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· Private foundation
JAMES C ACHESON FOUNDATION
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$475k
Granted FY2024
16
Grants
1
Communities
$300k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 77% of JAMES C ACHESON 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
2018
elementary
2019
elementary
2020
mclaren
2021
—
2022
—
2023
—
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 16 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k13 grants · $39k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $27k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $110k
- $250k+1 grant · $300k
$3,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$11M
Total assets
Largest grants
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ST CLAIR CO$300,000
- PORT HURON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM$110,000
- PORT HURON RECREATION$26,558
- LITERACY BEYOND$7,280
- BLUE WATER AREA CHAMBER$5,500
- PORT HURON HOSPITAL$5,000
- HUNTER HOSPITALITY HOUSE$5,000
- ST CLAIR COUNTY CHILD ABUSE$3,000
- PORT HURON POLICE DEPARTMENT$2,500
- MARWOOD NURSING REHAB$2,500
- SONS$1,500
- PHASD ROBOTICS TEAM$1,500
- PORT HURON YMCA$1,500
- OPERATION TRANSFORMATION$1,500
- MID-CITY NUTRITION$1,000
02The need
04
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 (FY23–23, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 14%. 0% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Your grants skew toward lower-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 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.
91%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$3.6M · 45 repeat orgs$347k to everyone else
45 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2024, 30 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
45
33
Total granted
$3.6M
$237k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+17%
+18%
Still filing today
18%
21%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 77% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $110k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Youth DevelopmentCommunity ImprovementEnvironmentArts & CultureReligionPhilanthropyOther
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
- SSONS8× · 2017–2024 · $269k · revenue +357%
- AFATHLETIC FACTORY5× · 2019–2023 · $91k · revenue +379%
- HHHUNTER HOSPITALITY HOUSE6× · 2018–2024 · $20k · revenue +82%
Funded once
- MBMCLAREN BIRTHPLACEone grant, 2020 · $60k
- LPLINCOLN PARK IMPROVEMENTSone grant, 2020 · $25k
- BWBLUE WATER YOUNG PROFESSIONALSone grant, 2018 · $22k
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
Eau Claire Area Convention and Visitor
Visit eau claire is a community asset dedicated to creatively marketing, effectively managing, endlessly motivating and continuously building a dynamic tourism economy of business, sports and leisure travelers. we amplify the image of our…
—
2
Mclaren Port Huron
Mclaren healthcare, through its subsidiaries, will be the best value in healthcare as defined by quality outcomes and cost.
Health
3
Huron River Watershed Council
The huron river watershed council protects and restores the river for healthy and vibrant communities.
Environment
4
Economic Development Alliance
The economic development alliance of st. clair county creates economic prosperity by growing companies and cultivating vibrant communities, developing a workforce with 21st century skills, and marketing our regional advantages. we are…
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5
St Charles County Economic
To help build a stronger, thriving, and self-supporting economy for st. charles county.
—
6
St Clair Superior Development
Our vision is to be an inclusive community of neighborhoods that strengthens cleveland through cultural, economic, and physical connections. our mission is to unite people, expand opportunity, and build livable, healthy, and attractive…
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7
Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce
To promote business and economic development in sw michigan.
—
8
Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce
Promote, protect, foster, and advance agriculture, business, and industry in the eau claire area
—
9
South Shore Yacht Club
To develop and encourage competitive and recreational boating, sportsmanship, and boating safety on lake michigan.
—
10
Grand Traverse Regional Community
We invest in the people & places of our region and steward community assets for lasting impact.
Philanthropy
11
Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce
To be a catalyst for economic and community progress within the great lakes bay region.
—
12
Detroit Yacht Club
Provide boating and social activities for the benefit of the members.
—
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Blue Water Community Action and the most unlike its peers is The Electrochemical Society 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
16 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/16
Grantees still filing
10/16
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$3,063,151Youth Development$370,136Arts & Culture$260,150Community Improvement$223,600Health$19,690Religion$18,500Philanthropy$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 tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Community Foundation OfMI26.7× affinity10 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Community Foundation Of · United Way of St Clair County · Community Foundation for Southeast · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 JAMES C ACHESON 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
- The Electrochemical Society Inc — 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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.
05Through 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: STUDIO 1219.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
high risk
6 years of Form 990 filings, no recent filing.
Legal standing
medium risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 272031240 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 STUDIO 1219, 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.
- FlagSustained operations— No recent filing on record.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 62% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
- 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 James C Acheson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to James C Acheson 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.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines