· Public charity
Lee Initiative Inc
Administer programs that provide continuing education, job training, mentorship, leadership opportunities and resources to independent restaurant operators and employees.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k44 grants · $880k
- $250k+1 grant · $1.5M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| M FRNACIS INC | $1,464,184 |
| SUGAR EUPHORIA | $20,000 |
| HALCYON PATISSERIE | $20,000 |
| BYRON HOSPITALITY | $20,000 |
| CORNROW HTX (BLOOM FOODS) | $20,000 |
| THE BLUE FLAMINGO SPORTS BAR AND GR | $20,000 |
| THE BLACK LEAF TEA AND CULTURE SHOP | $20,000 |
| MEEK'S VEGAN PIZZA | $20,000 |
| MADE BY LINO LLC DBA FROM LINO | $20,000 |
| BLAK KOFFEE INTERNET CAFE | $20,000 |
| VINATERIA | $20,000 |
| GOODIES FROZENCUSTARD TREATS | $20,000 |
| ADDIS NOLA | $20,000 |
| LAGNIAPPE BAKEHOUSE | $20,000 |
| ROUX ORLEANS | $20,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY21–21, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
6 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 44 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 1% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.3M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- THTHE HISTORIC MAGNOLIA HOUSE3× · 2022–2024 · $60k
- FAFLORIDA AVENUE GRILL LLC2× · 2021–2023 · $45k
- KLKAH LEGACY ENTERPRISE2× · 2021–2023 · $35k
Funded once
- LILEE INITIATIVE INCone grant, 2020 · $151k · revenue -62%
- 6M610 MAGNOLIAone grant, 2020 · $122k
- MMITA'Sone grant, 2020 · $114k
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.
7 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2018–2024.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2018 to 2024, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 7 of the 284 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
Open a dossier: National Urban League Inc · NAACP Empowerment Programs Inc · Feed the Soul Foundation · Detroit Economic Growth Association · Women's Business Development Center · Local Initiatives Support Corporation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Lee Initiative Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lee Initiative Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Lee Initiative Inc?
Find your warmest path to Lee Initiative 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.
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