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Lakeland Lions Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Lakeland Lions Foundation

The organization is dedicated to providing sight and hearing exams for people that cannot afford these tests and also to provide glasses and hearing aids for them.

$362k
Granted FY2025still arriving
15
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$35k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$388kHuman Services$106kEducation$94kInternational$74kPublic Benefit$25kHousing & Shelter$20k
02FY2025 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$23,385
Median grant
4
States reached
$30k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Mid-South Lions Sight & Hearing$35,385
Tn School for the Blind$25,385
District 12L$25,000
Orbis$24,385
Leader Dog$24,385
Guiding Eye for the Blind$23,385
Hamilton Eye Institute$23,385
World Cateract$23,385
Youth Villages$23,365
Lions World Service$22,385
LeBonheur$22,385
Juvenile Diabetes$22,385
St Jude$22,385
Southern College of Optomery$21,385
Sight Van$19,830
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:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $137k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 68% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Lions World Service: $22k → 17%Leader Dog: $24k → 8%Youth Villages: $23k → 17%Lions World Service: $11k → 17%Leader Dog: $13k → 8%Youth Villages: $12k → 17%Leader Dog: $7k → 8%YOUTH VILLAGES: $6k → 17%Youth Villages: $6k → 17%YOUTH VILLAGES: $6k → 17%Youth Villages: $6k → 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.
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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$674k · 14 repeat orgs$33k to everyone else

14 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

14
1

Total granted

$674k
$8k

Still filing today

79%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $25k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthHuman ServicesEducationInternationalPhilanthropyOther
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

  • ML
    Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service Inc dba Mid-South Lions
    7× · 2019–2025 · $145k · revenue +306%
  • YOUTH VILLAGES INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $59k · revenue +101%
  • LD
    LEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND
    3× · 2023–2025 · $44k · revenue +2%

Funded once

  • LE
    LAKELAND EDUCATION FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $8k
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
American Board of Ophthalmology

None

—
2
The Boston Foundation for Sight Inc

Our mission is to improve quality of life by transforming the understanding, treatment, and care of the ocular surface.

Human Services
3
Optometry Giving Sight

Optometry giving sight targets the prevention of blindness & impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error through education, training, service delivery and advocacy.

Philanthropy
4
Dean Mcgee Eye Institute

The dean mcgee eye institute is dedicated to serving all oklahomans and the global community through excellence and leadership in patient care, education and vision research.

Health
5
Sankara Eye Foundation Usa

To work towards eradicating curable blindness all over india. our key program is vision 20/20 - with the goal of performing 500,000 free surgeries per year throughout india. we have been primarily partnering with sankara eye foundation in…

Health
6
Himalayan Cataract Project Inc

We enable countries to cure avoidable blindness by developing high quality, cost-effective eye care in underserved areas of the world.

International
7
The Arkansas Lighthouse for the Blind Inc

To improve occupational opportunity and public perception of legally blind arkansans through community engagement, work skills enhancement and the production of quality goods and services.

—
8
Glaucoma Research Foundation

Cure Glaucoma and restore vision through innovative research.

Health
9
VisionFund International

VisionFund International (VFI) was established for the purpose of supporting World Vision International (WVI) by coordinating and providing funding to World Vision - affiliated microfinance institutions (MFIs) located in developing…

Philanthropy
10
Sightlife

We serve as a global leader and partner to eliminate corneal blindness.

Community Improvement
11
OneSight

OneSight is a leading global nonprofit 501(c)(3)organization dedicated to creating a world where lack of access to vision care is no longer a barrier to human achievement and potential. From one-day charitable clinics, serving those with…

Human Services
12
Seva Foundation

Seva foundation partners worldwide to create self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight. our vision is a world free of avoidable blindness.

International
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Breakthrough T1D. 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

11 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. 11 of the 16 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
8/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service Inc dba Mid-South Lions: $144,885 · HealthMid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Servic…WORLD CATARACT FOUNDATION: $41,385 · HealthWORLD CATARACT FOUNDATIONBREAKTHROUGH T1D: $33,385 · HealthBREAKTHROUGH T1DLe Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation: $32,385 · HealthLe Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundatio…STATE OF TENNESSEE: $65,385 · OtherSTATE OF TENNESSEEGuiding Eye for the Blind: $41,385 · OtherGuiding Eye for the BlindSight Van: $27,830 · OtherSight VanINTERNATION ASSOCIATION OF LIONS CLUBS: $25,000 · OtherINTERNATION ASSOCIATION OF…LAKELAND EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $7,500 · OtherYOUTH VILLAGES INC: $59,365 · Human ServicesYOUTH VILLAGES INCLEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND: $44,385 · Human ServicesLEADER DOGS FOR THE B…WORLD SERVICES FOR THE BLIND: $33,385 · Human ServicesWORLD SERVICES FOR TH…THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION INC: $41,385 · EducationTHE UNIVERS…Southern College of Optometry: $31,385 · EducationSouthern Co…PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC: $44,385 · InternationalCHILDREN'S CANCER RESEARCH FUND: $33,385 · Philanthropy
Health$252,040Other$167,100Human Services$137,135Education$72,770International$44,385Philanthropy$33,385

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service Inc dba Mid-South Lions: $144,885 over 7y, 5.2% of budgetYOUTH VILLAGES INC: $59,365 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetPROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC: $44,385 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND: $44,385 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION INC: $41,385 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD CATARACT FOUNDATION: $41,385 over 3y, 4.0% of budgetWORLD SERVICES FOR THE BLIND: $33,385 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetCHILDREN'S CANCER RESEARCH FUND: $33,385 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetBREAKTHROUGH T1D: $33,385 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLe Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation: $32,385 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern College of Optometry: $31,385 over 2y, 0.1% 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.

Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCO5.6× affinity6 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 Lakeland Lions Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lakeland Lions Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    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.

    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 16 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Lakeland Lions’ 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