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Plinth

· Public charity

First Alaskans Institute

True to identity, heritage, and values, alaska natives are informed and engaged in leading the decisions that shape the future.

$582k
Granted FY2024still arriving
16
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$235k
Largest
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 FY20182024.

Civil Rights$630kArts & Culture$393kEnvironment$320kCrime & Legal$50kPhilanthropy$40kYouth Development$33kEducation$27kPublic Benefit$25kOther$0
02FY2024 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 16 grants below total $545,800 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $582,300 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $36,500 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 · FY2024

  • Under $10k7 grants · $47k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $112k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $387k
$11,800
Median grant
2
States reached
$3.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
OCEAN CONSERVANCY$235,000
ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES$101,545
NATIVE PEOPLES COMMUNITY ACTION FUN$50,000
GWICH'IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL$30,000
NUDLAGHI LEADERSHP INSTITUTE$25,000
THE MOBILIZATION CENTER LLC$20,000
KAKE TRIBAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION$15,000
FRIENDS OF ANCCS INC$11,800
CHILKOOT INDIAN ASSOCIATION$10,000
CENTRAL COUNCIL TLINGIT & HAIDA$8,000
HAA TOO YEI YATEE$8,000
TKC FISH WHEEL$8,000
BIG SISTER HELPLING LITTLE SISTER$7,000
VILLAGE OF SOLOMON$6,000
ALASKA ARTS SOUTHEAST INC$5,445
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 (FY24–24, $8k) land where the poverty rate runs at 22%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%TKC FISH WHEEL: $8k → 22%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 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
The Aleut Foundation
Education
2
Alaska Historical Publication Association
Education
3
Haida Roots

Haida Roots is committed to preserving the endangered Haida language (Alaskan dialect) for future generations. Our mission is to connect community members living in the Seattle area to the Haida language and culture through programs and…

Arts & Culture
4
Alaska Native Sisterhood Association

Cultural activities and classes - 20 participants per class - 6 classes

Human Services
5
Donlin Gold Kuskokwim Educational Foundation
Education
6
Chugach Heritage Foundation
Education
7
Alaska Native Arts Foundation

To promote and celebrate the uniqueness of alaska native arts and heritage. improve the economic well being of alaska native artists; invigorate education and training of the next generation of alaska native artists; increase awareness of…

Community Improvement
8
Alaska Folk Festival Inc

Alaska residents benefit from free public admission to an arts and culture festival; the week-long festival encourages non-professional musicians and performers, and has been operating since 1975.

Arts & Culture
9
Katmai Conservancy

Katmai Conservancy supports the preservation of Katmai National Park and Preserve its unique ecosystems scenic character and associated natural and cultural resources by promoting greater public interest appreciation and support through…

Environment
10
Alaska Rural Electric Cooperative Association Educational Foundation Inc
Environment
11
The Foundation for Indigenous Education Leadership Development
Education
12
Alaskans for Better Elections Foundation
Civil Rights

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Alaska Native Heritage Center Inc and the most unlike its peers is Rasmuson 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 31 years old; the field is 22. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%9%<5yr12%27%5–10yr17%5%10–20yr18%18%20–35yr19%27%35–55yr17%14%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%3%<5yr12%7%5–10yr17%1%10–20yr18%3%20–35yr19%25%35–55yr17%62%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 9% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/42
the rest of the field
11%
311/2,804

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

22 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 22 of the 42 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
22/22
Grantees still filing
11/22
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES — $711,545 · OtherALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVESTribal Government of St Paul Island — $85,000 · OtherTribal Government of St Paul Island+24 more — $265,878 · Other+24 moreOCEAN CONSERVANCY — $235,000 · EnvironmentOCEAN CONSERVANCYGWICH'IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF ALASKA INC — $30,000 · Arts & CultureSEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE — $15,000 · Arts & CultureKAKE TRIBAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION — $15,000 · Arts & CulturePACIFIC COMMUNITY OF ALASKA — $10,000 · Arts & CultureAlaska Native Heritage Center Inc — $5,010 · Arts & CultureNative Peoples Action Inc — $50,000 · Civil RightsTONGASS TLINGIT CULTURAL HERITAGE INSTITUTE — $10,000 · Civil RightsThe CIRI Foundation — $10,000 · PhilanthropyRASMUSON FOUNDATION — $10,000 · PhilanthropyCANDID — $10,000 · PhilanthropyThe Alaska Community Foundation — $7,000 · PhilanthropyARCTIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $15,000 · EducationFRIENDS OF ANCCS INC — $11,800 · EducationXKKF — $10,000 · EducationNUDLAGHI LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE — $25,000 · Public Benefit
Other$1,062,423Environment$235,000Arts & Culture$75,010Civil Rights$60,000Philanthropy$37,000Education$36,800Public Benefit$25,000

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$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetALASKA FEDERATION OF NATIVES — $711,545 over 7y, 5.3% of budgetOCEAN CONSERVANCY — $235,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNative Peoples Action Inc — $50,000 over 1y, 5.6% of budgetNUDLAGHI LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE — $25,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetSEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetARCTIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNOATAK NATIVE STORE NATIVE VILLAGE OF NOATAK — $12,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetFRIENDS OF ANCCS INC — $11,800 over 1y, 11% of budgetPACIFIC COMMUNITY OF ALASKA — $10,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetThe CIRI Foundation — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetRASMUSON FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTONGASS TLINGIT CULTURAL HERITAGE INSTITUTE — $10,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetCANDID — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTKC Fish Wheel — $8,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetSOUTHWEST ALASKA ARTS GROUP — $7,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetThe Alaska Community Foundation — $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHEALTHY ALASKA NATIVES FOUNDATION — $6,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetALASKA ARTS SOUTHEAST INC — $5,445 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAlaska Native Heritage Center Inc — $5,010 over 1y, 0.1% 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 Alaska Community FoundationAK37.4× affinity17 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Alaska Community Foundation · Rasmuson Foundation · Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium · First Nations Development Institute · Alaska Conservation Foundation · Kawerak Inc · Alaska Humanities Forum · Rsf Social Finance Inc · 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 First Alaskans Institute 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%your 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
    1report 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, FY2025

    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.

    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to First Alaskans Institute?

    Find your warmest path to First Alaskans Institute 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 42 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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