· Private foundation
James C Acheson 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
63% of James C Acheson Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Community Foundation Of St Clair County, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year James C Acheson Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $368k. 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k15 grants · $40k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $123k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $205k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| PORT HURON POLICE DEPARTMENT | $77,485 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ST CLAIR CO | $77,123 |
| PRESBYTARIAN VILLAGE OF MI FOUNDATI | $50,000 |
| PORT HURON MUSEUM | $40,575 |
| ATHLETIC FACTORY | $30,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $23,541 |
| SONS | $19,000 |
| CITIZENS FOR A VIBRANT COMMUNITY | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $8,000 |
| MID-CITY NUTRITION | $6,000 |
| BLUE WATER AREA CHAMBER | $5,000 |
| SAFE HORIZONS | $5,000 |
| OPERATION TRANSFORMATION | $3,000 |
| DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS - PH | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,690 |
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 (FY23–23, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, 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.
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.
44 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2023, 25 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, 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 FY2024, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $110k 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
- SSONS8× · 2017–2024 · $269k · revenue +357%
- AFATHLETIC FACTORY INC5× · 2019–2023 · $91k · revenue +379%
- HHHUNTER HOSPITALITY HOUSE INC6× · 2018–2024 · $20k · revenue +74%
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.
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.
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…
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…
The mission of south shore charter school is to cultivate students the tenacity, integrity, and curiosity needed to become innovative and socially responsible leaders, ready to face and solve the ever-changing challenges facing our…
To operate exclusively for, charitable, or other exempt purpose by acting for the benefit of performing functions of, or carrying out the charitable or other exempt purposes of the community foundation of st. clair county.
Compass charter school is a safe and nurturing educational environment that honors the individuality of each learner. by engaging in a process of inquiry, our graduates will be equipped with the necessary skills to lead fulfilling personal…
To be a catalyst for economic and community progress within the great lakes bay region.
Harbor cherishes childhood, cultivates wonder and inspires confident learners and leaders.
We know, value, and challenge each student. we commit to building a diverse and inclusive community. we graduate independent thinkers and globally aware citizens.
To serve the christian home and church by disciplining students academically and spiritually; helping each student attain a biblical worldview and their full potential as unique and beloved creations of a sovereign god.
The mission of great lakes community action partnership is to create partnerships and opportunites to help individuals, families and communities thrive.
Annie wright's strong community cultivates individual learners to become well-educated, creative and responsible citizens for a global society.
Uniting our community to empower individuals and families to thrive.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Foundation of St Clair County and the most unlike its peers is Operation Transformation. 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 37 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 19% 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.
20 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. 20 of the 79 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 COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ST CLAIR COUNTY ↗
- Who funds SONS ↗
- Who funds STUDIO 1219 INC ↗
- Who funds BLUE WATER COMMUNITY ACTION ↗
- Who funds ATHLETIC FACTORY INC ↗
- Who funds CITIZENS FOR A VIBRANT COMMUNITY ↗
- Who funds HUNTER HOSPITALITY HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds OPERATION TRANSFORMATION ↗
- Who funds A BEAUTIFUL ME INC ↗
- Who funds BLUE WATER LAND FUND INC ↗
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: Community Foundation of St Clair County · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · United Way of St Clair County · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 organization 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.
- The Electrochemical Society Inc — 1% 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 James C Acheson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to James C Acheson 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.