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Plinth

· Private foundation

Gerry and Bill Cowlin 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.

$1.6M
Granted FY2024still arriving
24
Grants FY2024still arriving
6
States reached
$40k
Largest
01What you fund
0184% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Education$359kReligion$350kHealth$215kHuman Services$155kFood & Nutrition$136kEnvironment$112kHousing & Shelter$68kYouth Development$25kOther$0
02FY2024 · 24 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 24 grants below total $342,500 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $1,550,500 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $1,208,000 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 $10k13 grants · $61k
  • $10k–50k11 grants · $282k
$8,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$19M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FAMILY HEALTH PARTNERSHIP CLINIC$40,000
GLEANERS FOOD BANK OF INDIANA, INC.$35,000
GREATER FAMILY HEALTH$35,000
FOOD BANK OF EASTERN MICHIGAN$30,000
MCHENRY COUNTY CONSERVATION FOUNDATION$30,000
COALITION ON TEMPORARY SHELTER$25,000
MCHENRY COUNTY ADULT PROGRAM$20,000
KINLEY CHARITY CARE FUND$20,000
BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION$17,000
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF MCHENRY COUNTY$15,000
FRIEDREICH'S ATAXIA RESEARCH ALLIANCE (FARA)$15,000
HOME OF THE SPARROW$8,000
GLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK$7,000
LITTLE RED DOOR CANCER AGENCY$5,000
LINK UNLIMITED$5,000
02Your 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.

5%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$70k · 5 repeat orgs$1.4M to everyone else

5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 19 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
31

Total granted

$70k
$1.1M

Still filing today

0%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 6% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $323k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24
HealthEnvironmentFood & NutritionHousing & ShelterEducationPublic Safety & DisasterOther

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

  • FO
    FISH OF MCHENRY FOOD PANTRY
    2× · 2023–2024 · $35k
  • NI
    NORTHERN ILLINOIS HELPING HANDS FOOD PANTRY
    2× · 2023–2024 · $15k
  • CC
    CRC COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER
    2× · 2023–2024 · $11k

Funded once

  • TA
    TSC ALLIANCE
    one grant, 2023 · $350k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $333k
  • PC
    PIONEER CENTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES
    one grant, 2023 · $70k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

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
University of Chicago Medical Center

Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…

Health
2
Endeavor Health Clinical Operations

Endeavor Health Clinical Operations follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
3
Northern Illinois Food Bank

With the support of our community, we provide over 90 million meals annually through our network of over 900 member food pantries and programs across thirteen counties, currently reaching over a half million individuals each month with…

Food & Nutrition
4
The Maryland Food Bank Inc

The maryland food bank is a nonprofit hunger-relief organization dedicated to feeding people, strengthening communities, and ending hunger for more marylanders.

5
Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital

Provide quality, accessible, and valuable health care services via a hospital, home health agency, and clinic to the surrounding rural community.

Health
6
Feeding Illinois

Feeding illinois is a coalition of eight feeding america food banks that provide food to over 2,400 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters that feed nearly 1.4 million residents across the entire state of illinois.

Food & Nutrition
7
The Food Bank for Larimer County

To provide food to all in need through community partnerships and hunger relief programs. Our vision is a hunger-free Larimer County.

Food & Nutrition
8
Green Chicago Restaurant Coalition

Green Chicago Restaurant Coalition's Guaranteed Green Sustainability Education Program educates foodservice operators about assessing the present state of their operation's environmental sustainability and helps them to develop a plan to…

9
Feeding America

Our mission is to advance change in America by ensuring equitable access to nutritious food for all in partnership with partner food banks, policymakers, supporters, and the communities we serve.

Food & Nutrition
10
Illinois Community Health Foundation Inc
11
Food Works

Food Works is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a sustainable food economy in Southern Illinois. Through farmer training and consumer education, Food Works promotes long-term farming networks that create healthy soils,…

Food & Nutrition
12
Chicago's Green City Market Program

Green city market is securing the future of food by deepening support for sustainable farmers, educating our community, and expanding access to locally-grown food.

Food & Nutrition

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana Inc and the most unlike its peers is Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

03the 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 55 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
16/16
Grantees still filing
6/16
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

TSC ALLIANCE — $350,000 · OtherTSC ALLIANCEUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION — $333,320 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO FOUNDATIONPIONEER CENTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES — $70,000 · OtherPIONEER CENTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES+37 more — $485,500 · Other+37 moreFamily Health Partnership Clinic — $40,000 · HealthGREATER FAMILY HEALTH — $35,000 · HealthMCHENRY COUNTY ADULT PROGRAM — $20,000 · HealthFRIEDREICH'S ATAXIA RESEARCH ALLIANCE — $15,000 · HealthLITTLE RED DOOR CANCER AGENCY INC — $5,000 · HealthMcHenry County Conservation Foundation — $30,000 · EnvironmentENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF McHENRY COUNTY — $15,000 · EnvironmentFood Bank of Eastern Michigan — $30,000 · Food & NutritionGLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN — $7,000 · Food & NutritionCOTS — $25,000 · Housing & ShelterHome of the Sparrow Inc — $8,000 · Housing & ShelterTHE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC — $17,000 · Public Safety & DisasterLINK Unlimited Scholars — $5,000 · EducationFRIENDS OF MCHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $3,000 · EducationCOVENANT HOUSE — $3,000 · Human Services
Other$1,238,820Health$115,000Environment$45,000Food & Nutrition$37,000Housing & Shelter$33,000Public Safety & Disaster$17,000Education$8,000Human Services$3,000

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 budgetFamily Health Partnership Clinic — $40,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetGLEANERS FOOD BANK OF INDIANA INC — $35,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER FAMILY HEALTH — $35,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMcHenry County Conservation Foundation — $30,000 over 1y, 6.6% of budgetFood Bank of Eastern Michigan — $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOTS — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMCHENRY COUNTY ADULT PROGRAM — $20,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetTHE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC — $17,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIEDREICH'S ATAXIA RESEARCH ALLIANCE — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF McHENRY COUNTY — $15,000 over 1y, 6.6% of budgetHome of the Sparrow Inc — $8,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN — $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLINK Unlimited Scholars — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetLITTLE RED DOOR CANCER AGENCY INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCOVENANT HOUSE — $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF MCHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $3,000 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.

  • Who funds Family Health Partnership Clinic
  • Who funds GLEANERS FOOD BANK OF INDIANA INC
  • Who funds GREATER FAMILY HEALTH
  • Who funds McHenry County Conservation Foundation
  • Who funds Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
  • Who funds COTS
  • Who funds MCHENRY COUNTY ADULT PROGRAM
  • Who funds THE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds FRIEDREICH'S ATAXIA RESEARCH ALLIANCE
  • Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS OF McHENRY COUNTY
  • Who funds Home of the Sparrow Inc
  • Who funds GLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN
  • Who funds LINK Unlimited Scholars

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 Community Foundation for McHenry CountyIL20× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation for McHenry County · Foglia Family Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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.

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 55 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

More from the funding graph