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Explore Butte County at a glance

· Public charity

Explore Butte County

The mission of EXPLORE BUTTE COUNTY is to strategically market the region with the goal of promoting tourism in the county and increasing overnight stays.

$28k
Granted FY2020
4
Grants FY2020
1
States reached
$12k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through 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, FY2018 to 2020.

Community Improvement$89kRecreation & Sports$23kAnimals$5k
02FY2020 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k3 grants · $16k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $12k
$9,750
Median grant
1
States reached
$1.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DOWNTOWN CHICO BUSINESS ASSOCIATION$12,000
UPSTATE COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT FOUNDATION$9,750
CHICO ECONOMIC PLANNING$4,000
PARADISE CHAMBER$2,000
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 (FY18–18, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 16%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 16%ABILITY FIRST SPORTS: $6k → 18%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 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
Prineville Downtown Association

Economic development of rural Oregon towns

Community Improvement
2
Sky Valley Chamber of Commerce

Community and Business support to encourage economic progress and support business growth.

—
3
Redding Chamber of Commerce

The greater redding chamber of commerce is an association of businesses organized to improve the business climate and contribute to the economic health of its membership and the greater redding area.

—
4
Valley County Economic Develop Dba West Central Mtn Eco Develo

Economic development for the west central mountain idaho region

Community Improvement
5
Alto Economic Development Corporation

To promote business expansion in the alto area that builds a stronger, more diversified economy and increases the economic vitality and wealth of the community.

Community Improvement
6
Pipestone Area Chamber of Commerce

Promotion of city & surrounding area

—
7
Otero County Economic Development Council
—
8
Vallejo Chamber of Commerce

The purpose is to promote a healthy business environment in the city of Vallejo.

—
9
Eagle Lake Chamber of Commerce Inc

The promotioin of the overall economic development of the city of eagle lake and surroundiing areas assist tourism promote the interest of trade agriculture industry and civic improvement

Community Improvement
10
Llano Chamber of Commerce

To assist the local business, governmental and individual community in developing better business relationships and to increase the local revenue base by encouraging tourism and business development.

—
11
Arcola Chamber of Commerce

Promote the economic and cultural welfare of arcola, illinois

—
12
Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce

The mission of the santa barbara south coast chamber of commerce is to create a strong local economy, promote the community, provide business resources and networking opportunities and represent business to the government.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chico Chamber of Commerce; the most unlike its peers is Ability First Sports. 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

10 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. 10 of the 11 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)
9/10
Grantees still filing
6/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DOWNTOWN CHICO BUSINESS ASSOCIATION: $42,000 · Community ImprovementDOWNTOWN CHICO BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONOROVILLE DOWNTOWN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION: $15,000 · Community ImprovementOROVILLE DOWNTOWN BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONChico Economic Planning Corporation: $4,000 · Community ImprovementChico Economic Planning CorporationPARADISE & ALLIED COMMUNITIES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: $10,775 · OtherPARADISE & ALLIED COMMUNITI…SILVER DOLLAR SPEEDWAY: $10,000 · OtherSILVER DOLLAR SPEEDWAYCHICO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: $5,000 · OtherCHICO CHAMBER OF COMMERCEROTARY CLUB OF OROVILLE SUNRISE: $2,500 · OtherROTARY CLUB OF OROVILLE SUN…UPSTATE COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT FOUNDATION INC: $9,750 · Arts & CultureUPSTATE C…FEATHER RIVER CENTER: $6,700 · Recreation & SportsABILITY FIRST SPORTS: $5,800 · Human ServicesALTACAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC: $5,000 · Environment
Community Improvement$61,000Other$28,275Arts & Culture$9,750Recreation & Sports$6,700Human Services$5,800Environment$5,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100kgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetDOWNTOWN CHICO BUSINESS ASSOCIATION: $42,000 over 2y, 7.9% of budgetPARADISE & ALLIED COMMUNITIES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: $10,775 over 2y, 6.6% of budgetUPSTATE COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT FOUNDATION INC: $9,750 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetFEATHER RIVER CENTER: $6,700 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetABILITY FIRST SPORTS: $5,800 over 1y, 5.4% of budgetCHICO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: $5,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetChico Economic Planning Corporation: $4,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetROTARY CLUB OF OROVILLE SUNRISE: $2,500 over 1y, 9.0% 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.

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

North Valley Communit…
North Valley Community FoundationCA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: North Valley Community 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 Explore Butte County funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Explore Butte County. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get 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
    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.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Explore Butte County?

    Find your warmest path to Explore Butte County 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 11 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2020, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Explore Butte County’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