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· Private foundation
Lyons Family Foundation
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$38k
Granted FY2024
6
Grants
2
Communities
$20k
Largest
01What you fund
0166% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2020–2024.
Education$87kCommunity Improvement$2kArts & Culture$1kHealth$1kFood & Nutrition$500Other$47k
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
2020
penn
2021
penn
2022
altamont
2023
—
2024
penn
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 6 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k5 grants · $18k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
- ALTAMONT SCHOOL$20,000
- INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH$8,000
- BIRMINGHAM ULTRA TRAIL SOCIETY$5,000
- TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA$3,500
- DESERT ISLAND SUPPLY CO$1,000
- INDEPENDENT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH$814
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 17% — the area typically sits at 13%. 100% 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.
96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$133k · 5 repeat orgs$5k to everyone else
5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
5
8
Total granted
$133k
$5k
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+33%
+33%
Still filing today
60%
88%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
EducationCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureHealthFood & NutritionOther
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
- ASALTAMONT SCHOOL5× · 2020–2024 · $73k · revenue +22%
TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA4× · 2020–2024 · $14k · revenue +37%- DIDESERT ISLAND SUPPLY CO3× · 2022–2024 · $3k · revenue +33%
Funded once
- JLJUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM INCone grant, 2020 · $1k · revenue -27%
- CSCAMP SMILE A MILEone grant, 2020 · $1k · revenue +22%
- MMMASON MUSIC FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $750 · revenue +33%
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
Alabama a&M University Foundation
The Alabama A&M University Foundation was established to receive, hold, invest, manage, use, and administer property of all kinds, whether given absolutely or in trust, for the benefit of Alabama A&M University and its educational,…
—
2
Alabama Audubon
Promote conservation and greater knowledge of birds, their habitat and the natural world.
Environment
3
Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation
The mission of the Foundation is to mobilize community support and resources for the academic improvement of the school system. Funds raised become part of a permanent endowment.
Education
4
Birmingham Promise Inc
The Mission of Birmingham Promise is to transform futures and advance Birmingham by re-engineering education and workforce systems. The Birmingham Promise has two primary components: (1) youth apprenticeships, which provide Birmingham City…
Education
5
Alabama Waldorf Association
Alabama Waldorf School is a community dedicated to educating responsible world citizens, beginning at age 1.5 in the nursery and continuing through grade 8.
—
6
Legal Aid Society of Birmingham
The Organization is a nonprofit community defender providing legal assistance through court appointment to children and other indigent persons.
Crime & Legal
7
Railroad Park Foundation
Railroad Park inspires energy, revitalization and a sense of place in Birmingham by stimulating cultural, economic and social activity within and around the Park.
Recreation & Sports
8
Birmingham Bar Foundation
To support, promote, and encourage activities for the furtherance of justice and legal education, including but not limited to the education of primary and secondary students, as well as the general public to promote a greater…
Philanthropy
9
Heart of Alabama Food Bank
The food bank operates as a clearing house for the collection, sorting, storing and distribution of edible food to qualified agencies.
Food & Nutrition
10
Uab Educational Foundation
To support the university of alabama at birmingham in its scientific and educational mission.
Education
11
The University Foundation
To assist and aid the board of trustees of the university of alabama in fulfilling its educational, research, and public service programs and activities.
—
12
Birmingham Business Alliance Foundation
To promote business and commerce and to further educational endeavors in the Birmingham, Alabama region.
Community Improvement
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cahaba River Society Inc and the most unlike its peers is Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network
10 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
8/10
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Education$86,700Other$46,864Community Improvement$1,500Arts & Culture$1,250Health$1,000Food & Nutrition$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 ALTAMONT SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
- Who funds DESERT ISLAND SUPPLY CO ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP SMILE A MILE ↗
- Who funds MASON MUSIC FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds RED MOUNTAIN PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PACIFIC BATTLESHIP CENTER ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL ALABAMA ↗
- Who funds CAHABA RIVER SOCIETY 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.
The Community Foundation of GreaterAL22.1× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Greater · Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation · The Hugh Kaul Foundation · Hill Crest Foundation Inc · Protective Life Foundation · Dunn-French Foundation · The Joseph S Bruno Charitable · Robert R Meyer Foundation · Susan Mott Webb Charitable Trust · The Daniel Foundation of Alabama · Alabama Power Foundation Inc · The Maynard Nexsen 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 organisation Lyons 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.
2024
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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: MASON MUSIC FOUNDATION.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
low risk
5 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 475443760 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 MASON MUSIC FOUNDATION, 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
- Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 1% of their budget — diversified.
- 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 Lyons Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Lyons Family Foundation 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