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John Brown Cook Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

John Brown Cook Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2.9M
Granted FY2024still arriving
14
Grants FY2024still arriving
7
States reached
$475k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0191% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$4.3MHealth$4.3MCrime & Legal$2.0MCivil Rights$1.5MCommunity Improvement$1.1MEducation$725kPublic Benefit$500kInternational$295kOther$0
02FY2024 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $50k–250k9 grants · $1.1M
  • $250k+5 grants · $1.8M
$200,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$38M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FRIENDS OF THE GARVAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH$475,000
FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION$450,000
MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE$325,000
ACCURACY IN MEDIA$275,000
EPIDEMIC ANSWERS$250,000
EMERGENT ORDER FOUNDATION INC$225,000
INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE$200,000
GLOBAL PEHT$200,000
UNIVERSITY OF AUSTIN - UATX$150,000
HAND TO HEART PROJECT$125,000
CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE INSTITUTE$100,000
Individual grant recipient$50,000
THE FAIRNESS CENTER$50,000
AMERICA'S FUTURE$50,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 57% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%THE FAIRNESS CENTER: $50k → 12%FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION: $450k → 22%SEMBRA MEDIA GROUP: $50k → 9%PROJECT VERITAS: $250k → 9%CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE INSTITUTE: $100k → 17%UNIVERSITY OF AUSTIN - UATX: $150k → 10%ACCURACY IN MEDIA: $450k → 14%GLOBAL PEHT: $200k → 9%EPIDEMIC ANSWERS: $275k → 11%INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE: $75k → 12%INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $500k → 7%FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION: $300k → 22%PRAGER UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $75k → 14%PROJECT VERITAS: $225k → 9%EMERGENT ORDER FOUNDATION INC: $250k → 10%ACCURACY IN MEDIA: $275k → 14%GLOBAL PEHT: $95k → 9%EPIDEMIC ANSWERS: $250k → 11%INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE: $50k → 12%INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $450k → 7%FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION: $300k → 22%PRAGER UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $50k → 14%PROJECT VERITAS: $200k → 9%EMERGENT ORDER FOUNDATION INC: $225k → 10%ACCURACY IN MEDIA: $200k → 14%EPIDEMIC ANSWERS: $200k → 11%INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $400k → 7%FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IN EDUCATION: $275k → 22%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $300k → 17%EMERGENT ORDER FOUNDATION INC: $200k → 10%ACCURACY IN MEDIA: $200k → 14%EPIDEMIC ANSWERS: $200k → 11%INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $400k → 7%TEACHERS COLLEGE COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $150k → 17%EMERGENT ORDER FOUNDATION INC: $200k → 10%THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE: $200k → 14%EPIDEMIC ANSWERS: $100k → 11%INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $200k → 7%THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE: $100k → 14%VENTURE FOR AMERICA: $300k → 17%VENTURE FOR AMERICA: $300k → 17%VENTURE FOR AMERICA: $250k → 17%VENTURE FOR AMERICA: $250k → 17%MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $400k → 17%MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $325k → 17%MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $300k → 17%MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $275k → 17%MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $275k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.

Which US states its grants reach

NH
NY
PA
CT
CA
CO
VA
DC
TX
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$15M · 17 repeat orgs$335k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +14% since the first grant, against -100% for those funded once.

17 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
3

Total granted

$15M
$85k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
-100%

Still filing today

76%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $250k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureCivil RightsPublic BenefitCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • IF
    INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE
    5× · 2020–2024 · $1.9M · revenue +57%
  • MP
    MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE
    5× · 2020–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +1%
  • FF
    FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $1.3M · revenue +149%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $50k
  • OPENCOLLECTIVE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $25k · revenue -100%
  • ID
    INCUBATE DEBATE
    one grant, 2023 · $10k
How this is measured

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

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
2
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
3
First Look Institute Inc

First Look Institute supports fearless investigative journalism, innovative and cinematic nonfiction filmmaking, and press freedom initiatives to protect the right to a free and open society and press.

Arts & Culture
4
Allbritton Journalism Institute

Allbritton journalism institute aims to train a new generation of non-partisan political reporters from diverse backgrounds to produce high-quality, fact-based journalism.

Education
5
Pro Publica Inc

Pro publica is an independent, non-profit, pulitzer prize-winning newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories. [see continuation on schedule o] we produce…

Arts & Culture
6
The International Institute for Strategic Studies - Us

To provide accurate, objective information and analysis on international strategic issues for legislators, diplomats, foreign affairs analysts, international business leaders, economists, the military, defense commentators, journalists,…

International
7
Foreign Policy Research Institute

The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…

International
8
Peter G Peterson Institute for International Economics

The peterson institute for international economics (piie) is an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to strengthening prosperity and human welfare in the global economy through expert analysis and practical…

Social Science
9
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

—
10
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University Inc

The Knight First Amendment Institute defends the freedoms of speech and the press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, public advocacy and public education. Our aim is to promote a system of free expression that is…

Education
11
American Law Institute

The institute's mission, as set out in its certificate of incorporation, is to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to…

Crime & Legal
12
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc

The manhattan institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in america and its great cities.

Public Benefit
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Moving Picture Institute; the most unlike its peers is Teachers College Columbia University. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

18 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 18 of the 23 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/18
Grantees still filing
11/18
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FRIENDS OF THE GARVAN INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH: $2,550,000 · OtherFRIENDS OF THE GARVAN INSTITUTE …PROJECT VERITAS: $675,000 · OtherPROJECT VERITASHAND TO HEART PROJECT: $675,000 · OtherHAND TO HEART PROJECTIndividual grant recipient: $225,000 · Other+5 more: $185,000 · OtherINSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $1,950,000 · Civil RightsINSTITUTE FOR JUSTICEFOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION INC: $1,325,000 · Civil RightsFOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUA…MOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $1,575,000 · Arts & CultureMOVING PICTURE INSTITUT…ACCURACY IN MEDIA INC: $1,125,000 · Arts & CultureACCURACY IN MEDIA INCTHE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE: $350,000 · Arts & CultureTHE AMERICAN CONSERVATI…Documenting Hope Inc: $1,025,000 · EducationDocumenting Hope In…Emergent Order Foundation Inc: $875,000 · EducationEmergent Order Foun…Teachers College Columbia University: $450,000 · EducationTeachers College Co…UATX: $150,000 · EducationUATXPRAGER UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $125,000 · EducationVENTURE FOR AMERICA INC: $1,100,000 · Community ImprovementGLOBAL PEHT CORP PARTNERSHIP TO END HUMAN TRAFFICKING: $295,000 · InternationalCONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE INSTITUTE INC: $150,000 · Public BenefitINDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE: $125,000 · Public Benefit
Other$4,310,000Civil Rights$3,275,000Arts & Culture$3,050,000Education$2,625,000Community Improvement$1,100,000International$295,000Public Benefit$275,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetINSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE: $1,950,000 over 5y, 1.4% of budgetMOVING PICTURE INSTITUTE: $1,575,000 over 5y, 5.0% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION INC: $1,325,000 over 4y, 1.9% of budgetACCURACY IN MEDIA INC: $1,125,000 over 4y, 46% of budgetVENTURE FOR AMERICA INC: $1,100,000 over 4y, 5.9% of budgetDocumenting Hope Inc: $1,025,000 over 5y, 59% of budgetEmergent Order Foundation Inc: $875,000 over 4y, 6.1% of budgetPROJECT VERITAS: $675,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetTeachers College Columbia University: $450,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE: $350,000 over 3y, 6.7% of budgetGLOBAL PEHT CORP PARTNERSHIP TO END HUMAN TRAFFICKING: $295,000 over 2y, 10% of budgetUATX: $150,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE INSTITUTE INC: $150,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetINDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE: $125,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetPRAGER UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $125,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetAmerica's Future Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetTHE FAIRNESS CENTER INC: $50,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetOPENCOLLECTIVE FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Donors Trust IncAdolph Coors Foundati…The Dunn FoundationThe Lynde and Harry B…Bradley Impact Fund I…Vanguard Charitable E…National Philanthropi…Morgan Stanley Global…Natl Christian Charit…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Donors Trust IncVA17.5× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donors Trust Inc · Adolph Coors Foundation · The Dunn Foundation · The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc · Bradley Impact Fund Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization John Brown Cook Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John Brown Cook Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%4%15%34%60%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 52%
  • Global Peht Corp Partnership to End Human Trafficking: 52% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
1rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to John Brown Cook Foundation?

Find your warmest path to John Brown Cook 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 23 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on John Brown Cook’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home