· Private foundation
Lance & Cindy Ruffel Family Foundation Inc
Its FY2024 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 clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k14 grants · $45k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $43k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER | $22,500 |
| WEWOKA PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $10,500 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS - TIFFANY CIRCLE | $10,000 |
| OKC MUSEUM OF ART | $8,000 |
| PAINTED SKY OPERA | $7,500 |
| POSITIVE TOMORROWS | $5,000 |
| ALLIED ARTS | $5,000 |
| OKLAHOMA CITY BALLET | $3,000 |
| LIBRARY ENDOWMENT TRUST | $2,500 |
| ARTS COUNCIL OKLAHOMA CITY | $2,500 |
| OKLAHOMA CITY PHILHARMONIC | $2,500 |
| JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF OKLAHOMA | $2,400 |
| CHILDRENS HEALTH FOUNDATION | $1,850 |
| CALM WATERS | $1,500 |
| YMCA OF GREATER OKLAHOMA CITY | $1,500 |
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 (FY17–24, $44k) 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.
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 +40% since the first grant, against +22% for the ones you funded once.
34 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down; 4 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, 91% 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
- PSPAINTED SKY OPERA INC7× · 2017–2024 · $113k · revenue +156%
- AAALLIED ARTS OF OKLAHOMA INC6× · 2017–2024 · $112k · revenue +36%
- PTPOSITIVE TOMORROWS INC6× · 2017–2024 · $73k · revenue +95%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $25k
- TLTulsa Lawyers for Children Incone grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue +15%
- OLOKLAHOMA LAWYERS FOR CHILDREN INCone grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +22%
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.
To provide exceptional multidisciplinary arts experiences that develop individual talent and inspire a lifelong passion for the arts.
Oklahoma connections inc, a public charter school, uses the connections curriculum to offer oklahoma students in grades k-12 an exceptional learning experience.
To promote the flourishing of the people of oklahoma by advancing principles and policies that support free enterprise, limited government, personal responsibility, and individual initiative.
To improve the lives of children and youth in oklahoma's child welfare system by providing resources and building community.
We are the leading advocate for okcps. we strengthen our schools through community investment, strategic partnerships, and innovative programs.
To inspire children, connect families, and build community through exploration, exhibits, programming, and play.
To prepare students for college through a rigorous arts infused program.
The State Chamber is a statewide membership organization. Our purpose is to be the unified voice of business and the most effective advocacy organization at the State Capitol.
To support, promote, and improve the programs and services of the oklahoma arts institute.
Inspired by a culture of creativity, Oklahoma City University fosters an immersive, personalized experience that welcomes and prepares students to pursue boundless opportunities.
Okc rep produces live theater that builds community, creates conversation, and inspires us all.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Positive Tomorrows Inc and the most unlike its peers is Pta Colorado Congress Summit View Elementary Pta. 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 41 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% 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.
33 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. 33 of the 68 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 PAINTED SKY OPERA INC ↗
- Who funds ALLIED ARTS OF OKLAHOMA INC ↗
- Who funds POSITIVE TOMORROWS INC ↗
- Who funds OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART INC FKA OKLAHOMA CITY ART MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CALM WATERS CENTER FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES INC ↗
- Who funds LYRIC THEATRE OF OKLAHOMA INC ↗
- Who funds CITY RESCUE MISSION INC ↗
- Who funds Tulsa Lawyers for Children Inc ↗
- Who funds OKLAHOMA LAWYERS FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds HOPE IS ALIVE MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds OKLAHOMA CITY BEAUTIFUL INC ↗
- Who funds THE SANTA FE OPERA ↗
- Who funds ROLLINGWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PTO ↗
- Who funds HERITAGE HALL SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds ARTS COUNCIL OF OKLAHOMA CITY ↗
- Who funds HEARTLINE INC ↗
- Who funds Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition ↗
- Who funds OKLAHOMA BAPTIST UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds CITIZENS CARING FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds Library Endowment Trust ↗
- Who funds CREATIVE OKLAHOMA INC ↗
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: American Fidelity Foundation · Communities Foundation of Oklahoma · Oklahoma City Community Foundation Inc · Inasmuch Foundation · El and Thelma Gaylord Foundation · Fred Jones Family Foundation · The Ann Lacy Foundation · Rainbolt Family Foundation · Sarkeys Foundation · Bowen Foundation · Harris Foundation Inc · Records Johnston 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 Lance & Cindy Ruffel Family Foundation Inc 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.
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 Lance & Cindy Ruffel Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Lance & Cindy Ruffel Family Foundation Inc 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.