· Private foundation
Hanson 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of Hanson Family Foundation’s FY2022 grant dollars went to Berrien Community Foundation Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year Hanson Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 19 organizations, $352k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2022.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k19 grants · $42k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $83k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $227k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LAKELAND HEALTH FOUNDATION | $171,667 |
| HOSPICE AT HOME | $55,000 |
| LAKE MICHIGAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| YOUNG LIFE WESTERN GREAT LAKES REGION | $24,000 |
| SOUTHWEST MI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $13,950 |
| COLOMA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS | $10,150 |
| LAKESHORE EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CURIOUS KIDS MUSEUM | $5,500 |
| STUDEBAKER NATIONAL MUSEUM | $5,000 |
| BERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| BERRIEN CO COUNCIL FOR CHILDREN | $3,500 |
| LAKESHORE YOUTH BASEBALL & SOFTBALL | $3,500 |
| BENTON HARBOR GIRLS ASSOC FOR LEARNING AND SELF ESTEEM | $3,000 |
| ST JOSEPH PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $3,000 |
| LORY'S PLACE | $2,500 |
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 (FY17–18, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +38% since the first grant, against +28% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2017, 0 since wound down; 27 grantees were first funded in FY2017 (too recent to call). Read against FY2017, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2021, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k 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
- LMLAKE MICHIGAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION2× · 2017–2018 · $50k · revenue -7%
- SMSOUTHWEST MI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA2× · 2017–2018 · $44k
- LELAKESHORE EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION2× · 2017–2018 · $20k · revenue +41%
Funded once
- LHLAKELAND HEALTH FOUNDATIONone grant, 2017 · $172k
- SJST JOSEPH PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATIONone grant, 2018 · $100k · revenue -28%
- HAHospice at Home Incone grant, 2017 · $55k · revenue +18%
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 nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.
The mission of the michigan science center is to inspire curious minds of all ages to discover, explore and appreciate science, technology, engineering and math in a creative, dynamic learning environment.
United way of southwest michigan works in berrien, cass, and van buren counties to sustain a united community where everyone contributes, belongs, and thrives.
To promote the education and advancement of art in the city of south bend, st. joseph county, and surrounding areas.
Our mission is to make science, technology, engineering, and math (stem) come alive, and our vision is a community where all people value stem to inform decision making and enrich lives. (continued on schedule o)guiding principles: we help…
South buffalo charter school provides elementary education to students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. we are a professional learning community. our focus on learning is driven by research, data and collaborative reflection to…
Educate each student in spirit, mind and body by fostering personal excellence within the Catholic tradition.
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.…
To be a catalyst for economic and community progress within the great lakes bay region.
Education of children in a five county area in a museum setting.
The lincoln children's museum invites children to create, discover and learn through the power of play.
Operation of a nautical history museum.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Berrien Community Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Saint Joseph Baseball & Softball Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
18 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. 18 of the 33 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 BERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ST JOSEPH PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Hospice at Home Inc ↗
- Who funds LAKE MICHIGAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER MICHIANA INC ↗
- Who funds LAKESHORE EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CURIOUS KIDS MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds STUDEBAKER NATIONAL MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds BERRIEN COUNTY COUNCIL FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds THE BENTON HARBOR GIRLS ASSOCIATION FOR LEARNING & SELF-ESTEEM ↗
- Who funds MICHIANA PUBLIC BROADCASTING CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF GREATER SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds FIVE PINES MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds THE HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE FIRST TEE OF BENTON HARBOR INC ↗
- Who funds SAINT JOSEPH BASEBALL & SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds READINESS CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds BRIDGMAN FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE ↗
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: Berrien Community Foundation Inc · The Covia Foundation · Whirlpool Foundation · The Marzke Family Foundation · Degroot Family Foundation · Fettig Family Foundation · Ronald and Eva Kinney Family Foundation · 1st Source Bank Foundation Inc Xxx-Xx-Xxxx · The Thomas and Maria Yeager Family Foundation · The McLoughlin Family Foundation · The Schalon Foundation · The Pokagon Fund 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 Hanson 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Hanson Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Hanson 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.