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Plinth

· Private foundation

Justin R Niklas Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$317k
Granted FY2025still arriving
51
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What you fund
0198% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20192025.

Religion$737kEducation$294kHousing & Shelter$186kHealth$150kHuman Services$134kArts & Culture$123kYouth Development$38kFood & Nutrition$33kOther$0
02FY2025 · 51 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k43 grants · $172k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $145k
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$4.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
OUR LADY OF LIGHT MINISTRIES$35,000
XAVIER JESUIT ACADEMY$35,000
SPRINGER SCHOOL & CENTER$17,500
THE ATHENAEUM OF OHIO$15,000
ST STEPHEN CHURCH$12,500
AUTISM CONNECTIONS$10,000
ST MARTIN OF TOURS$10,000
BETHANY HOUSE SERVICES$10,000
GREATER CINCINNATI BEHAVIOR HEALTH$7,500
CATHOLIC INNER SCHOOL EDUCATION$7,500
CHURCHES ACTIVE IN NORTHSIDE$7,500
CASA DE PAZ$7,500
CINCINNATI PUBLIC RADIO$7,500
ST CECILIA SCHOOL$7,500
NEW LIFE FURNITURE BANK$7,500
02The need
03

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 (FY20–25, $129k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%ELIZABETHS NEW LIFE CENTER: $3k → 14%ELIZABETHS NEW LIFE CENTER: $1k → 14%CASA DE PAZ: $10k → 16%LIGHTHOUSE YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES: $3k → 16%FIRST STEP HOME: $3k → 16%CASA DE PAZ: $8k → 16%FIRST STEP HOME: $2k → 16%FIRST STEP HOME: $2k → 16%CLOVERNOOK CENTER FOR THE BLIND: $2k → 16%STEPPING STONES: $3k → 16%STEPPING STONES: $3k → 16%LADD INC: $8k → 16%LADD INC: $5k → 16%LADD INC: $3k → 16%CASA DE PAZ: $8k → 16%SWEET CHEEKS DIAPER BANK: $5k → 16%SWEET CHEEKS DIAPER BANK: $5k → 16%SWEET CHEEKS DIAPER BANK: $5k → 16%SWEET CHEEKS DIAPER BANK: $5k → 16%SWEET CHEEKS DIAPER BANK: $3k → 16%SWEET CHEEKS DIAPER BANK: $3k → 16%INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: $5k → 16%INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: $5k → 16%INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: $5k → 16%INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: $5k → 16%INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: $5k → 16%INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: $3k → 16%NEW LIFE FURNITURE BANK: $8k → 16%NEW LIFE FURNITURE BANK: $3k → 16%BEECH ACRES: $3k → 16%BEECH ACRES: $1k → 16%BEECH ACRES: $1k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 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.

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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.7M · 49 repeat orgs$122k to everyone else

49 repeat relationships — 35 still active in FY2025, 14 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

49
11

Total granted

$1.7M
$60k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+27%
+32%

Still filing today

45%
45%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $62k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesHealthEducationHousing & ShelterReligionYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • SPRINGER SCHOOL AND CENTER
    6× · 2020–2025 · $57k · revenue +97%
  • LH
    Lydia's House Inc
    6× · 2019–2025 · $45k · revenue +64%
  • BH
    Bethany House Services Inc
    7× · 2019–2025 · $45k · revenue +68%

Funded once

  • GA
    Genesis at Work Foundation
    one grant, 2023 · $25k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $10k
  • DD
    DOROTHY DAY CENTER FOR FAITH
    one grant, 2024 · $5k

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
Elizabeth Seton Housing Corporation

Elizabeth Seton Housing Corporation provides housing for adults with developmental disabilities who have complex support needs in small residential home environments. The Corporation is operated in connection with the mission of St. Joseph…

Human Services
2
Strategies to End Homelessness Inc

Strategies to End Homelessness leads a coordinated community effort to end homelessness in Greater Cincinnati.

Human Services
3
Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio

Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio serves and empowers people through God's love in their times of vulnerability. We do so through a full range of local services that engage the community in building solidarity.

Human Services
4
Jewish Family Service of the Cincinnati Area

A social service agency, JFS strengthens lives and our diverse community by providing exceptional and transformational human services. Services include: Counseling, Case Management, Financial and Food Support, Home Care, Senior Services,…

Human Services
5
Legal Aid Society of Cincinnati

To resolve serious legal problems of low income people, to promote economic and family stability, and reduce poverty through effective legal assistance.

6
Cincinnati Union Bethel

Empowering women to break the cycles of poverty, addiction, and human trafficking.

Human Services
7
Cincinnati's Optimum Residential Environments Inc

Residential & Habilitative Svs. Provide residential and habilitative services to adults with developmental disabilities

Health
8
Clermont Counseling Center

To ensure people with mental illness, addiction, and related challenges lead healthy and productive lives.

Health
9
Cincinnati Works

Cincinnati works brings hope and encouragement to people living in poverty while assisting them in advancing to self-sufficiency through employment. we provide free training and coaching services.

Human Services
10
Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio Delaware Housing Inc

See schedule oto create a better world by serving people in need by operating food pantries, homeless shelters, a domestic violence shelter, affordable housing communities, senior living, assisted living and skilled care facilities, a home…

11
Columbus Housing Initiative Inc

Stabilize neighborhoods through establishing financing, education, rehabilitation of existing housing and development of new housing

Housing & Shelter
12
Cincinnati Center for Autism

We support individuals with autism and their families through programming in the areas of academics, adaptive behavior, communication, and social participation.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Coverd Greater Cincinnati and the most unlike its peers is Faith Freedom Life. 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.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyProfessional Performing Art…Community Health CentersHospital Systems and Founda…Greater Cincinnati Communit…Youth Development & Mentori…Residential Care ServicesCharter Schools and Educati…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

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 38 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%2%<5yr14%4%5–10yr18%22%10–20yr17%18%20–35yr15%18%35–55yr15%36%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%2%<5yr14%5%5–10yr18%15%10–20yr17%14%20–35yr15%15%35–55yr15%49%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/47
the rest of the field
13%
721/5,456

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.

04the grantee network

38 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 38 of the 76 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
37/38
Grantees still filing
24/38
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

OUR LADY OF LIGHT MINISTRIES — $395,000 · OtherOUR LADY OF LIGHT MINISTRIESST STEPHEN CHURCH — $92,500 · OtherST STEPHEN CHURCHTHE ANTHENAEUM OF OHIO — $70,000 · OtherTHE ANTHENAEUM OF OHIOXAVIER JESUIT ACADEMY — $70,000 · OtherXAVIER JESUIT ACADEMYST CECILIA SCHOOL — $65,000 · OtherSISTERS OF NOTRE DAME — $55,000 · OtherMT ST MARY SEMINARY OF THE WEST ATHENAEUM OF OHIO NORWOOD — $45,000 · OtherCATHOLIC INNER-CITY SCHOOL EDU — $45,000 · Other+38 more — $449,500 · Other+38 moreLydia's House Inc — $45,000 · Housing & ShelterBethany House Services Inc — $45,000 · Housing & ShelterShelterhouse Volunteer Group Inc — $42,500 · Housing & ShelterINNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES — $27,500 · Human ServicesCOVERD GREATER CINCINNATI — $25,500 · Human ServicesCasa de Paz — $25,000 · Human ServicesLiving Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled Inc — $15,500 · Human ServicesNEW LIFE FURNITURE BANK — $10,000 · Human ServicesTHE FIRST STEP HOME INC — $6,500 · Human ServicesSTEPPING STONES INC — $6,000 · Human ServicesBEECH ACRES — $4,500 · Human Services+3 more — $8,000 · Human ServicesSPRINGER SCHOOL AND CENTER — $56,500 · EducationTHE CHATFIELD EDGE — $12,000 · Education+3 more — $7,500 · EducationTHE DRAGONFLY FOUNDATION — $26,000 · HealthLITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR SACRED HEART HOME — $20,000 · HealthAUTISM CONNECTIONS — $17,500 · HealthThe Cincinnati Eye Institute Foundation — $6,500 · HealthMAY WE HELP INC — $5,000 · Health+1 more — $1,000 · HealthCAIN CINCY — $32,500 · ReligionFound House-Interfaith Housing Network — $7,500 · ReligionBon Secours Mercy Health Foundation — $2,500 · ReligionUPSPRING — $26,000 · Youth DevelopmentADVENTURE CREW — $5,000 · Youth Development
Other$1,287,000Housing & Shelter$132,500Human Services$128,500Education$76,000Health$76,000Religion$42,500Youth Development$31,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetSPRINGER SCHOOL AND CENTER — $56,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetLydia's House Inc — $45,000 over 6y, 1.5% of budgetBethany House Services Inc — $45,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetShelterhouse Volunteer Group Inc — $42,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCAIN CINCY — $32,500 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetINNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES — $27,500 over 6y, 2.1% of budgetUPSPRING — $26,000 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetTHE DRAGONFLY FOUNDATION — $26,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetCOVERD GREATER CINCINNATI — $25,500 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetCasa de Paz — $25,000 over 3y, 3.2% of budgetGenesis at Work Foundation — $25,000 over 1y, 6.0% of budgetLITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR SACRED HEART HOME — $20,000 over 2y, 3.7% of budgetAUTISM CONNECTIONS — $17,500 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetLiving Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled Inc — $15,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCINCINNATI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION — $14,500 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetFaith Freedom Life — $14,500 over 4y, 6.7% of budgetTHE CHATFIELD EDGE — $12,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetNEW LIFE FURNITURE BANK — $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCincinnati Public Radio Inc — $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE FIRST STEP HOME INC — $6,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetThe Cincinnati Eye Institute Foundation — $6,500 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetSTEPPING STONES INC — $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMAY WE HELP INC — $5,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetBEECH ACRES — $4,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetELIZABETH'S NEW LIFE CENTER INC — $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEAST END ADULT EDUCATION CENTER — $3,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetCincinnati Youth Collaborative — $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAdopt A Class Foundation Inc — $2,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMOUNT ST JOSEPH UNIVERSITY — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLIGHTHOUSE YOUTH SERVICES — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetClovernook Center For the Blind and Visually Impaired — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPREGNANCY CENTER WEST — $2,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetThe Christ Hospital Foundation — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 SPRINGER SCHOOL AND CENTER
  • Who funds Lydia's House Inc
  • Who funds Bethany House Services Inc
  • Who funds Shelterhouse Volunteer Group Inc
  • Who funds CAIN CINCY
  • Who funds INNER CITY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES
  • Who funds UPSPRING
  • Who funds THE DRAGONFLY FOUNDATION
  • Who funds COVERD GREATER CINCINNATI
  • Who funds Casa de Paz
  • Who funds Genesis at Work Foundation
  • Who funds LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR SACRED HEART HOME
  • Who funds AUTISM CONNECTIONS
  • Who funds Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled Inc
  • Who funds CINCINNATI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Faith Freedom Life
  • Who funds THE CHATFIELD EDGE
  • Who funds NEW LIFE FURNITURE BANK
  • Who funds Found House-Interfaith Housing Network

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.

The Greater Cincinnati FoundationOH69.3× affinity37 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Greater Cincinnati Foundation · Robert a & Marian K Kennedy Charitable Trust · Johnson Charitable Gift Fund · Agnes Nordloh Charitable Trust · Pfau Charitable Foundation · Charles H Dater Foundation Inc · L & L Nippert Charitable Foundation Inc Attn Carter F Randolph Phd · Andrew Jergens Foundation · Carol Ann and Ralph V Haile Jr Foundation · Charles Scott Riley III Foundation · Spaulding Foundation · Jack J Smith Jr Charitable Trust

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 Justin R Niklas 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 76 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph