· Private foundation
Gillett 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 $10k22 grants · $80k
- $10k–50k15 grants · $213k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BLANDFORD NATURE CENTER | $40,000 |
| NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY | $25,000 |
| GRAND RAPIDS ART MUSEUM | $20,000 |
| EVERYBODY PLAYS | $18,000 |
| CASA OF KENT COUNTY | $10,000 |
| MARY FREE BED FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| ST MARY FOUNDATION (LACKS CANCER CENTER) | $10,000 |
| JOHN BALL ZOO | $10,000 |
| CHILDREN'S HEALING CENTER | $10,000 |
| FLAT RIVER OUTREACH MINISTRY | $10,000 |
| YWCA WEST CENTRAL MICHIGAN | $10,000 |
| GRAND VALLEY UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| FREDERICK MEIJER GARDENS | $10,000 |
| GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC MUSEUM | $10,000 |
| GERALD R FORD PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
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, $203k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 95% 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.
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.
49 repeat relationships — 34 still active in FY2024, 15 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k 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
- GRGERALD R FORD PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2024 · $115k · revenue +176%
- CHCHILDREN'S HEALING CENTER8× · 2017–2024 · $115k · revenue +84%
- YWYWCA WEST CENTRAL MICHIGAN8× · 2017–2024 · $90k · revenue +18%
Funded once
- KDKENT DISTRICT LIBRARYone grant, 2022 · $3k
- JBJOHN BALL ZOO SCHOOLone grant, 2023 · $2k
- MLMAMRELUND LUTHERAN CHURCH FOOD BANKone grant, 2018 · $1k
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 primary role of the grand rapids public museum foundation is fundraising for the grand rapids public museum, but it also has overall responsibility for the current and long-term viability of the organization.
Provides a hands-on environment that celebrates childhood, inspires learning and encourages self-directed exploration for children.
The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.
Leading the way in promoting healthy family living by reaching out to underserved populations and those who are in our community.
Inspire awareness, appreciation and passion for michigan's history and stories, culture and environment through the arts.
To lift the human spirit through the art of dance by providing: exceptional and diverse programming; high quality dance education; outreach to inspire and enrich the community; family-friendly programming including newly commissioned…
The mission of gtrlc is to protect significant natural, scenic and farm lands and advance land stewardship now and for future generations.
Michigan Family Resources mission is to deliver holistic family-centered services to children that promote their well-being and development.
The Center's mission is to inspire, entertain, educate, and serve all in Northern Michigan year-round by presenting exceptional experiences across the full spectrum of the performing arts and offering impactful educational opportunities.
The mission of great lakes community action partnership is to create partnerships and opportunites to help individuals, families and communities thrive.
Great river children's museum (grcm) shines a bright light on the power of play to spark children's learning, strengthen families, and build community connections. its dynamic, interactive environments and experiences are a gateway to the…
Bird research and conservation in the western lake michigan region of the united states.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kids' Food Basket Inc and the most unlike its peers is Mackenzie's Animal Sanctuary 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 32 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% 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.
32 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. 32 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.
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 BLANDFORD NATURE CENTER ↗
- Who funds GERALD R FORD PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HEALING CENTER ↗
- Who funds GRAND RAPIDS ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds YWCA WEST CENTRAL MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds CASA of Kent County Inc ↗
- Who funds GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds DA BLODGETT - ST JOHN'S ↗
- Who funds GRAND RAPIDS POLICE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FLAT RIVER OUTREACH MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds Faith Hospice ↗
- Who funds GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GRAND VALLEY UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HUMANE SOCIETY OF WEST MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds JOHN BALL ZOO ↗
- Who funds SENIOR NEIGHBORS INC ↗
- Who funds BROADWAY GRAND RAPIDS ↗
- Who funds THE PLAYGROUNDGR ↗
- Who funds KIDS' FOOD BASKET INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS ↗
- Who funds NORTH END COMMUNITY MINISTRY ↗
- Who funds Paws With A Cause ↗
- Who funds Ronald McDonald House Global ↗
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: Grand Rapids Community Foundation · Frey Foundation · The Meijer Foundation · Steve & Amy Van Andel Foundation · Peter C & Emajean Cook Foundation · The Sebastian Foundation · Ufp Industries Foundation · The Mercantile Bank Foundation · Edp Foundation · Cdv5 Foundation · Dick and Betsy Devos Family Foundation · Leslie Tassell Foundation Dba Tassell-Wisner-Bottrall Fdn
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 Gillett 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.