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· Private foundation

James a Meador 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.

$421k
Granted FY2024still arriving
19
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$90k
Largest
01What you fund
0197% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20192024.

Religion$604kHuman Services$566kHealth$395kAnimals$309kFood & Nutrition$280kEducation$240kPublic Safety & Disaster$240kYouth Development$210kOther$0
02FY2024 · 19 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k10 grants · $28k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $155k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $240k
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$9.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$90,000
GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPICE$50,000
FAITH CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS$50,000
HOPE TREE FAMILY SERVICES$50,000
BETHLEHEM UNITED METHODIST CHURCH$40,000
SALEM AREA ECUMENICAL MINISTRIES$40,000
Individual grant recipient$35,000
STRAIGHT STREET$30,000
REDWOOD UMC WARMING SHELTER$10,000
VIRGINIA WESTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE$5,000
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY$2,500
UNIVERSITY OF LYNCHBURG$2,500
ROANOKE COLLEGE$2,500
VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY$2,500
KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY$2,500
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:

Your human-services grants (FY19–23, $190k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 13%BRAVEHEART GRIEF MINISTRIES: $20k → 8%SML GOOD NEIGHBORS: $30k → 8%SML GOOD NEIGHBORS: $30k → 8%SML GOOD NEIGHBORS: $30k → 8%LAKE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES: $20k → 8%LAKE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES: $20k → 8%BEDFORD RIDE: $40k → 8%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.

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.

79%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.5M · 34 repeat orgs$652k to everyone else

34 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2024, 19 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

34
29

Total granted

$2.5M
$564k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-13%
+14%

Still filing today

50%
48%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $88k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesAnimalsHealthHousing & ShelterPublic Safety & DisasterOther

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

  • AA
    Assisi Animal Clinics Of Virginia Inc
    3× · 2021–2023 · $150k · revenue +6%
  • BF
    BRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC
    3× · 2019–2021 · $120k · revenue +74%
  • FC
    Faith Christian School Inc
    2× · 2023–2024 · $100k · revenue +17%

Funded once

  • EC
    EASTLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCH
    one grant, 2019 · $130k
  • CO
    CHIP OF THE ROANOKE VALLEY
    one grant, 2019 · $60k
  • BU
    BETHLEHAM UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
    one grant, 2022 · $50k

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
Eastern Mennonite University

A leader among faith-based universities Eastern Mennonite University emphasizes peace-building creation care experiential learning and intercultural engagement. Founded in 1917 in Harrisonburg Virginia EMU is an educational institution of…

2
Virginia Wesleyan University

Virginia wesleyan university is a fully accredited liberal arts, united-methodist related institution founded in 1961.

3
Bridgewater College

Bridgewater college educates the whole person by providing a challenging and supportive learning community that fosters the growth of its students and empowers and motivates them to live educated, intelligent, healthy, purposeful and…

Education
4
Regent University

Regent University serves as a center of Christian thought and action to provide excellent education through a Biblical perspective and global context equipping Christian leaders to change the world.

5
Roberts Wesleyan University

As new york's leading university for character education, rwu is a community of learners committed to historic christianity which seeks to prepare thoughtful, spiritually mature, service-oriented people who will transform society.

Education
6
Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University, a 501(c)(3) institution of higher education, is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. The organization is comprised of seven constituent parts: Wake…

Education
7
Franklin University

Since 1902, Franklin University has been a pioneer in meeting the needs of adult students who have the ambition to continue their education in combination with other responsibilities, receiving its status as a tax exempt organization in…

8
Greensboro College

Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.

Education
9
Georgetown College

Georgetown college is a fully accredited liberal arts institution of higher learning located in georgetown, kentucky. the college is committed to providing opportunities for excellence in higher learning under christian influences so as to…

Education
10
Geneva College

Geneva college is a christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to god and neighbor.

Education
11
LaGrange College

Education - lagrange college challenges the minds and inspires the souls of its students. founded in 1831 and committed to its relationship with the united methodist church and its wesleyan and liberal arts traditions, the college supports…

Education
12
Greenville College

Greenville college d/b/a greenville university empowers students for lives of character and service through a transforming christ-centered education in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Liberty University Inc and the most unlike its peers is Greg Gelburd Foundation. 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 backsteadyCommunity Service Organizat…Diverse Mission Organizatio…Faith-Based Community Minis…Dog Rescue and Shelter Supp…Professional & Educational …Family FoundationsVolunteer Fire and Rescue S…
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 50 years old; the field is 21. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%3%<5yr11%3%5–10yr17%13%10–20yr15%23%20–35yr16%19%35–55yr21%39%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%1%<5yr11%1%5–10yr17%21%10–20yr15%62%20–35yr16%12%35–55yr21%3%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/37
the rest of the field
10%
407/3,944

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

33 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. 33 of the 68 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/33
Grantees still filing
16/33
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

COVENANT FELLOWSHIP CHURCH — $240,000 · OtherCOVENANT FELLOWSHIP CHURCHIndividual grant recipient — $180,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientROANOKE RESCUE MISSION — $152,000 · OtherROANOKE RESCUE MISSIONEASTLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCH — $130,000 · OtherEASTLAKE COMMUNITY CHURCHBRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC — $120,000 · OtherBRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INCVIRGINIA BAPTIST CHILDREN'S HOME AND FAMILY SERVICES — $107,000 · OtherAPPLE RIDGE FARM INC — $100,000 · OtherFaith Network of Franklin County — $100,000 · OtherRICHFIELD LIVING PROFESSIONAL CENTER — $100,000 · OtherADULT CARE CENTER — $90,000 · OtherRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE — $80,000 · OtherSTRAIGHT STREET ROANOKE VALLEY INC — $120,000 · OtherSTRAIGHT STREET ROANOKE VALLEY INC+32 more — $494,700 · Other+32 moreMONETA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT — $240,000 · Public Safety & DisasterGOOD SAMARITAN HOSPICE INC — $150,000 · HealthHOPE TO WALK INC — $90,000 · HealthFaith Christian School Inc — $100,000 · EducationRENEWANATION — $50,000 · EducationLIBERTY UNIVERSITY INC — $12,500 · EducationFERRUM COLLEGE — $7,500 · Education+9 more — $32,500 · EducationSML GOOD NEIGHBORS INC — $90,000 · Human ServicesLAKE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES INC — $40,000 · Human ServicesCENTRAL VIRGINIA ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY LIVING INC — $40,000 · Human ServicesBRAVEHEART GRIEF MINISTRIES INC — $20,000 · Human ServicesAssisi Animal Clinics Of Virginia Inc — $150,000 · AnimalsALL-AMERICAN MUTT RESCUE INC — $6,000 · Animals+1 more — $1,000 · AnimalsSalem Area Ecumenical Ministries — $120,000 · Religion
Other$2,013,700Public Safety & Disaster$240,000Health$240,000Education$202,500Human Services$190,000Animals$157,000Religion$120,000

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 budgetMONETA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT — $240,000 over 3y, 21% of budgetAssisi Animal Clinics Of Virginia Inc — $150,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetGOOD SAMARITAN HOSPICE INC — $150,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetBRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC — $120,000 over 3y, 1.0% of budgetSalem Area Ecumenical Ministries — $120,000 over 3y, 30% of budgetSTRAIGHT STREET ROANOKE VALLEY INC — $120,000 over 3y, 4.6% of budgetVIRGINIA BAPTIST CHILDREN'S HOME AND FAMILY SERVICES — $107,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetAPPLE RIDGE FARM INC — $100,000 over 2y, 9.0% of budgetFaith Network of Franklin County — $100,000 over 2y, 35% of budgetFaith Christian School Inc — $100,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetHOPE TO WALK INC — $90,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetSML GOOD NEIGHBORS INC — $90,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetRENEWANATION — $50,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetLAKE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES INC — $40,000 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetCENTRAL VIRGINIA ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY LIVING INC — $40,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetMIRIAM'S HOUSE INC — $25,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetLIBERTY UNIVERSITY INC — $12,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetFERRUM COLLEGE — $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetALTA MONS INC — $7,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetALL-AMERICAN MUTT RESCUE INC — $6,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetHOLLINS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION — $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetROANOKE COLLEGE — $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF LYNCHBURG — $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetRoanoke Area Ministries — $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetEMORY & HENRY UNIVERSITY — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOLUMBIA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWashington and Lee University — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNSON & WALES UNIVERSITY — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRANDOLPH COLLEGE INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAVERETT UNIVERSITY — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ROANOKE VALLEY SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS — $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.

  • Who funds MONETA VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
  • Who funds Assisi Animal Clinics Of Virginia Inc
  • Who funds GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPICE INC
  • Who funds BRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC
  • Who funds Salem Area Ecumenical Ministries
  • Who funds STRAIGHT STREET ROANOKE VALLEY INC
  • Who funds VIRGINIA BAPTIST CHILDREN'S HOME AND FAMILY SERVICES
  • Who funds APPLE RIDGE FARM INC
  • Who funds Faith Network of Franklin County
  • Who funds Faith Christian School Inc
  • Who funds HOPE TO WALK INC
  • Who funds SML GOOD NEIGHBORS INC
  • Who funds RENEWANATION
  • Who funds LAKE CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES INC
  • Who funds CENTRAL VIRGINIA ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY LIVING INC
  • Who funds MIRIAM'S HOUSE INC
  • Who funds BRAVEHEART GRIEF MINISTRIES INC
  • Who funds LIBERTY UNIVERSITY INC
  • Who funds GREG GELBURD FOUNDATION

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.

Community Foundation Serving Western VirginiaVA38.5× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation Serving Western Virginia · Robertson Family Foundation Inc · Edgar a Thurman Fdn Children Nect · Investco Foundation · Powell Charitable Foundation · Mw Armistead III Family Foundation · The Newbern Foundation · Cartledge Charitable Foundation Inc · United Way of Virginia's Blue Ridge Inc · Foster Foundation · Smith Mountain Lake Charity Home Tour Inc · Cp & Mg Lunsford Tuw

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 James a Meador 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%3%10%23%40%your share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to James a Meador Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to James a Meador 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.

    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 68 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph