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Plinth

· Private foundation

Ja Woollam Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$238k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$215k
Largest
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Religion$2.3MRecreation & Sports$1.2MEducation$970kEnvironment$721kArts & Culture$80kPhilanthropy$31kPublic Benefit$13kScience & Tech$4kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $13k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $215k
$5,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$29M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION$215,376
SPRING CREEK PRAIRIE AUDUBON$10,000
WYOMING PUBLIC MEDIA$5,000
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY$5,000
SHERIDAN COMMUNITY LAND TRUST$3,000
02The need
03

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 (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 51% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 10%EDGERTON EXPLORIT CENTER: $15k → 8%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: $15k → 17%NMSU FOUNDATION: $15k → 23%LITTLE TRAVERSE CONSERVANCY: $100k → 9%OVAL BEACH PRESERVATION SOCIETY: $10k → 10%KEWEENAW COMMUNITY FOREST COMPANY: $21k → 10%LAND CONSERVANCY OF WEST MICHIGAN: $25k → 11%HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY: $60k → 11%ANGLERS OF TEH AU SABLE: $20k → 14%PRETTY LAKE VACATION CAMP: $66k → 14%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $85k → 7%NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $10k → 23%ST JAMES TOWNSHIP: $2.2M → 9%LAND CONSERVANCY OF WEST MICHIGAN: $10k → 11%HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY: $30k → 11%PRETTY LAKE VACATION CAMP: $30k → 14%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $50k → 7%ST JAMES TOWNSHIP: $10k → 9%HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY: $17k → 11%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $10k → 7%HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY: $10k → 11%NEBRASKA TRAILS FOUNDATION: $100k → 13%MICHIGAN MARITIME MUSEUM: $10k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA: $25k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $215k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $200k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $120k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $65k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $60k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $50k → 13%UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION: $28k → 13%SPRING CREEK PRAIRIE AUDUBON: $10k → 13%ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION: $20k → 13%SPRING CREEK PRAIRIE AUDUBON: $10k → 13%LINCOLN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $20k → 13%SPRING CREEK PRAIRIE AUDUBON: $10k → 13%NEBRASKA LAND TRUST: $15k → 13%NEBRASKA LAND TRUST: $15k → 13%NEBRASKA LAND TRUST: $15k → 13%WACHISKA AUDUBON SOCIETY: $36k → 13%LINCOLN PARKS FOUNDATION: $1.0M → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $24k → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $24k → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $24k → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $24k → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $24k → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $19k → 13%SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $19k → 13%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 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

ME
WI
MI
NY
WY
CA
UT
NE
VA
MD
NM
DC

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$4.7M · 25 repeat orgs$412k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +83% since the first grant, against +40% for the ones you funded once.

25 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2025, 21 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
35

Total granted

$4.7M
$412k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+83%
+40%

Still filing today

56%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentEducationArts & CultureRecreation & SportsPublic BenefitAnimalsOther

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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION
    7× · 2017–2025 · $738k · revenue +70%
  • SC
    SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
    7× · 2017–2023 · $158k · revenue +170%
  • PL
    PRETTY LAKE VACATION CAMP INC
    5× · 2017–2024 · $102k · revenue +111%

Funded once

  • LT
    Little Traverse Conservancy Incgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue +60%
  • NT
    NEBRASKA TRAILS FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue -88%
  • WA
    WACHISKA AUDUBON SOCIETY INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $36k · revenue +110%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your 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.

1
Natural Resources Foundation of

To protect wisconsin's lands, waters, and wildlife by providing funding, leading partnerships, and connecting all people with nature.

2
North Dakota Natural Resources Trust
3
Minnesota Land Trust

The minnesota land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.

Environment
4
Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation

The organization is focused on the future of parks, wildlife management and conservation of nebraska.

Environment
5
Kansas Land Trust Inc

To protect and preserve lands of natural, ecological, scenic, historic, agricultural, or recreational significance in kansas.

Environment
6
Conservation Minnesota

Conservation minnesota's mission is to turn our shared conservation values into state priorities and provide you with the information you need to make decisions for your family, community and future.

Environment
7
Legacy Land Conservancy

Safeguard southern michigan's land and water to support diverse, resilient, and thriving communities - forever

Environment
8
Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy

The mission of gtrlc is to protect significant natural, scenic and farm lands and advance land stewardship now and for future generations.

Environment
9
Nd Natural Resources Conservation Trust

To promote the conservation of natural resources in the state of north dakota

Environment
10
Nantucket Conservation Foundation Inc

The nantucket conservation foundation owns, protects, and stewards over 9,000 acres of land and coastal shoreline, conserves nantucket's rare and significant natural resources, and engages in impactful ecological research to inform…

Environment
11
Glacial Lakes Conservancy Inc

Glacial Lakes Conservancy, as a land trust, is a nonprofit organization that, as part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisitions.

Environment
12
The Little Forks Conservancy Inc

To permanently protect and improve natural environments in Mid-Michigan by leading and inspiring actions that conserve vital habitats and waterways for the benefit of our entire community.

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Nebraska Land Trust Inc and the most unlike its peers is Nebraska Academy of Sciences. 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.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyPublic University Foundatio…Education Equity LeadershipUnited Way FederationsAnimal Rescue and AdoptionFood Pantries & AssistanceCommunity Arts OrganizationsCancer Support OrganizationsGovernment Accountability R…Native Hawaiian Community D…Community FoundationsChristian Youth CampsLand Conservation Organizat…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

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 35 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%0%<5yr13%3%5–10yr20%19%10–20yr15%28%20–35yr14%22%35–55yr18%28%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%0%<5yr13%1%5–10yr20%3%10–20yr15%29%20–35yr14%35%35–55yr18%32%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/42
the rest of the field
12%
6,511/53,814

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.

04the grantee network

40 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 40 of the 63 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
38/40
Grantees still filing
26/40
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ST JAMES TOWNSHIP — $2,250,270 · OtherST JAMES TOWNSHIPLINCOLN PARKS FOUNDATION — $1,010,000 · OtherLINCOLN PARKS FOUNDATIONTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $174,765 · Other+32 more — $336,125 · Other+32 moreUNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION — $737,900 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF NEBRA…SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $158,400 · EducationSOUTHEAST COMMUNITY…+3 more — $30,532 · EducationHEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY — $116,300 · EnvironmentHEADWATER…Little Traverse Conservancy Inc — $100,000 · EnvironmentLittle Tr…THE NEBRASKA LAND TRUST INC — $65,000 · EnvironmentTHE NEBRA…WACHISKA AUDUBON SOCIETY INC — $35,840 · EnvironmentWACHISKA …Land Conservancy of West Michigan — $35,000 · EnvironmentLand Cons…NATIONAL ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION — $22,000 · EnvironmentKEWEENAW COMMUNITY FOREST COMPANY — $21,332 · EnvironmentNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC — $15,000 · EnvironmentSHERIDAN COMMUNITY LAND TRUST — $15,000 · Environment+4 more — $18,500 · EnvironmentPRETTY LAKE VACATION CAMP INC — $102,000 · Recreation & SportsCHARLEVOIX AREA COMMUNITY POOL — $5,000 · Recreation & SportsLincoln Community Foundation Inc — $20,000 · PhilanthropyKALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $7,530 · PhilanthropyHEARTLAND UNITED WAY INC — $2,000 · Philanthropy+1 more — $1,000 · PhilanthropyMICHIGAN MARITIME MUSEUM INC — $10,000 · Arts & CultureTHE FOUNDATION FOR LINCOLN PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $10,000 · Arts & CultureOVAL BEACH PRESERVATION SOCIETY — $10,000 · Public BenefitOPENSKY POLICY INSTITUTE — $2,500 · Public Benefit
Other$3,771,160Education$926,832Environment$443,972Recreation & Sports$107,000Philanthropy$30,530Arts & Culture$20,000Public Benefit$12,500

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA FOUNDATION — $737,900 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $174,765 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $158,400 over 7y, 0.6% of budgetHEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY — $116,300 over 4y, 6.4% of budgetPRETTY LAKE VACATION CAMP INC — $102,000 over 5y, 4.5% of budgetLittle Traverse Conservancy Inc — $100,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetNEBRASKA TRAILS FOUNDATION INC — $100,000 over 1y, 20% of budgetTHE NEBRASKA LAND TRUST INC — $65,000 over 6y, 3.2% of budgetWACHISKA AUDUBON SOCIETY INC — $35,840 over 1y, 18% of budgetLand Conservancy of West Michigan — $35,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetNew Mexico State Univ Fdn Inc — $24,532 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNATIONAL ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION — $22,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetKEWEENAW COMMUNITY FOREST COMPANY — $21,332 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLincoln Community Foundation Inc — $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC — $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSHERIDAN COMMUNITY LAND TRUST — $15,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC — $10,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GROUNDWATER FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetMICHIGAN MARITIME MUSEUM INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNET FOUNDATION FOR TELEVISION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE FOUNDATION FOR LINCOLN PUBLIC SCHOOLS — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetOVAL BEACH PRESERVATION SOCIETY — $10,000 over 1y, 46% of budgetKALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $7,530 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WILDERNESS SOCIETY — $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTAND FOR SCHOOLS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetCHARLEVOIX AREA COMMUNITY POOL — $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTROUT UNLIMITED MICHIGAN COUNCIL — $5,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetOPENSKY POLICY INSTITUTE — $2,500 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetNebraska Conservation Voters — $2,500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetTHE NEBRASKA COMMUNITIES PLAYHOUSE — $2,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetDOG & CAT SHELTER INC — $2,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHEARTLAND UNITED WAY INC — $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSIX RIVERS LAND CONSERVANCY FKA SIX RIVERS REGIONAL LAND CONSERVANCY — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGATHERING WATERS INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES — $1,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetWIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEBRASKA CHILDREN & FAMILIES FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE FOOD GROUP INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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 tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Cooper FoundationNE26.1× affinity10 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Cooper Foundation · Lincoln Community Foundation Inc · Nebraska Community Foundation · The Sherwood Foundation · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · Lee and Debbie Stuart Family Foundation · Assurity Life Foundation · Duncan Family Trust · The Holland Foundation · Land Trust Alliance Inc · The Lozier Foundation · Charles Stewart Mott 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 Ja Woollam 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 63 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph