· Private foundation
Johnson Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k15 grants · $43k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $53k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LITERARY ARTS INC | $52,500 |
| METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES | $40,200 |
| UNIVERSITY OF OREGON | $10,000 |
| PORTLAND ART MUSEUM | $7,500 |
| HIGHER GROUND | $7,500 |
| OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING | $5,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER | $5,000 |
| LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $3,000 |
| OREGON EPISCOPAL SCHOOL | $2,500 |
| FRIENDS OF TRYON CREEK PARK | $2,500 |
| GOOD SAMARITAN FOUNDATION DEVERS EYE INSTITUTE | $2,500 |
| PARKINSON'S RESOURCES OF OREGON | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,000 |
| HAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION (KUKIO COMMUNITY FUND) | $1,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS (LOAVES AND FISHES) | $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 (FY19–23, $174k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +37% since the first grant, against +6% for the ones you funded once.
33 repeat relationships — 16 still active in FY2024, 17 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $8k 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
- MFMetropolitan Family Service4× · 2019–2022 · $168k · revenue +65%
LITERARY ARTS INC6× · 2019–2024 · $114k · revenue +64%
PORTLAND ART MUSEUM6× · 2019–2024 · $45k · revenue +57%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2022 · $50k
- OFOHSU FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $8k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA- MARSHALL BUSINESS SCHOOLone grant, 2023 · $3k
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.
Oregon agricultural trust partners with farmers and ranchers to protect agricultural lands for the benefit of oregons economy, communities, and landscapes.
Oregon research institute is an independent behavioral sciences research center dedicated to understanding human behavior and improving the quality of human life through the prevention and treatment of health, educational, and social…
The purpose and mission of the foundation are, acting on its own or through affiliates, to support and assist the university of oregon in its activities by management and administration of foundation assets representing privately donated…
Portland state university foundation is responsible for raising and managing private resources to advance psu's priorities and mission to be a leading urban university.
Western rivers conservancy's mission is to protect outstanding river ecosystems in the western united states. continued on schedule o.we acquire land to conserve critical habitat, provide public access for compatible use and enjoyment, and…
The aquarium of the pacific's mission is to instill a sense of wonder, respect, and stewardship for the pacific ocean, its inhabitants, and ecosystems.
To produce, in a humanistic tradition, health care professionals and biomedical knowledge that will enhance and extend the quality of life in our communities.
To provide patient-centered, quality-driven, whole-person healthcare services, accessible to everyone in our community.
Portland Public Library is a welcoming cultural center that brings people together and connects them with trusted resources, ideas, experiences, and information. We build a stronger community by inspiring learning, creativity, and…
Orla serves as the leading industry advocate, striving to protect, improve and promote oregon hospitality.
The oregon center for public policy's mission is to achieve economic justice for all oregonians through research, analysis, and advocacy. ocpp works to change policies that foster economic security and stability for all oregonians. we do…
The oregon shakespeare festival creates world-class theater, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Oregon Historical Society and the most unlike its peers is University of Southern California. 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 40 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% 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.
30 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. 30 of the 46 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 Metropolitan Family Service ↗
- Who funds LITERARY ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds PORTLAND ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CASA FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds PARKINSON'S RESOURCES OF OREGON ↗
- Who funds OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING ↗
- Who funds OREGON FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Friends of Tryon Creek ↗
- Who funds GOOD SAMARITAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OREGON HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ↗
- Who funds THE FRESHWATER TRUST ↗
- Who funds HIGHER GROUND USA INC ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS PEOPLE INC ↗
- Who funds OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds KENYON COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds QUEEN'S NORTH HAWAII COMMUNITY HOSPITAL ↗
- Who funds WRITE AROUND PORTLAND ↗
- Who funds World Affairs Council of Oregon dba WorldOregon ↗
- Who funds FIRST GROWTH CHILDREN & FAMILY CHARITIES DBA CLASSIC WINES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds RIVERDALE SCHOOL DISTRICT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NEW AVENUES FOR YOUTH INC ↗
- Who funds HAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Growing Gardens ↗
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: The Oregon Community Foundation · Meyer Memorial Trust · Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation Trust · Rose E Tucker Charitable Trust · The Jackson Foundation · The Autzen Foundation · The Reser Family Foundation · Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund · Juan Young Trust · OCF Joseph E Weston Public Foundation · The Collins Foundation · Hillman Family Foundations
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 Johnson Family 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Bridge Meadows — 36% of income from government
- Metropolitan Family Service — 29% of income from government
- Oregon Food Bank — 21% of income from government
- New Avenues for Youth Inc — 20% of income from government
- The Freshwater Trust — 17% of income from government
- Oregon Historical Society — 10% of income from government
- Literary Arts Inc — 10% of income from government
- Write Around Portland — 6% of income from government
- Growing Gardens — 6% of income from government
- Casa for Children Inc — 2% of income from government
- Portland Art Museum — 1% of income from government
- Oregon Health & Science University Foundation — 1% of income from government
- Oregon Public Broadcasting — 1% of income from government
- World Affairs Council of Oregon dba WorldOregon — 0% 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 Johnson Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Johnson Family 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.