Skip to content
Plinth

· Private foundation

Michael and Pamela Gordon Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$46k
Granted FY2024still arriving
9
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What you fund
0199% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY20192024.

Education$9.5MRecreation & Sports$120kCivil Rights$26kArts & Culture$24kHuman Services$14kPhilanthropy$10kCrime & Legal$1kHealth$1kOther$96k
02FY2024 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k8 grants · $31k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $15k
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$132k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HIGH JUMP$15,000
HORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION OF CANADA$8,367
JEWISH UNITED FUND$5,000
BROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES$5,000
AMERICA RED CROSS$5,000
TEMPLE SHOLOM OF CHICAGO$4,000
CHICAGO AREA RUNNERS ASSOCIATION$2,000
START EARLY$1,000
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO$1,000
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 (FY19–24, $14k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%BROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES: $5k → 17%BROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES: $5k → 17%BROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES: $2k → 17%BROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES: $1k → 17%CIRCESTEEM: $500 → 14%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
VT
MN
IL
NY
MA
IA
PA
NJ
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.

4%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$346k · 11 repeat orgs$9.5M to everyone else

11 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
24

Total granted

$346k
$9.4M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%
+36%

Still filing today

82%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
EducationRecreation & SportsArts & CultureHuman ServicesCrime & LegalCivil 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

  • Northwestern University
    4× · 2019–2023 · $100k · revenue +34%
  • HJ
    HIGH JUMP
    5× · 2020–2024 · $84k · revenue +21%
  • AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE
    2× · 2020–2023 · $26k · revenue +68%

Funded once

  • CC
    CARLETON COLLEGEgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $1.9M · revenue +31%
  • Williams Collegegraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $1.9M · revenue +51%
  • PA
    President and Fellows of Middlebury Collegegraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $1.9M · revenue +28%

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
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

2
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
3
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
4
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
6
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
7
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
8
Lake Forest College

Provide post-secondary education leading to a baccalaureate degree. Program service expenditures are made in conjunction with the operation of a liberal arts college spread over 107 acres with approximately 63 educational and support…

Education
9
Illinois College

Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher education learning providing a four-year educational program leading to the baccalaureate degree. illinois college is a community committed to the highest standards of scholarship…

Education
10
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
11
Roosevelt University

Roosevelt university is an independent, non-profit, metropolitan university and national leader in educating socially conscious citizens for active and dedicated lives as leaders in their professions and their communities. the university's…

12
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Carleton College and the most unlike its peers is Start Early. 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 backsteadyEducation Equity LeadershipJewish Community FederationsPregnancy Support ServicesElementary Literacy TutoringLegal Aid & Immigration Ser…Professional Ballet Compani…Youth Sports Booster Organi…Community Arts OrganizationsFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…
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 53 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%0%10–20yr16%25%20–35yr13%28%35–55yr16%47%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%0%10–20yr16%20%20–35yr13%1%35–55yr16%79%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% 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 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/32
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,533

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

29 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. 29 of the 38 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
29/29
Grantees still filing
22/29
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CARLETON COLLEGE — $1,875,000 · EducationCARLETON COLLEGEWilliams College — $1,875,000 · EducationWilliams CollegePresident and Fellows of Middlebury College — $1,875,000 · EducationPresident and Fellows of Middlebury CollegePRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE — $1,875,000 · EducationPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGEWellesley College — $1,875,000 · EducationWellesley College+7 more — $134,350 · EducationNorthwestern University — $100,000 · Recreation & SportsChicago Area Runners Association — $12,000 · Recreation & SportsUNITED STATES SOCCER FEDERATION — $7,500 · Recreation & SportsHORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION OF CANADA — $31,117 · OtherNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION — $25,500 · OtherTEMPLE SHOLOM OF CHICAGO — $21,900 · OtherUNITED WAY OF NEW YORK — $5,000 · OtherAMERICA RED CROSS — $5,000 · Other+12 more — $9,575 · OtherAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE — $25,500 · Civil RightsCHICAGO CHILDREN'S THEATRE — $13,075 · Arts & CultureTUTORING CHICAGO — $11,000 · Arts & CultureBROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES INC — $13,000 · Human ServicesCIRCESTEEM INC — $500 · Human ServicesJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $10,000 · Philanthropy
Education$9,509,350Recreation & Sports$119,500Other$98,092Civil Rights$25,500Arts & Culture$24,075Human Services$13,500Philanthropy$10,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCARLETON COLLEGE — $1,875,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetWilliams College — $1,875,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Middlebury College — $1,875,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE — $1,875,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetWellesley College — $1,875,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetNorthwestern University — $100,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHIGH JUMP — $83,600 over 5y, 0.8% of budgetAMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE — $25,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFrancis W Parker School — $23,250 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON COLLEGE — $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO CHILDREN'S THEATRE — $13,075 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetBROADWAY HOUSING COMMUNITIES INC — $13,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetChicago Area Runners Association — $12,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetTUTORING CHICAGO — $11,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED STATES SOCCER FEDERATION — $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLITERACY INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPlanned Parenthood of Illinois — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSTART EARLY — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMobilization for Justice Inc — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHSIDE ACHIEVEMENT ZONE — $750 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCIRCESTEEM INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLEGAL AID CHICAGO — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPHIPPS NEIGHBORHOODS INC — $175 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF NEW YORK CITY INC — $150 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

The Sidley Austin FoundationIL23.9× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Sidley Austin Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Goldman Sachs Charitable Gift Fund · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The New York Community Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Jewish Communal 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 Michael and Pamela Gordon 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 1%
  • Trustees of Tufts College13% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston College3% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Middlebury College1% of income from government
  • Wellesley College1% of income from government
  • Williams College0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
8report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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.

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 38 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph