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· Private foundation

Gardner Family Foundation

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.

$567k
Granted FY2024still arriving
14
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$321k
Largest
01What you fund
0182% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20192024.

Community Improvement$825kReligion$627kCivil Rights$275kHuman Services$173kEducation$114kEmployment$57kHousing & Shelter$54kPublic Benefit$50kOther$0
02FY2024 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k6 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $99k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $128k
  • $250k+1 grant · $321k
$11,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$263k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CROSSPURPOSE$321,000
CITYUNITE$77,778
STAND TOGETHER FOUNDATION$50,000
COLORADO HOMELESS FAMILIES INC DBA BEYONDHOME$31,000
MILE HIGH WORKSHOP INC$25,000
WORKWELL$22,222
ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION DBA ACE SCHOLARSHIPS$11,000
THE DENVER INSTITUTE DBA DENVER INSTITUTE FOR FAITH AND WORK$10,000
CRU$6,000
EXECUTIVES PARTNERING TO INVEST IN CHILDREN (EPIC)$5,000
HOPE FOR HAITI'S CHILDREN MINISTRIES INC$5,000
ALL IN FOSTERING FUTURES INC$1,037
HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO$1,000
ACTS4 COMMUNITY OUTREACH SERVICES DBA LOVE INC OF LITTLETON$1,000
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 (FY19–24, $176k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 66% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION: $1k → 9%HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO: $58k → 10%HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO: $48k → 10%HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO: $53k → 7%HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO: $5k → 7%HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO: $1k → 7%ACTIVATE WORK INC: $10k → 12%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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.4M · 14 repeat orgs$155k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +94% since the first grant, against +56% for the ones you funded once.

14 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
11

Total granted

$2.4M
$84k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+94%
+56%

Still filing today

64%
36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $71k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesCommunity ImprovementReligionEducationYouth DevelopmentHousing & ShelterOther

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

  • C
    CROSSPURPOSE
    6× · 2019–2024 · $781k · revenue +236%
  • C
    CITYUNITE
    6× · 2019–2024 · $556k · revenue +31% · 44% of their budget
  • HH
    HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO
    5× · 2019–2024 · $165k · revenue +112%

Funded once

  • OT
    OUTSIDE THE BOWL
    one grant, 2019 · $25k · revenue -32%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2021 · $25k
  • AW
    ACTIVATE WORK INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +166%

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
Careerwise Colorado

Careerwise's mission is to forge pathways to meaningful careers through bold advocacy, innovative apprenticeships, and industry led partnerships, creating a dynamic talent ecosystem that connects ambition to opportunity for empowered young…

Education
2
Family Housing Network of Fort Collins Inc

Faith Family Hospitality's mission is to support families experiencing homelessness to achieve sustainable self-sufficiency in a timely and dignified manner. This interfaith volunteer effort coordinates the work of 30 diverse Fort Collins…

Human Services
3
Urban Outreach Denver

Urban Outreach Denver exists to connect people to God and to a community of support by caring for both short-term and long-term needs in the areas of food, clothing, shlter, medical care, education and job preparation.

Human Services
4
Denverworks Inc

To empower the unemployed and those with barriers to employment to become self-supporting through job preparation and placement.

Employment
5
Hope's Promise Inc

To strengthen families through ethical, christ-centered foster care, adoption, and global orphan care.

Human Services
6
Urban Peak Denver

Urban peak helps youth experiencing homelessness and youth at risk of becoming homeless overcome real life challenges by providing essential services and a supportive community, empowering them to become self-sufficient adults.

Housing & Shelter
7
Colorado Thrives

Colorado Thrives exists to support Coloradans to achieve economic mobility through access to good jobs.

Community Improvement
8
Hope and Home

Hope & home creates ways for amazing people to change the lives of children in foster care. as a nondenominational christian charity, hope & home trains, certifies, and actively supports foster families across the state of colorado.…

Human Services
9
Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative Inc

Mission: leading and advancing collaboration to end homelessness in our region. vision: dedicated to everyone in the metro region having a safe, stable place to call home. values: committed to core values that bring people home: -…

Housing & Shelter
10
Center for Employment Opportunities Inc

We provide effective employment services to individuals recently released from incarceration.

Employment
11
Cultivate Initiatives

The organization collectively works alongside those on the margins to empower individuals and communities through an inclusive range of services and support in east portland.

Housing & Shelter
12
Project 1 27

The mission of Project 1.27 is to engage, inspire, recruit and resource churches and families to serve children in our community through faith-based family preservation, kinship care, foster care and adoption.

Religion

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hope House of Colorado and the most unlike its peers is Outside the Bowl. 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

16 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. 16 of the 30 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
16/16
Grantees still filing
12/16
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CROSSPURPOSE — $780,686 · Community ImprovementCROSSPURPOSEWORKWELL — $44,448 · Community ImprovementWORKWELLSTAND TOGETHER — $275,000 · OtherSTAND TOGETHERIndividual grant recipient — $250,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientCRU — $37,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $25,000 · OtherMile High Workshop Inc — $47,000 · OtherMile High Workshop IncOUTSIDE THE BOWL — $25,000 · Other+13 more — $59,537 · Other+13 moreCITYUNITE — $555,555 · ReligionCITYUNITEThe Denver Institute — $55,000 · ReligionThe Denver InstituteHOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO — $165,040 · Human ServicesACTIVATE WORK INC — $10,000 · Human Services+1 more — $1,000 · Human ServicesALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION — $106,000 · EducationExecutives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) — $5,000 · EducationCOLORADO HOMELESS FAMILIES INC — $54,030 · Housing & ShelterStand Together Foundation — $50,000 · Public Benefit
Community Improvement$825,134Other$718,537Religion$610,555Human Services$176,040Education$111,000Housing & Shelter$54,030Public Benefit$50,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCROSSPURPOSE — $780,686 over 6y, 3.2% of budgetCITYUNITE — $555,555 over 6y, 44% of budgetHOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO — $165,040 over 5y, 2.1% of budgetALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION — $106,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetThe Denver Institute — $55,000 over 3y, 2.5% of budgetCOLORADO HOMELESS FAMILIES INC — $54,030 over 5y, 1.7% of budgetStand Together Foundation — $50,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetMile High Workshop Inc — $47,000 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetWORKWELL — $44,448 over 2y, 19% of budgetOUTSIDE THE BOWL — $25,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetACTIVATE WORK INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetHOPE FOR HAITI'S CHILDREN MINISTRIES INCORPORATED — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetExecutives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC) — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAll In Empowering Futures Inc — $3,037 over 3y, 16% of budgetBEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% 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.

  • Who funds CROSSPURPOSE
  • Who funds CITYUNITE
  • Who funds HOPE HOUSE OF COLORADO
  • Who funds ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE IN EDUCATION
  • Who funds The Denver Institute
  • Who funds COLORADO HOMELESS FAMILIES INC
  • Who funds Stand Together Foundation
  • Who funds Mile High Workshop Inc
  • Who funds WORKWELL
  • Who funds OUTSIDE THE BOWL
  • Who funds ACTIVATE WORK INC
  • Who funds HOPE FOR HAITI'S CHILDREN MINISTRIES INCORPORATED
  • Who funds Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (EPIC)
  • Who funds All In Empowering Futures Inc
  • Who funds Dream Makers Project Inc
  • Who funds BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION

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.

Gary PhilanthropyCO17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Gary Philanthropy · The Anschutz Foundation · The Denver Foundation · Colorado Gives Foundation · Daniels Fund · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · El Pomar Foundation · The Colorado Health Foundation · Mile High United Way Inc · Servant Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

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 Gardner Family Foundation 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%3%10%23%40%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
    5report 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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Gardner Family Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Gardner Family Foundation 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 30 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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