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Plinth

· Private foundation

Mark B & Jean Higgins Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$66k
Granted FY2025still arriving
19
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$17k
Largest
01What you fund
0194% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20202025.

Education$266kArts & Culture$69kHuman Services$16kEnvironment$9kPhilanthropy$9kHealth$8kReligion$5kRecreation & Sports$3kOther$0
02FY2025 · 19 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k15 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $47k
$1,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$1.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Valley School of Ligonier$17,000
Grove City College$10,000
The Gettysburg Foundation$10,000
The Kiski School$10,000
Hillsdale College$4,000
Tunnel to Towers Foundation$4,000
St Judes Childrens Hospital$1,500
Friends of Casco Bay$1,500
The Family Restored$1,000
Emma Munson Foundation Inc$1,000
Childrens Tumor Foundation$1,000
Christ Church Preschool$1,000
Ronald McDonald House Pittsburgh$1,000
Camp Freedom$1,000
Holy Trinity Church$900
02The need
03

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:

Your human-services grants (FY22–25, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 50% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 9%The Family Restored: $1k → 7%North Hills Cares Inc: $250 → 11%North Hills Cares Inc: $250 → 11%North Hills Cares Inc: $250 → 11%North Hills Cares Inc: $250 → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

ME
NH
MI
NY
PA
AZ
KS
TN
DC

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.

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.

99%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$359k · 21 repeat orgs$5k to everyone else

21 repeat relationships — 16 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
6

Total granted

$359k
$4k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+17%
+24%

Still filing today

62%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesEnvironmentPublic BenefitRecreation & SportsOther

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

  • VS
    VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER
    6× · 2020–2025 · $95k · revenue +76%
  • GF
    GETTYSBURG FOUNDATION
    6× · 2020–2025 · $66k · revenue +95%
  • GC
    GROVE CITY COLLEGE
    6× · 2020–2025 · $59k · revenue +48%

Funded once

  • SMILE TRAIN INC
    one grant, 2020 · $2k · revenue +24%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $1k
  • PF
    PITTSBURGH FIRE FIGHTERS FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2024 · $500

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
Gettysburg College

Gettysburg college is a residential, undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences.

Education
2
St Francis College

St. francis college is an independent, coeducational institution of higher education chartered by an act of the regents of the university of the state of new york on april 10, 1957.

Education
3
Wilson College

Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.

Education
4
Lycoming College

The mission of lycoming college is to provide a distinguished baccalaureate education in the liberal arts and sciences within a coeducational, supportive, and residential setting.

Education
5
Saint Anselm College

Saint anselm is a catholic, benedictine college providing all of its students a distinctive liberal arts education that incorporates opportunities for professional and career preparation. it does so in a learning community that encourages…

Education
6
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
7
Williams College

Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.

Education
8
Hillbrook School

Hillbrook provides an extraordinary educational experience that fosters a love of learning in our students and helps them to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to achieve their highest individual potential in school and in life.…

Education
9
Amherst College Trustees

Amherst college educates students of exceptional potential from all backgrounds so that they may seek value and advance knowledge, engage the world around them, and lead principled lives of consequence. amherst brings together the most…

Education
10
Hilbert College

Hilbert college is an independent institution of higher learning that embraces its catholic franciscan heritage and values. students from diverse backgrounds are educated in liberal arts and professional programs to become informed…

Education
11
Fordham University

Fordham university, the jesuit university of new york, is committed to the discovery of wisdom and the transmission of learning, through research and through education of the highest quality. for more information, see schedule o.

Education
12
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Valley School of Ligonier and the most unlike its peers is Hillsdale College. 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

17 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 17 of the 30 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
10/17
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER — $95,000 · EducationVALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIERGROVE CITY COLLEGE — $59,000 · EducationGROVE CITY COLLEGETHE KISKI SCHOOL — $52,750 · EducationTHE KISKI SCHOOLSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION — $27,000 · EducationSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATIONHILLSDALE COLLEGE — $23,000 · EducationHILLSDALE COLLEGE+2 more — $4,150 · EducationGETTYSBURG FOUNDATION — $65,500 · Arts & CultureGETTYSBURG FOUNDATIO…FORT LIGONIER ASSOCIATION — $3,000 · Arts & Culture+1 more — $500 · Arts & CultureEMMA MUNSON FOUNDATION INC — $9,000 · OtherEMMA MUNSO…Ronald McDonald House Pittsburgh — $6,000 · OtherRonald McD…Christ Church Preschool — $5,000 · OtherChrist Chu…Holy Trinity Church — $4,550 · OtherHoly Trini…Pittsburgh Creche Endowment Fund — $3,000 · OtherPittsburgh…St Judes Childrens Hospital — $3,000 · OtherSt Judes C…Individual grant recipient — $2,000 · OtherIndividual…SMILE TRAIN INC — $2,000 · OtherSMILE TRAI…+6 more — $2,500 · Other+6 moreFRIENDS OF CASCO BAY — $9,000 · EnvironmentTRAVIS MILLS FOUNDATION — $4,500 · Public BenefitCAMP FREEDOM INC — $3,000 · Recreation & SportsCHILDREN'S TUMOR FOUNDATION — $2,000 · HealthTHE FAMILY RESTORED — $1,000 · Human ServicesNORTH HILLS CARES INC 824521455 — $1,000 · Human Services
Education$260,900Arts & Culture$69,000Other$37,050Environment$9,000Public Benefit$4,500Recreation & Sports$3,000Health$2,000Human Services$2,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetVALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER — $95,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetGETTYSBURG FOUNDATION — $65,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetGROVE CITY COLLEGE — $59,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE KISKI SCHOOL — $52,750 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION — $27,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE — $23,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF CASCO BAY — $9,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTRAVIS MILLS FOUNDATION — $4,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCAMP FREEDOM INC — $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetYARMOUTH EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $3,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetFORT LIGONIER ASSOCIATION — $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCHILDREN'S TUMOR FOUNDATION — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSMILE TRAIN INC — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWESTMINSTER COLLEGE — $1,150 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE FAMILY RESTORED — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNORTH HILLS CARES INC 824521455 — $1,000 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetPITTSBURGH FIRE FIGHTERS FOUNDATION INC — $500 over 1y, 0.4% of budget
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 VALLEY SCHOOL OF LIGONIER
  • Who funds GETTYSBURG FOUNDATION
  • Who funds GROVE CITY COLLEGE
  • Who funds THE KISKI SCHOOL
  • Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION
  • Who funds HILLSDALE COLLEGE
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF CASCO BAY
  • Who funds TRAVIS MILLS FOUNDATION
  • Who funds CAMP FREEDOM INC
  • Who funds YARMOUTH EDUCATION FOUNDATION
  • Who funds FORT LIGONIER ASSOCIATION
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S TUMOR FOUNDATION
  • Who funds SMILE TRAIN INC
  • Who funds WESTMINSTER COLLEGE
  • Who funds THE FAMILY RESTORED
  • Who funds NORTH HILLS CARES INC 824521455
  • Who funds PITTSBURGH FIRE FIGHTERS FOUNDATION 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.

Rk Mellon Family FoundationPA15.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Rk Mellon Family Foundation · Richard King Mellon Foundation · The Pittsburgh Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 Mark B & Jean Higgins 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your 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
    3report 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, FY2025

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Mark B & Jean Higgins Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Mark B & Jean Higgins Foundation 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 30 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph