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· Community foundation
LUTHERAN LEGACY FOUNDATION INC
LUTHERAN LEGACY FOUNDATION INC (llf) is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including making distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under sections 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code, or the corresponding section of any future federal tax code.
$1.0M
Granted FY2025
28
Grants
9
Communities
$281k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 58% of LUTHERAN LEGACY FOUNDATION INC’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2019
ministrypeacelesa
2020
deferred progra
2021
endowmentsuppliestuitionmarketinglesa equipsequips dynamicdynamic christ-centered
2022
fidelitydonorsevangelicalincreaseresearchaffairsoutreach
2023
suppliesdeferred progralesaeducation
2024
fidelitydonorsincreaseresearchaffairsoutreachgiving
2025
galasuppliestuitionmarketinglesa equipsequips dynamicdynamic christ-centered
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2025 · 28 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $33k
- $10k–50k20 grants · $443k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $174k
- $250k+1 grant · $281k
$15,500
Median grant
9
States reached
$85M
Total assets
Largest grants
- FOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA MINISTIRES$281,000
- GRACE LUTHERAN CHILD DEVELOPMENT CE$118,510
- CREAN LUTHERN HIGH SCHOOL$55,817
- SIBERIAN LUTHERAN MISSION SOCIETY$48,834
- NEW LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL$45,000
- GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH$39,400
- LESA$37,192
- BETHLEHEM LUTHERAN CHURCH$35,000
- MT OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH$30,000
- EVERGREEN LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL$29,282
- GOD'S BLESSINGS$22,000
- LIVING WORD LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL$20,000
- ASSOCIATION OF LUTHERAN SECONDARY S$16,000
- LUTHERAN LEGACY SCHOLARSHIP FUND$15,500
- LUTHERAN SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL$15,000
02The need
04
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.
show:
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 9%. 86% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
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; 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your edge
repeat funding
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.
86%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$5.3M · 38 repeat orgs$881k to everyone else
38 repeat relationships — 18 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
38
44
Total granted
$5.3M
$768k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
-5%
+83%
Still filing today
26%
11%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $113k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
ReligionEducationPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentRecreation & SportsInternationalOther
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
- FTFOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA MINISTIRES5× · 2021–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +502% · 53% of their budget
FIDELITY CHARITABLE2× · 2022–2024 · $100k · revenue +47%- LILUTHERAN ISLAND CAMP & RETREAT CENT3× · 2018–2020 · $61k · revenue +62%
Funded once
- LILAMP INCgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $100k · revenue +83%
- LOLEGACY OF LOVEone grant, 2022 · $67k
- LLLUTHERAN LEGACY FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $55k · revenue +155% · 43% of their budget
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
04Your field
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.
1
Luther College
On a campus of more than 800 acres along the banks of the upper iowa river in decorah, iowa, luther is a true residential campus, with 97 percent of students living on campus and nearly 95 percent of faculty choosing to live within five…
Education
2
Lutheran Social Ministries of
Lsmnj is a faith-based service organization that provides a wide array of community-based services.
Human Services
3
National Lutheran Inc
To serve as corporate oversight for its affiliated communities designed for seniors.
Housing & Shelter
4
The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan
Dedicated to sharing god's love through the work of health, healing and comfort.
Human Services
5
Columbia Lutheran Charities
Provide excellence, leadership & compassion in the enhancement of health for those we serve.
Philanthropy
6
Lutheran Homes Inc
As an expression of christ's love, we serve individuals and their caregivers with compassion and respect for independence, wellness, and spiritual life.
Human Services
7
Lutheran Nursing Home
N/a
Health
8
Lutheran Education Foundation
Foster and support christian education.
—
9
Lutheran Association of Missionaries and
Lutheran indian ministries shares the gospel of jesus christ with native american people, encouraging them to proclaim christ's kingdom to their own and to others.
—
10
Luther Home of Mercy
To provide long term care for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.
Human Services
11
Lutherans in Africa
To help and preserve the legacy of our faith unto generations to come by teaching in africa to respond with biblical answers, not human philosophy.
Religion
12
Zion Lutheran Church
Bringing christ to everyone
—
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lutheran Camp Association and the most unlike its peers is Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 85 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.
Closures · last 5 years
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.
orgs you fund
1%1/87
the rest of the field
11%
206,163/1,819,478
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.
05the grantee network
17 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/17
Grantees still filing
8/17
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$3,613,145Religion$1,822,873Education$324,816Philanthropy$173,375Community Improvement$100,000Youth Development$79,725Recreation & Sports$60,500
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 FOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA MINISTIRES ↗
- Who funds SIBERIAN LUTHERAN MISSION SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds PAUL & JEAN NIEWALD ENDOWMENT ↗
- Who funds PEACE LUTHERAN SCHOOL ENDOW ASSOC ↗
- Who funds FIDELITY CHARITABLE ↗
- Who funds LAMP INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP CILCA ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN ISLAND CAMP & RETREAT CENT ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN LEGACY SCHOLARSHIP FUND ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN LEGACY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GLOBAL LUTHERAN OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN BRAILLE WORKERS INC ↗
- Who funds GRACE PLACE LUTHERAN WELLNESS MINIS ↗
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.
Thrivent Financial for LutheransMN55.5× affinity43 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans-Group · Concordia Lutheran Ministriesfoundation · Theodore W Batterman · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Baird Foundation Inc · Tulsa Community Foundation · United Way Worldwide · American Endowment Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund
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 organisation LUTHERAN LEGACY 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
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. 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.
05Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: FOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA MINISTIRES.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
high risk
~2 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 8 filed years.
Track record & reputation
low risk
8 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 6.0× since.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 462511558 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on FOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA MINISTIRES, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- FlagFinancial stability— Roughly 2 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 53% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Lutheran Legacy Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Lutheran Legacy Foundation Inc through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines