· Private foundation
Meridian Foundation
Its FY2018 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
65% of Meridian Foundation’s FY2018 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2018 names 11 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2018.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2018
- Under $10k6 grants · $28k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $148k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $186k
- $250k+1 grant · $500k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund | $500,000 |
| Christians at East Lansing | $78,608 |
| JPMorgan Charitable Giving Fund | $57,158 |
| Princeton Evangelical Fellowship | $50,000 |
| Calvin College | $35,000 |
| Southern California Equestrian Sports | $28,000 |
| Emmaus Bible College | $25,000 |
| His Mansion Ministries | $20,000 |
| Adrian Dominian Sisters | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| Sim USA | $10,000 |
| Chicago Hope Academy | $10,000 |
| New Life Ranch | $9,000 |
| Haslett Public Schools | $5,000 |
| Cornerstone Magazine Inc | $5,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 91% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
A private institution of higher education, offering both undergraduate and graduate courses to students.
Evangel is a comprehensive christian university that is committed to excellence in educating and equipping students to become spirit empowered servants of god who will impact the church and society globally.
Calvin theological seminary exists to serve the christian reformed church in north america and wider constituencies by preparing persons for biblically faithful and contextually effective ministry of the word and by offering reformed…
The mission of criswell college is to provide ministerial and professional higher education for men and women preparing to serve as christian leaders throughout society, while maintaining an institutional commitment to biblical inerrancy.
Provide a biblically informed liberal arts education to undergraduate and graduate college students. we strive to offer the highest quality of instruction to prepare students for excellence in further study and careers beyond trinity. all…
Calvary university is an independent non-denominational institution providing undergraduate and graduate education which prepares christians to live and serve in the church and the world according to a biblical worldview. this is…
To develop christ-centered servant leaders through a challenging academic environment in order to impact the world for the kingdom of god.
The mission of barclay college is to prepare students in a bible-centered environment for effective christian life, service, and leadership.
North greenville university exists to glorify god by cultivating graduates who are equipped to serve as transformational leaders for church and society.
To prepare students to serve christ and his church through biblical, experiential and practical ministry. prts provides theological training and instruction in accordance with the scriptures and the historic reformed creeds for promotion…
We educate and equip students to lead lives of impact through transformative academics in a christ-centered community.
Pacific school of religion prepares a diverse cadre of spiritually rooted leaders with the vision, resilience, and skill to create a world where all can thrive. grounded in the rigorous study and faithful practice of progressive christian…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Emmaus Bible College and the most unlike its peers is Southern California Equestrian Sports. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 18 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
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 FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ↗
- Who funds CALVIN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds PRINCETON CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EQUESTRIAN SPORTS ↗
- Who funds EMMAUS BIBLE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO HOPE ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds NEW LIFE RANCH INC ↗
- Who funds CORNERSTONE MAGAZINE 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.
Open a dossier: Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation 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 Meridian 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.
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.