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Laughlin Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Laughlin Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$567k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$170k
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, FY2024 to 2025.

Environment$481kEducation$170kReligion$170kArts & Culture$113kHealth$113kPhilanthropy$57kAnimals$28k
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k6 grants · $163k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $404k
$28,382
Median grant
3
States reached
$11M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FDN$170,138
ST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH$63,782
ALBION COLLEGE$56,713
THE DAHLEM CONSERVANCY$56,713
ELLA SHARP MUSEUM$56,713
HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM$28,382
ALPHA CHI OMEGA FOUNDATION$28,356
JACKSON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$28,356
DUCKS UNLIMITED INC$28,356
HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM$28,331
ST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH$21,286
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 (FY24–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 17%. 10% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 17%MICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FDN: $170k → 9%ST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $64k → 12%ELLA SHARP MUSEUM: $57k → 13%ALBION COLLEGE: $57k → 14%HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM: $57k → 21%DUCKS UNLIMITED INC: $28k → 17%ALPHA CHI OMEGA FOUNDATION: $28k → 16%MICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FDN: $170k → 9%ELLA SHARP MUSEUM: $57k → 13%ALBION COLLEGE: $57k → 14%HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM: $28k → 21%DUCKS UNLIMITED: $28k → 17%ALPHA CHI OMEGA FDN INC: $28k → 16%ST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $85k → 13%HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM: $28k → 21%THE DAHLEM CONSERVANCY: $57k → 13%THE DAHLEM CONSERVANCY: $57k → 13%JACKSON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $28k → 13%JACKSON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $28k → 13%ST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $21k → 13%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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$842k · 6 repeat orgs$120k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue 0% since the first grant, against -14% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
1

Total granted

$842k
$28k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

0%
-14%

Still filing today

83%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $92k went to new ones.

50%100%’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’24’25
EnvironmentArts & CultureHealthEducationOther
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

  • MW
    MICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FOUNDATIO
    2× · 2024–2025 · $340k · revenue 0% · 36% of their budget
  • ES
    ELLA SHARP MUSEUM ASSOCIATION OF JACKSON
    2× · 2024–2025 · $113k · revenue 0%
  • HF
    HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM
    2× · 2024–2025 · $113k · revenue 0%

Funded once

  • DU
    Ducks Unlimited Inc
    one grant, 2024 · $28k · revenue -14%
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
Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance

The mission of the jackson hole conservation alliance is to protect the wildlife, wild places and community character of jackson hole.

Environment
2
Detroit Historical Society

The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.

Arts & Culture
3
Michigan Enviromental Council

Informing and educating the public and decision makers about environmental issues.

Environment
4
Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—
5
Harvard Conservation Trust

To preserve the unique character and natural resources of harvard.

Environment
6
Kalamazoo College

The mission of kalamazoo college is to prepare its graduates to better understand, live sucessfully within, and provide enlightened leadership to a richly diverse and increasingly complex world. as a highly selective, nationally renowened…

Education
7
West Michigan Horticultural Society Inc Dba Frederik Meijer Gardens

To promote the enjoyment, understanding and appreciation of gardens, sculpture, the natural environment and the arts. the most significant activity is to allow guests to experience horticulture and the arts.

Environment
8
University Corporate Research Park I Inc

To hold title and perform related functions in connection with a research park and innovation center in support of michigan state university research foundation.

—
9
Henry Ford Estate

Our mission is to illuminate the lives and legacy of clara and henry ford for our visitors through the preservation and reimagination of their beloved estate.

Arts & Culture
10
Mclaren Northern Michigan

Mclaren health care, through its subsidiaries, will be the best value in health care as defined by quality outcomes and cost.

Health
11
Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment
12
Michigan Farm Bureau

Michigan farm bureau (mfb) is a member directed agricultural organization whose purpose is to represent, protect, and enhance the business, economic, social, and educational interests of our members located throughout the state of michigan.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Alpha Chi Omega Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Ella Sharp Museum Association of Jackson. 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

8 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. 8 of the 11 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
2/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FOUNDATIO: $339,813 · EnvironmentMICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FOUNDATIOTHE DAHLEM CONSERVANCY: $113,271 · EnvironmentTHE DAHLEM CONSERVANCYDucks Unlimited Inc: $28,279 · EnvironmentDucks Unlimited IncST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $106,124 · OtherST PAUL'S EPISCOPAL…ST PAULS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $63,782 · OtherST PAULS EPISCOPAL …DUCKS UNLIMITED INC: $28,356 · OtherDUCKS UNLIMITED INCALBION COLLEGE: $113,271 · EducationALBION COLLEGEALPHA CHI OMEGA FOUNDATION INC: $56,635 · EducationALPHA CHI OMEGA …ELLA SHARP MUSEUM ASSOCIATION OF JACKSON: $113,271 · Arts & CultureELLA SHARP …HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM: $113,271 · HealthHENRY FORD …Jackson Community Foundation: $56,635 · Philanthropy
Environment$481,363Other$198,262Education$169,906Arts & Culture$113,271Health$113,271Philanthropy$56,635

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 budgetMICHIGAN WILDLIFE HABITAT FOUNDATIO: $339,813 over 2y, 36% of budgetELLA SHARP MUSEUM ASSOCIATION OF JACKSON: $113,271 over 2y, 5.1% of budgetHENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM: $113,271 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALBION COLLEGE: $113,271 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE DAHLEM CONSERVANCY: $113,271 over 2y, 7.7% of budgetALPHA CHI OMEGA FOUNDATION INC: $56,635 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetJackson Community Foundation: $56,635 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetDucks Unlimited Inc: $28,279 over 1y, 0.0% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Laughlin Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Laughlin Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%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
    2report 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 11 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Laughlin’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