How much did GREAT LAKES FOUNDATION grant in FY2024?

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 43% of GREAT LAKES FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2019

—

2021

—

2022

—

2023

—

2024

restoration

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$565k

Total assets

Largest grants

FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC$10,000
ROCK OF AGES LIGHTHOUSE PRESERVATION SOCIETY$10,000
FRIENDS OF PLUM AND PILOT ISLAND INC$10,000

02The need

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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11% — the area typically sits at 10%. 61% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — 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.

Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical So

To promote and augment an understanding and appreciation of maritime history with particular emphasis on the great lakes maritime history.

Arts & Culture

The Antique Boat Museum

To collect, preserve, interpret and celebrate boats and related artifacts to advance public understanding of the importance of boating to the cultural history of north america and the st. lawrence river in particular.

Arts & Culture

National Sailing Hall of Fame & Museum

To recognize and encourage achievement of us sailers and the sport of sailing, and to inspire and cultivate scholastic and life skills learning through the museum and hall of fame.

Arts & Culture

Isle Au Haut Boat Services

Transportation of passengers, mail and freight to support a viable year-round population on isle au haut maine and to support the national park service acadia national park on the island.

Public Benefit

Sail Power and Steam Museum

Mission: To celebrate, honor, experience, and share the story of Maine's maritime heritage.Vision: Maine's maritime heritage helped shape our nation and it will continue to influence our future. 1. We collect, restore,and exhibit…

Education

Door County Maritime Museum & Lighthouse

Preserve great lakes maritime history through interpretive and educational opportunities.

Arts & Culture

Northwest Schooner Society

To preserve and promote local maritime history.

Recreation & Sports

New Jersey Museum of Boating

Preserve and display New Jersey's rich boating history.

Arts & Culture

Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation Inc

Sailing instruction and racing activities

Recreation & Sports

Fairport Harbor Historical Society

The museum was founded in 1945 by the fairport harbor historical society, which is devoted to preserving and perpetuating the historic tradition of fairport harbor and the great lakes area. the original lighthouse was completed in 1825.

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Friends of Isle Au Haut Lighthouse

Restoration and maintenance of the isle au haut lighthouse

Arts & Culture

Friends of Rock Island State

Operating and maintaining rock island state park

Recreation & Sports

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Maritime Heritage Alliance and the most unlike its peers is Friends of Plum & Pilot Islands Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

8 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

8/8

Grantees still filing

7/8

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$56,405Arts & Culture$44,251Housing & Shelter$19,400Youth Development$10,000

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.

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.

Amazonsmile FoundationWA2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 organisation GREAT LAKES 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

’20’21’22’23’24

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: ROCK OF AGES LIGHTHOUSE PRESERVATION SOCIETY.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

insufficient risk

Limited financial data in public filings.

Track record & reputation

low risk

7 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up +53% since.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 263099297 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on ROCK OF AGES LIGHTHOUSE PRESERVATION SOCIETY, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2025; revenue grew over the period.
On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 16% of their budget — diversified.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Great Lakes Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Great Lakes Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

GREAT LAKES FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

8 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Great Lakes Foundation?

More from the funding graph

GREAT LAKES FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

8 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Great Lakes Foundation?

More from the funding graph