· Private foundation
Ludwig Family 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k4 grants · $20k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $95k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Wisdom International | $50,000 |
| Shepherds Theological Seminary | $25,000 |
| Flint City Church | $20,000 |
| Delight Ministries | $15,000 |
| Erie City Mission | $15,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| Flint City Church | $10,000 |
| Life Challenge of SE Michigan | $5,000 |
| Christ's Provisions Inc | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| CRU | $5,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 13% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
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 +333% since the first grant, against +1% for the ones you funded once.
9 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k 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
- STSHEPHERDS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY INC7× · 2017–2025 · $436k · revenue +594%
- WIWISDOM INTERNATIONAL INC8× · 2017–2025 · $407k · revenue +333%
- CMCITY MISSION OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF ERIE2× · 2024–2025 · $25k · revenue +43%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2023 · $85k
- WFWiscom for the Heartone grant, 2023 · $75k
- AUASHLAND UNIVERSITYone grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue +3%
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.
Faith's purpose is to mentor students for spirit-filled leadership in ministry, in light of the great commission. while academics are important, the classrooms are not the only learning place. through a combination of formal instruction,…
Wesley biblical seminary is a multi-denominational school of theology that provides undergraduate, graduate and doctorate level education for individuals who are preparing for christian service.
Asbury Theological Seminary is a community called to prepare theologically educated, sanctified, Spirit-filled men and women to evangelize and to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world through the love of Jesus Christ, in the…
The formation of men for the gospel ministry as pastors, evangelists, & teachers who shall proclaim the whole counsel of god throughout a changing world. the theological training of church officers as stewards of christ, and the…
Welch college is a christian higher education institution that educates leaders to serve christ, his church, and his world through biblical thought and life
The focus of the ministry is to establish christian camps and retreats that will reach men and women who have been affected by post traumatic stress disorder with the gospel of jesus christ, and equip them to recognize, manage, and…
The mission of hope international university is to empower students through christian higher education to serve the church and impact the world for christ. the university specializes in fields offering significant influence on society…
Gcu serves the global church by educating mission leaders to fulfill the great commission of jesus christ. gcu accomplishes this mission through a comprehensive program of biblical and general education, christ-centered service and…
See schedule o. founded in 1902, university of northwestern - st. paul is a nondenominational christian university that integrates the educational philosophy of "faith, learning and living" through two focuses: higher education and media.…
North America Bible Institute (NABI) is an evangelical graduate school, made up of students who are diverse in both ethnicity and ministry aims -- but united in great love for Jesus and his gospel. As a graduate school, NABI offers them…
To prepare students to serve christ and his church through biblical, experiential and practical ministry. prts provides theological training and instruction in accordance with the scriptures and the historic reformed creeds for promotion…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Wisdom International Inc and the most unlike its peers is Christ's Provisions Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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. 8 of the 17 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 SHEPHERDS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY INC ↗
- Who funds WISDOM INTERNATIONAL INC ↗
- Who funds DELIGHT MINISTRIES INC ↗
- Who funds CITY MISSION OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES OF ERIE ↗
- Who funds ASHLAND UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE IVY TABLE INC ↗
- Who funds FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES ↗
- Who funds CHRIST'S PROVISIONS 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: Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Ludwig 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.
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.