· Private foundation
John Bouma Sr and Sharon K Bouma Foundation
Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2019.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k32 grants · $33k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $57k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Holland Christian School | $32,000 |
| LaGrave Christian Reformed Church | $25,000 |
| Holland Home | $3,000 |
| Cru | $2,500 |
| Calvin College | $2,100 |
| Pine Rest Foundation | $2,000 |
| Hope College | $2,000 |
| Calvin Theological Seminary | $2,000 |
| the potter's house | $2,000 |
| Kuyper College | $2,000 |
| Western Theological Seminary | $2,000 |
| evergreen commons | $1,000 |
| Bethany Christian Services | $1,000 |
| Van Andel Institute | $1,000 |
| Northwood University | $1,000 |
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 (FY17–19, $20k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-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.
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 +37% since the first grant, against -1% for the ones you funded once.
24 repeat relationships — 24 still active in FY2019, 0 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call).
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 FY2019, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k 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
- HCHOPE COLLEGE2× · 2017–2019 · $54k · revenue +37%
- HHHolland Home2× · 2017–2019 · $16k · revenue +43%
- TPThe Potters House2× · 2017–2019 · $13k · revenue +72%
Funded once
- BCBRIDGEWAY COMMUNITY CHURCHone grant, 2017 · $5k
- HDHELEN DEVOS CHILDREN'S HOSPITALone grant, 2017 · $3k
- CSCHAPLAIN SERVICES INCone grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue -11%
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.
Provide education in theology, divinity, religious education, ministerial training, business and organizational leadership.
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.
The michigan christian home dba beacon hill at eastgate, a not-for-profit corporation, provides housing and health services in a christian environment for older adults, thus enabling them to meet their ongoing physical, social and…
Through christian love and excellence, we are dedicated to providing a fulfilling lifestyle and promoting independence to those we serve
Erskine College exists to glorify God as a Christian academic community where students are equipped to flourish as whole persons for lives of service through the pursuit of undergraduate liberal arts and graduate theological education.
Evangel is a comprehensive christian university that is committed to excellence in educating and equipping students to become spirit empowered servants of god who will impact the church and society globally.
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.
Welch college is a christian higher education institution that educates leaders to serve christ, his church, and his world through biblical thought and life
Originating from a christian commitment of service, we provide high quality care, services and communities for seniors
Originating from a christian commitment of service, we provide high quality care, services and communities for seniors.
Originating from a christian commitment of service, we provide high quality care, services and communities for seniors
Originating from a christian commitment of service, we provide high quality care, services and communities for seniors
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Holland Home and the most unlike its peers is Roosevelt Park Ministries Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 42 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 31% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 10% 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.
21 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. 21 of the 50 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 HOPE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Holland Home ↗
- Who funds The Potters House ↗
- Who funds CALVIN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ↗
- Who funds KUYPER COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds GENEVA CAMP & RETREAT CENTER ↗
- Who funds PINE REST FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHAPLAIN SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds Northwood University ↗
- Who funds WEDGWOOD CHRISTIAN SERVICES ↗
- Who funds VAN ANDEL INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds EVERGREEN COMMONS ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF GREATER HOLLAND ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDSHIP MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds Faith Hospice ↗
- Who funds ROOSEVELT PARK MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds GRAND RAPIDS COMMUNITY 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.
Open a dossier: Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation · Peter C & Emajean Cook Foundation · Grand Haven Area Community Foundation Inc · Grand Rapids Community Foundation · The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area Inc · Barnabas Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Jim and Ginger Jurries Foundation · De Witt Families Conduit Foundation · The Richard and Helen Devos Foundation · Douglas & Sandra Dekock Family Foun · Dick and Betsy Devos Family 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 John Bouma Sr and Sharon K Bouma 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.
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.
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Find your warmest path to John Bouma Sr and Sharon K Bouma 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.