· Private foundation
Ihs Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of Ihs Foundation’s FY2023 grant dollars went to American Endowment Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2023 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year Ihs Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $18M. 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 FY2017–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k2 grants · $10k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
- $50k–250k13 grants · $764k
- $250k+3 grants · $17M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| IHS Fund AEF | $16,754,926 |
| Wisconsin Luth College | $377,725 |
| Martin Luther College | $296,395 |
| Gigi's Dog Shelter | $119,111 |
| Opera Project Columbus | $70,000 |
| Prince of Peace Church | $55,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $55,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $55,000 |
| Zion Lutheran Church | $55,000 |
| Ebenezer Ethiopian Evangelical Church | $55,000 |
| Tunnel to Towers Fund | $50,000 |
| WELS KINGDOM WORKERS | $50,000 |
| Lutheran Hour Ministries | $50,000 |
| St Jude Research Hospital | $50,000 |
| Billy Graham Evangelistic Association | $50,000 |
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 (FY17–17, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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 +118% since the first grant, against +17% for the ones you funded once.
35 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2021, 21 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, 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 FY2022, 43% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k 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
- OPOPERA PROJECT COLUMBUS INC5× · 2017–2021 · $594k · revenue +22% · 67% of their budget
- WEWISCONSIN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD KINGDOM WORKERS INC5× · 2017–2021 · $241k · revenue +118%
SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN2× · 2017–2021 · $51k · revenue +120%
Funded once
- OSOHIO STATE UNIVERSITY VETERINARY SCHOOLone grant, 2017 · $380k
WISCONSIN LUTHERAN COLLEGE INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $157k · revenue +33%- CHCOLUMBUS HUMANEgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $50k · revenue +121%
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 Academy's mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all.
Actionaid is an international network building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice. actionaid usa is the u.s. branch of actionaid international, which works in…
To improve lives by mobilizing caring power of communities around the world to advance common good.
Mercy for animals' mission is to construct a compassionate food system that is not just kind to animals but essential for the future of our planet and all who share it. our vision of a world where animals are respected, protected, and free…
Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…
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…
Animal outlook is a national animal protection organization working to end the abuse of farmed animals using a variety of strategies, including investigations, legal advocacy, corporate and food system reform, and vegan outreach.
To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.
The organization's mission is to build partnerships to enhance compassionate care globally. we are dedicated to improving access to hospice and palliative care worldwide.
Mercy Health will provide assistance, support and direction to all of the health care institutions and activities operated and maintained by its Subsidiaries. The mission of Mercy Health in performing these activities shall be to provide a…
To improve the lives of people through innovative scientific and engineering research.
To nourish the world's hungry through uniting and advancing food banks.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is March of Dimes Inc and the most unlike its peers is American Diabetes Association. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 45 years old; the field is 19. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% 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 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.
27 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. 27 of the 90 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 AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OPERA PROJECT COLUMBUS INC ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD KINGDOM WORKERS INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC ↗
- Who funds GIGI'S SHELTER FOR DOGS ↗
- Who funds SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS HUMANE ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS NETWORK ↗
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: Columbus Foundation · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing · Fred C Rutz Foundation · Holzhueter Foundation · Neumann Family Foundation Inc · Siebert Lutheran Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Tulsa Community Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn 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 Ihs 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.
- Mercy Corps — 47% of income from government
- Food for the Poor Inc — 0% of income from government
- Shriners Hospitals for Children — 0% of income from government
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 Ihs Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Ihs 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.