIATION INC: $66k → 20%UTAH ELKS ASSOCIATION INC BENEVOLENT TRUST FUND: $84k → 10%OHIO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST: $423k → 5%SOUTH DAKOTA ELKS MAJOR PROJECTS INC: $52k → 10%OKLAHOMA ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST: $101k → 10%ALABAMA ELKS ASSOCIATION INC: $63k → 20%CONNECTICUT ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC: $222k → 12%UTAH ELKS ASSOCIATION INC BENEVOLENT TRUST FUND: $77k → 10%OHIO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST: $370k → 5%N J STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC: $783k → 11%SOUTH DAKOTA ELKS MAJOR PROJECTS INC: $49k → 10%OKLAHOMA ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST: $98k → 10%ALABAMA ELKS ASSOCIATION INC: $59k → 20%CONNECTICUT ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC: $204k → 12%UTAH ELKS ASSOCIATION INC BENEVOLENT TRUST FUND: $71k → 10%OHIO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST: $369k → 5%N J STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC: $598k → 11%SOUTH DAKOTA ELKS MAJOR PROJECTS INC: $48k → 10%N J STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC: $562k → 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.

Which US states your grants reach

AK
ME
VT
NH
WA
ID
MT
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
HI
OK
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL

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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$217M · 1521 repeat orgs$3.2M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +10% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.

1521 repeat relationships — 1409 still active in FY2025, 112 since wound down; 74 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

1521
125

Total granted

$217M
$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+10%
0%

Still filing today

95%
76%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.8M 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
Membership BenefitPhilanthropyHuman ServicesEducationCommunity ImprovementHealthOther

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

  • EN
    ELKS NATIONAL VETERANS SERVICE COMMISSION
    8× · 2017–2025 · $30M · revenue +122% · 97% of their budget
  • EV
    ELKS VETERANS MEMORIAL RESTORATION TRUST
    9× · 2017–2025 · $5.7M · revenue +228% · 76% of their budget
  • CE
    CALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $4.9M · revenue +16% · 28% of their budget

Funded once

  • BP
    BENEVOLENT & PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS CONNECTICUT ELKS ASSOCIATION
    one grant, 2023 · $198k
  • IE
    INDIANA ELKS ASSOCIATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $194k · revenue +49%
  • PH
    PACIFIC HISTORIC PARKSgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +119%

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
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Burbank Lodge No 1497

To inculcate the principles of charity, justice, brotherly love and fidelity; to recognize a belief in god; to promote the welfare and enhance the happiness of its members; to quicken the spirit of american patriotism; to cultivate good…

—
2
Wooster Elks Lodge No 1346 Charitable Fund
Philanthropy
3
Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks of the Usa

Charitable Organization

—
4
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge #2313

Supporting state and local special needs projects and providing members and families a social environment

—
5
Elkton Lodge No 851 Loyal Order of Moose

The organization unites its members in the bond of fraternity,benevolence,and charity.this is accomplished through a year round schedule of social & recreational activities for members & families(590)

—
6
Loyal Order of Moose No 741

The lodge unites its members in the bonds of fraternity., benevolence and charity. this is accomplished through a year-round schedule of social and recreational activities for members and their families.

—
7
Kalkaska Lodge 2348 Loyal Order of Moose

The organization unites its members in the bonds of fraternity benevolence and charitly. this is accomplished through a year-round schedule of social and recreational activities for the members and their families estimated at 415.

Membership Benefit
8
Greater Pine Island Elks Charitable Trust Inc
Philanthropy
9
Enid Lodge No 1740 Loyal Order of Moose

This organization unites its members in the bonds of fraternal benevolence and charity. This is accomplished through a year-round social and recreational activities for its members and their families, estimated at 475.

—
10
Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks of the Usa

To provide benevolent activities and support for seniors, youth, veterans, and the local community

—
11
Parkersburg Loyal Order of Moose 1118

The lodge unites members in the bonds of fraternity, benevolence, and charity this is accomplished through a year round schedule of social and recreational activities

—
12
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks #115

To inculcate the principles of Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity to recognize a belief in God to promote the welfare and enhance the happiness of its Members to quicken the spirit of American patriotism to cultivate good…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge No 1071 and the most unlike its peers is Pacific Historic Parks. 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 75 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%1%<5yr13%0%5–10yr18%1%10–20yr15%1%20–35yr14%15%35–55yr22%81%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%4%<5yr13%1%5–10yr18%5%10–20yr15%42%20–35yr14%13%35–55yr22%36%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
2%29/1,703
the rest of the field
13%
8,891/70,656

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

1628 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 1628 of the 1,721 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.

92
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
248
Early backer (in before they grew)
1601/1628
Grantees still filing
992/1628
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ELKS STATE ASSOCIATIONS — $57,779,272 · OtherELKS STATE ASSOCIATIONSIndividual grant recipient — $54,779,728 · OtherIndividual grant recipient+166 more — $17,301,795 · Other+166 moreELKS NATIONAL VETERANS SERVICE COMMISSION — $29,548,276 · PhilanthropyELKS NATIONAL VETERA…+9 more — $4,338,770 · Philanthropy+9 moreCALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC — $4,860,850 · Human ServicesNEW JERSEY STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC C/O ROBERT D MAURO — $1,942,770 · Human ServicesOHIO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TR — $1,162,310 · Human ServicesCONNECTICUT ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC — $425,400 · Human Services+4 more — $877,060 · Human ServicesELKS VETERANS MEMORIAL RESTORATION TRUST — $5,698,344 · HealthELKS NATIONAL DRUG AWARENESS COMMISSION — $1,544,030 · HealthPennsylvania Elks Major Projects Inc — $1,009,220 · HealthOREGON ELKS ASSOCIATION TRUST — $1,335,430 · EducationWASHINGTON STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $870,820 · EducationTENNESSEE ELKS CHARITABLE TRUST — $357,530 · EducationAlaska State Elks Association Charitable Trust — $282,379 · EducationRI STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC — $260,390 · EducationMONTANA STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $226,380 · EducationKANSAS ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE INC — $222,690 · EducationARKANSAS STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $187,040 · EducationFLORIDA ELKS CHARITIES INC — $1,925,500 · Youth DevelopmentMISSISSIPPI ELKS CHARITIES — $174,700 · Youth DevelopmentCOLORADO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC — $1,136,080 · Food & Nutrition
Other$129,860,795Philanthropy$33,887,046Human Services$9,268,390Health$8,251,594Education$3,742,659Youth Development$2,100,200Food & Nutrition$1,136,080

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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 budgetELKS NATIONAL VETERANS SERVICE COMMISSION — $29,548,276 over 8y, 97% of budgetELKS VETERANS MEMORIAL RESTORATION TRUST — $5,698,344 over 9y, 76% of budgetCALIFORNIA-HAWAII ELKS MAJOR PROJECT INC — $4,860,850 over 3y, 28% of budgetNEW JERSEY STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC C/O ROBERT D MAURO — $1,942,770 over 3y, 88% of budgetELKS NATIONAL DRUG AWARENESS COMMISSION — $1,544,030 over 2y, 81% of budgetNEW YORK ELKS MAJOR PROJECTS INC — $1,460,970 over 3y, 40% of budgetOREGON ELKS ASSOCIATION TRUST — $1,335,430 over 3y, 78% of budgetILLINOIS ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $1,315,760 over 3y, 99% of budgetOHIO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TR — $1,162,310 over 3y, 71% of budgetCOLORADO ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC — $1,136,080 over 3y, 75% of budgetBENEVOLENT & PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS OF THE USA — $1,070,230 over 3y, 66% of budgetMassachusetts Elks Charitable Trust — $1,043,060 over 3y, 100% of budgetPennsylvania Elks Major Projects Inc — $1,009,220 over 3y, 25% of budgetELKS DISASTER RELIEF PROGRAM INC — $1,000,000 over 1y, 95% of budgetTEXAS ELKS ENDOWMENT INC — $943,930 over 3y, 54% of budgetMaryland Delaware and District of Columbia Elks Assoc — $935,740 over 3y, 45% of budgetWASHINGTON STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $870,820 over 3y, 79% of budgetMICHIGAN ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION — $850,890 over 3y, 99% of budgetMISSOURI ELKS CHARITABLE FUND INC — $761,880 over 3y, 100% of budgetWISCONSIN ELKS BENEVOLENT FUND INC — $623,960 over 3y, 47% of budgetVirginia Elks Fund Inc CO TAMARA SYMONS — $575,830 over 3y, 81% of budgetNORTH CAROLINA STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $493,970 over 3y, 56% of budgetMAINE ELKS ASSOCIATION — $467,810 over 3y, 30% of budgetNEVADA STATE ELKS CHARITIES FUND INC — $466,440 over 3y, 97% of budgetMINNESOTA STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $451,380 over 3y, 100% of budgetCONNECTICUT ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC — $425,400 over 2y, 46% of budgetINDIANA ELKS CHARITIES INC — $393,620 over 2y, 30% of budgetTENNESSEE ELKS CHARITABLE TRUST — $357,530 over 3y, 84% of budgetNew Hampshire State Elks Association — $347,150 over 3y, 78% of budgetOKLAHOMA ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $307,300 over 3y, 73% of budgetIOWA ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST INC — $298,870 over 3y, 46% of budgetAlaska State Elks Association Charitable Trust — $282,379 over 3y, 24% of budgetRI STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITIES INC — $260,390 over 3y, 67% of budgetSouth Carolina Elks Charitable Trus — $251,280 over 3y, 51% of budgetIDAHO STATE ELKS YOUTH INC — $240,010 over 3y, 79% of budgetUTAH ELKS ASSOCIATION BENEVOLENT TR — $232,590 over 3y, 47% of budgetMONTANA STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $226,380 over 3y, 44% of budgetKANSAS ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE INC — $222,690 over 3y, 71% of budgetVERMONT ELKS CHARITIES INC — $213,860 over 3y, 19% of budgetKENTUCKY ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $196,350 over 2y, 95% of budgetWYOMING ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $194,130 over 3y, 100% of budgetALABAMA ELKS ASSOCIATION INC — $188,740 over 3y, 49% of budgetARKANSAS STATE ELKS ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST — $187,040 over 3y, 44% of budgetMISSISSIPPI ELKS CHARITIES — $174,700 over 3y, 77% of budgetNAISMITH MEMORIAL BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME — $172,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetSouth Dakota Elks Major Projects Inc — $148,430 over 3y, 58% of budgetPACIFIC HISTORIC PARKS — $100,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetNEW MEXICO ELKS CHARITIES INC — $94,890 over 1y, 90% 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.

Elks National Veteran…Elks Disaster Relief …Ndc Housing & Economi…The Bank of America C…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile FoundationFidelity Investments …
Elks National Veterans Service CommissionIL236.5× affinity200 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Elks National Veterans Service Commission · Elks Disaster Relief Program Inc · Ndc Housing & Economic Development Corporation - Group Return · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Elks National Foundation Inc 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.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 300%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    30get no government money at all
    16report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Elks National Foundation Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Elks National 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 1721 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 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