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Plinth

· Private foundation

Melcher Charitable Trust

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.

$51k
Granted FY2025still arriving
15
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0193% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.

Animals$172kEducation$99kArts & Culture$59kRecreation & Sports$49kHealth$32kHuman Services$27kScience & Tech$24kPublic Safety & Disaster$23kOther$0
02FY2025 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k14 grants · $41k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$2,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$1.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO$10,000
LONGHORN FOUNDATION$9,733
THE KINKAID SCHOOL$8,779
HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE$4,000
HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO$4,000
HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO$3,000
FRIENDS OF MINERAL COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES INC$2,000
WINGS OF RESCUE$2,000
HOUSTON ZOO$1,500
HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE$1,250
ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS$1,000
UNITED CAJUN NAVY$1,000
TAILS OF TWO CITIES SANCTUARY$1,000
FRIENDS OF THE DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY$1,000
NMDP FOUNDATION$950
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 (FY17–24, $40k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%THE UNFORGETTABLES FOUND: $12k → 14%THE UNFORGETTABLES FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%THE UNFORGETTABLES FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%HOUSTON POLICE FOUNDATION: $13k → 16%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

MN
IL
NY
CA
CO
HI
OK
LA
AL
TX
FL

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.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$495k · 25 repeat orgs$117k to everyone else

25 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 18 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
24

Total granted

$495k
$104k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
+33%

Still filing today

60%
83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $14k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
AnimalsEducationArts & CulturePhilanthropyHuman ServicesCivil RightsOther

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 Inc
    9× · 2017–2025 · $62k · revenue +16%
  • HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO INC
    5× · 2018–2025 · $49k · revenue +64%
  • FO
    FOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION
    6× · 2017–2022 · $33k · revenue +162%

Funded once

  • HP
    HOUSTON POLICE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $13k · revenue -18%
  • GH
    GARNER HOLT FUND
    one grant, 2022 · $12k
  • ZS
    ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO
    one grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +7%

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
Houston Pets Alive

Houston Pets Alive!s (HPA!) mission is to save the lives of at-risk companion cats and dogs and find them loving homes.

Animals
2
Spca of Texas

The spca of texas is dedicated to providing every animal exceptional care and a loving home.

Animals
3
Michigan Humane Society

To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.

Animals
4
Humane Society of Central Texas

As an advocate for the community goal of maintaining its no kill status, the humane society provides adoption, rescue and foster opportunities for the homeless animals at the city of waco animal shelter, as well as community education…

Animals
5
Central Texas Spca

Rescue neglected, unwanted homeless dogs and cats nurture and provide shelter until they are placed with a forever family strive to reduce animal overpopulation prevent cruelty to animals teach responsible pet ownership through an outreach…

Animals
6
Humane Society of Harris County

Humane Society of Harris County's mission remains steadfast: to provide high-quality adoption, transport, foster, Trap, neuter, release, and pet food pantry services to our community. Yet, with a fresh perspective and a renewed passion,…

—
7
Humane Heroes Inc

The Organizations mission is to save the lives of adoptable dogs and cats from shelters throughout Texas, to decrease overpopulation of animals through low-cost veterinary services, and to enhance the lives of pets through educational…

Animals
8
Humane Society of San Antonio (Audit)

To protect and improve the lives of dogs and cats by providing shelter, care, adoption, rescue, spay & neuter programs and community education.

Animals
9
Central Texas Animal Sanctuary

Animal rescue and rehabilitation

Animals
10
Operation Kindness

Our mission is to create a kinder world for pets and the people who love them by providing lifesaving care, innovative programs, and community resources.

Animals
11
Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit

The friends are dedicated to the rescue, protection, and adoption of companion animals in need while inspiring the human-animal bond. we meet our mission by:-saving 100% of healthy and treatable animals.-providing high-quality animal care…

Animals
12
Laurels House

Laurel's House strengthens the human animal bond improves public health decreases the number of companion animal euthanasia due to overpopulation and diminishes human impact on native wildlife species by providing unprecedented access to…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Houston Humane Society and the most unlike its peers is Team Muscle Makers for Ucmd. 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.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyIndependent K-8 SchoolsPublic University Foundatio…Food Pantries & AssistanceGovernment Accountability R…Cancer Support OrganizationsLand Conservation Organizat…Animal Rescue and AdoptionCommunity FoundationsChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Veteran Support ServicesLgbtq+ Community CentersFallen First Responder Supp…Community Arts Organizations
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
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

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 30 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number26%5%<5yr16%18%5–10yr20%13%10–20yr16%21%20–35yr10%31%35–55yr13%13%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value26%0%<5yr16%10%5–10yr20%11%10–20yr16%19%20–35yr10%31%35–55yr13%29%55yr+

The field is 26% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/43
the rest of the field
15%
20,233/136,761

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.

04the grantee network

41 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. 41 of the 55 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)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
40/41
Grantees still filing
26/41
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

NANOWRIMO — $71,200 · OtherNANOWRIMOLONGHORN FOUNDATION — $40,000 · OtherLONGHORN FOUNDATIONSAN DIEGO ZOO — $33,000 · OtherSAN DIEGO ZOOHAVENCON — $23,000 · OtherHAVENCONGARNER HOLT FUND — $12,000 · OtherTEAM MUSCLE MAKERS FOR UCMD — $10,500 · OtherCITIZENS FOR ANIMAL PROTECTION — $10,000 · Other+21 more — $76,317 · Other+21 moreHouston Zoo Inc — $62,016 · AnimalsHouston Zoo IncTHE HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTIN & TRAVIS COUNTY INC — $15,717 · AnimalsTHE HUMANE SOCIETY OF …HOUSTON HUMANE SOCIETY — $15,000 · AnimalsHOUSTON HUMANE SOCIETYZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO — $10,000 · AnimalsZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF …MAUI HUMANE SOCIETY — $5,000 · AnimalsCitizens For Animal Protection Inc — $5,000 · Animals+6 more — $8,250 · Animals+6 moreFOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION — $32,500 · EducationFOLDS OF HON…826CHI INC — $9,984 · Education826CHI INCThe Kinkaid School Inc — $8,779 · EducationThe Kinkaid …UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION — $6,000 · EducationUC SAN DIEGO…THE GARNER HOLT FOUNDATION — $5,000 · EducationTHE GARNER H…STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION — $5,000 · EducationSTEPHEN SILL…HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO INC — $49,000 · Recreation & SportsHouston Museum of Natural Science — $23,850 · Arts & CultureSTEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY — $20,000 · Arts & CultureBOB BAKER MARIONETTE THEATER — $3,333 · Arts & Culture+2 more — $1,500 · Arts & CultureTHE UNFORGETTABLES FOUNDATION — $27,000 · Human ServicesHOUSTON POLICE FOUNDATION — $12,500 · Human ServicesCENTER FOR CHILD PROTECTION — $17,050 · Crime & Legal
Other$276,017Animals$120,983Education$67,263Recreation & Sports$49,000Arts & Culture$48,683Human Services$39,500Crime & Legal$17,050

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetHouston Zoo Inc — $62,016 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetHOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO INC — $49,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetFOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION — $32,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE UNFORGETTABLES FOUNDATION — $27,000 over 3y, 3.1% of budgetHouston Museum of Natural Science — $23,850 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSTEPPENWOLF THEATRE COMPANY — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCENTER FOR CHILD PROTECTION — $17,050 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE HUMANE SOCIETY OF AUSTIN & TRAVIS COUNTY INC — $15,717 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetHOUSTON HUMANE SOCIETY — $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHOUSTON POLICE FOUNDATION — $12,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTEAM MUSCLE MAKERS FOR UCMD — $10,500 over 2y, 12% of budgetZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTREVOR PROJECT INC — $9,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe Kinkaid School Inc — $8,779 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAUSTIN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC — $6,250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUnited Cajun Navy — $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION — $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GARNER HOLT FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMAUI HUMANE SOCIETY — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMAUI FOOD BANK INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCitizens For Animal Protection Inc — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS OF MINERAL COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES INC — $4,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetGIVE KIDS THE WORLD INC — $3,750 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION — $3,550 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOB BAKER MARIONETTE THEATER — $3,333 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetHOUSTON'S CHARITY FOR CHILDREN INC — $3,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetDOODLE DANDY RESCUE — $3,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetThe Women's Resource of Greater Houston — $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMISSION OF YAHWEH INC — $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNAMI GREATER HOUSTON — $2,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN PUBLIC MEDIA INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRAPRS — $1,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetCitizens for Animals of Midland Odessa Inc — $750 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHAPPY BUNNY PROJECT — $750 over 1y, 7.8% of budgetLIFELINE OF GALVESTON COUNTY — $750 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAstrodome Conservancy — $500 over 1y, 0.3% 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.

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 Commu…Shell USA Company Fou…Baker Hughes Foundati…Astros FoundationAlbert & Ethel Herzst…Mechia FoundationJpmorgan Chase Founda…Paypal Charitable Giv…Natl Christian Charit…Network for GoodThe Blackbaud Giving …American Endowment Fo…
Greater Houston Community FoundationTX18.5× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · Baker Hughes Foundation · Astros Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Mechia Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Network for Good · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Endowment 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 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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: 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.

    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 55 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

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    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