How much did MELCHER CHARITABLE TRUST grant in FY2024?

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 58% of MELCHER CHARITABLE TRUST’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

2018

austinhumane

2019

—

2020

—

2021

protection

2022

—

2023

mauihumane

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$2,000

Median grant

States reached

$1.3M

Total assets

Largest grants

LONGHORN FOUNDATION$9,267
UNITED CAJUN NAVY$5,000
THE UNFORGETTABLES FOUNDATION$5,000
NANOWRIMO$5,000
HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE$4,000
HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE$2,500
TENDER LOVING CRESTED RESCUE$2,000
FRIENDS OF THE DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY$2,000
ADVENTHEALTH ORLANDO$2,000
LIL PAWS MALTESE RESCUE$2,000
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON JACK VALENTI SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION$2,000
HOUSTON ZOO$1,200
DOODLE DANDY RESCUE$1,000
MISSION OF YAHWEH$1,000
LIFELINE OF GALVESTON COUNTY$750

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $28k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15% — the area typically sits at 11%. 100% of those 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.

77%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$434k · 22 repeat orgs$132k to everyone else

22 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 9 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$434k

$117k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+49%

+51%

Still filing today

36%

62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

AnimalsEducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesCivil RightsPublic Safety & DisasterOther

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

HOUSTON ZOO
8× · 2017–2024 · $61k · revenue +16%
FO
FOLDS OF HONOR
6× · 2017–2022 · $33k · revenue +115%
CF
CENTER FOR CHILD PROTECTION
4× · 2017–2021 · $17k · revenue +54%

Funded once

HP
HOUSTON POLICE FOUNDATION
one grant, 2017 · $13k · revenue -18%
GH
GARNER HOLT FUND
one grant, 2022 · $12k
TU
THE UNFORGETTABLES FOUND
one grant, 2022 · $12k

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.

San Diego Humane Society & Spca

Sheltering, adoptions, humane practices, protection, and rehabilitation for animals.

Animals

Memphis Zoological Society

To manage and support the memphis zoo and aquarium in its efforts to preserve wildlife through education, conservation and research.

Animals

Abilene Zoological Society

To provide an animal-oriented educational/recreational resource for the citizen's of Abilene and surrounding communities in order to promote environmental awareness, conservation, and research.

Animals

Humane Society of Southern Arizona

Compassionately serving pets and the people who love them.

Animals

Memorial Hermann Foundation

Provide fundraising support and promotional efforts to memorial hermann health system and its tax exempt affiliates and the programs and functions that they conduct.

Health

Chicago Zoological Society

To inspire conservation leadership by connecting people with wildlife and nature.

Animals

The Fort Worth Zoological Association

The fort worth zoo is dedicated to the conservation of wildlife. through entertainment and education programs, the fort worth zoo attracts, motivates, inspires, and engages the public in order to promote wildlife conservation locally,…

Animals

Arizona Humane Society

Mission: To save the most vulnerable animals and enrich the lives of pets and people.

Animals

Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association

The greater los angeles zoo association ("glaza"), the official support organization of the los angeles zoo and botanical gardens ("zoo"), is a not-for-profit corporation organized for the purpose of establishing, developing, beautifying,…

Animals

Texas State Aquarium Association

The texas state aquarium's mission is engaging people with animals, inspiring appreciation for our seas, and supporting wildlife conservation. its vision is to be a global leader in fostering support for the conservation of the gulf of…

Animals

Washington Humane Society

To protect animals in the district of columbia and new jersey from cruelty and harm.

Animals

Houston Safari Club Foundation

Preserving the sport of hunting through education, conservation, and the promotion of our hunting heritage.

Animals

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Houston Humane Society and the most unlike its peers is Houston Museum of Natural Science. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 22 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) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

0.0%0/29

the rest of the field

11%

206,164/1,819,536

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

27 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

26/27

Grantees still filing

23/27

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$344,468Animals$101,016Education$43,500Human Services$27,500Arts & Culture$20,433Crime & Legal$17,050Civil Rights$12,317

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.

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.

Greater Houston Community FoundationTX12.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund · Network for Good · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc

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 MELCHER CHARITABLE TRUST 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

2get 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: TEAM MUSCLE MAKERS FOR UCMD.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

low risk

~99 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 2 filed years.

Track record & reputation

high risk

2 years of Form 990 filings, no recent filing.

Legal standing

medium risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 454628882 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 TEAM MUSCLE MAKERS FOR UCMD, 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

On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 99 months of cash on hand.
FlagSustained operations— No recent filing on record.
On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 12% 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 Melcher Charitable Trust?

Find your warmest path to Melcher Charitable Trust 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.

MELCHER CHARITABLE TRUST

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

27 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Melcher Charitable Trust?

More from the funding graph

MELCHER CHARITABLE TRUST

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

27 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Melcher Charitable Trust?

More from the funding graph