· Private foundation
Gerson 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k16 grants · $53k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $110k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $133k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS | $83,000 |
| JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT | $50,000 |
| THE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION | $30,000 |
| MICHIGAN MEDICINE OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT | $20,000 |
| CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART | $10,000 |
| THE ZEKELMAN HOLOCAUST CENTER | $10,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA | $10,000 |
| YALE UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $10,000 |
| THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE | $10,000 |
| DETROIT OPERA - DICHIERA SOCIETY | $5,000 |
| NF FORWARD BENEFIT XI | $5,000 |
| HENRY FORD ESTATE | $5,000 |
| JSL FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF METRO DETROIT | $5,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 67% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +14% since the first grant, against +10% for the ones you funded once.
23 repeat relationships — 17 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 83% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $42k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS5× · 2020–2024 · $255k · revenue +14%
CRANBROOK EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY5× · 2019–2023 · $90k · revenue +13%- WIWASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY3× · 2022–2024 · $45k · revenue +22%
Funded once
- UOU OF M-FISHER EGYPTOLOGY RESEARCH FUNDone grant, 2018 · $20k
- CSCRANBROOK SCHOOLone grant, 2017 · $13k
- SCSLIFKA CENTERone grant, 2021 · $10k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
The jewish fund is organized and operates exclusively for charitable, educational, and religious purposes. the fund's primary activities are: supporting a jewish health care mission in the greater detroit area and michigan; promotion of…
Delta dental fund's mission is to improve the oral health of the public and to advance dental science and the dental profession through research and education.
The united jewish foundation of detroit owns, manages and invests jewish communal assets, including general and endowment funds, agency endowments, supporting foundations and real property. the foundation is committed to ensuring that…
Informing and educating the public and decision makers about environmental issues.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
Bridging the gap between early-stage innovation and commercial application. partnering to de-risk, develop and scale-up discoveries into commercially-viable technology packages.
The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…
Michigan farm bureau (mfb) is a member directed agricultural organization whose purpose is to represent, protect, and enhance the business, economic, social, and educational interests of our members located throughout the state of michigan.
The chamber is the voice for business and works to power the economy for southeast michigan through public policy, advocacy and leading regional economic development and talent initiatives.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
Minneapolis jewish federation is a nonprofit organization that promotes a culture of philanthropy, leverages resources to meet local and global jewish needs, and facilitates community planning to ensure a thriving and secure future.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Jewish Federation of Detroit and the most unlike its peers is The Emergency Animal Relief Foundation Inc. 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 39 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
33 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 33 of the 53 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 JEWISH FEDERATION OF DETROIT ↗
- Who funds THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS ↗
- Who funds HOPEWELL FUND ↗
- Who funds CRANBROOK EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY ↗
- Who funds DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY ↗
- Who funds BEAUMONT HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF MICHIGAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds DETROIT OPERA ↗
- Who funds DETROIT RIVERFRONT CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds FORGOTTEN HARVEST INC ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds ORT AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds University of Michigan ↗
- Who funds ROYAL AFRICAN FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MARCH OF DIMES INC ↗
- Who funds CABARET 313 INC ↗
- Who funds BIG CAT RESCUE CORP ↗
- Who funds JSL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BASBLUE INC ↗
- Who funds HENRY FORD ESTATE ↗
- Who funds THE EMPOWERMENT PLAN ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Ford Philanthropy · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · Edward C and Linda Dresner Levy Foundation · United Jewish Foundation · Dte Energy Foundation · Karp Family Foundation · Harold and Penny B Blumenstein Foundation Corporation · Malcolm and Beth Lowenstein Foundation · The Eugene Applebaum Family Foundation · The Gregg and Harriet Orley Family Foundation · The Irving and Ethel Palman Foundation · Grosfeld 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 Gerson 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.
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.