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Michael J Marks Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Michael J Marks Foundation

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.

$260k
Granted FY2025still arriving
45
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0191% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$239kHuman Services$168kFood & Nutrition$143kHealth$129kArts & Culture$92kHousing & Shelter$85kYouth Development$69kEnvironment$63kOther$0
02FY2025 · 45 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k39 grants · $180k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $80k
$5,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$5.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
University of Hawaii Foundation$25,000
Maui Food Bank$12,500
HUGS$12,500
We Are Oceania$10,000
Kahumana Organic Farm & Cafe$10,000
Hawaii Foodbank Inc$10,000
Never Quit Dreaming$6,000
Hale Mahaolu$5,000
The Legal Clinic$5,000
Waimanalo Community Center$5,000
Palama Settlement$5,000
Family Promise Hawaii$5,000
Hale Kipa Inc$5,000
Kalihi Palama Health Center$5,000
Mediation Center of the Pacific$5,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $107k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%Sprye: $5k → 9%Sprye: $5k → 9%Sprye: $5k → 9%Sprye: $5k → 9%SPRYE: $5k → 9%Hale Kipa Inc: $5k → 9%Hale Kipa Inc: $5k → 9%Hale Kipa Inc: $5k → 9%HALE KIPA INC: $3k → 9%HALE KIPA INC: $3k → 9%Hale Kipa Inc: $3k → 9%We Are Oceania: $10k → 9%Family Promise Hawaii: $5k → 9%Family Promise Hawaii: $5k → 9%Family Promise Hawaii: $5k → 9%Family Promise Hawaii: $3k → 9%FAMILY PROMISE HAWAII: $3k → 9%FAMILY PROMISE HAWAII: $3k → 9%Waikiki Community Center: $5k → 9%Waikiki Community Center: $5k → 9%ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES INTERNATIONAL: $3k → 9%ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES INTERNATIONAL: $3k → 9%Hui Aloha 808: $3k → 9%Hui Aloha 808: $3k → 9%Hui Aloha 808: $3k → 9%Mai Movement Hawaii: $3k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.1M · 53 repeat orgs$57k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +11% since the first grant, against -9% for those funded once.

53 repeat relationships: 41 still active in FY2025, 12 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

53
8

Total granted

$1.1M
$34k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+11%
-9%

Still filing today

62%
38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23k 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
Human ServicesHealthFood & NutritionEnvironmentHousing & ShelterEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2025 · $213k · revenue +132%
  • BH
    BALLET HAWAII
    5× · 2020–2025 · $65k · revenue +29%
  • MAUI FOOD BANK INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $45k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • JC
    JEWISH COMM CENTER
    one grant, 2021 · $10k
  • AM
    Aloha Med Mission
    one grant, 2023 · $8k
  • PH
    PEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM
    one grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue -9%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Hawaii - American Nurses Association Foundation
Environment
2
E Kupaku Ka Aina - the Hawaii Land Restoration Institute
Environment
3
Hui Malama I Ke Ala Ulili

To re-establish the systems that sustain our community through educational initiatives and land-based practices that cultivate abundance, regenerate responsibilities, and promote collective health and well being.

Community Improvement
4
Hawaii Maritime Center
—
5
The Haiku Aina Permaculture Initiative
—
6
Papahana Kuaola

Papahana kuaola's mission is to create quality educational programs focused on environmental restoration and economic sustainability fully integrated with hawaiian knowledge in order to exemplify a lifestyle respectful of kanaka, `aina,…

Environment
7
Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens
Philanthropy
8
Hawaii Education Institute
—
9
Kapi'olani Medical Specialists

Kapi'olani medical specialists (dba hawai'i pacific health medical group) is a multispecialty provider group dedicated to providing world-class care for adults and children across hawai'i and the pacific region working in partnership with…

Health
10
Na Kua Aina O Waimanalo
Arts & Culture
11
Ka Ha O Ka Aina
Environment
12
Hokah Area Food Shelf
Food & Nutrition
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hale Kipa Inc; the most unlike its peers is Death Ride Tour Inc. 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

42 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 42 of the 65 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
40/42
Grantees still filing
26/42
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

HUGS: $70,000 · OtherHUGSBALLET HAWAII: $65,000 · OtherBALLET HAWAIIIndividual grant recipient: $30,000 · OtherKALIHI-PALAMA HEALTH CENTER (HALE HO'OLA HOU): $22,500 · OtherFRIENDS OF LYON ARBORETUM: $21,500 · OtherHelping Hands: $20,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $20,000 · OtherKEYS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $20,000 · OtherPALAMA SETTLEMENT: $22,500 · OtherFRIENDS OF THE WAIKIKI AQUARIUM: $20,000 · Other+28 more: $281,400 · Other+28 moreUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION: $212,500 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII…+1 more: $2,500 · EducationMAUI FOOD BANK INC: $45,000 · Food & NutritionMAUI FOOD …HAWAII FOODBANK INC: $45,000 · Food & NutritionHAWAII FOO…ALOHA HARVEST: $15,000 · Food & NutritionALOHA HARV…+2 more: $5,025 · Food & NutritionSPRYE INC: $25,000 · Human ServicesSPRYE INCFAMILY PROMISE OF HAWAII: $22,500 · Human ServicesFAMILY PRO…HALE KIPA INC: $22,500 · Human ServicesHALE KIPA …WAIKIKI COMMUNITY CENTER: $10,000 · Human ServicesWAIKIKI CO…WE ARE OCEANIA: $10,000 · Human ServicesWE ARE OCE…HUI ALOHA 808: $9,000 · Human ServicesHUI ALOHA …ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES INTERNATIONAL: $5,000 · Human Services+1 more: $3,000 · Human ServicesWAIANAE DISTR COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH &: $22,500 · HealthKOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES: $22,500 · HealthKapi'olani Health Foundation: $20,000 · HealthPROJECT VISION HAWAII: $17,500 · HealthPARENTS AND CHILDREN TOGETHER: $5,000 · HealthNEW LEAF RANCH INC: $3,500 · HealthFRIENDS OF HONOLULU BOTANICAL GARDENS: $16,500 · EnvironmentHAWAII CONSERVATION ALLIANCE FOUNDATION: $16,500 · EnvironmentMALAMA MAUNALUA: $8,000 · EnvironmentRESIDENTIAL YOUTH SERVICES & EMPOWERMENT: $15,000 · Housing & ShelterHALE MAHAOLU: $15,000 · Housing & ShelterIHS THE INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SERVICES INC: $10,000 · Housing & Shelter
Other$592,900Education$215,000Food & Nutrition$110,025Human Services$107,000Health$91,000Environment$41,000Housing & Shelter$40,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION: $212,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBALLET HAWAII: $65,000 over 5y, 1.5% of budgetMAUI FOOD BANK INC: $45,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetHAWAII FOODBANK INC: $45,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSPRYE INC: $25,000 over 5y, 2.7% of budgetKALIHI-PALAMA HEALTH CENTER (HALE HO'OLA HOU): $22,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetFAMILY PROMISE OF HAWAII: $22,500 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetHALE KIPA INC: $22,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetWAIANAE DISTR COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH &: $22,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPALAMA SETTLEMENT: $22,500 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetKOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES: $22,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetKapi'olani Health Foundation: $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE WAIKIKI AQUARIUM: $20,000 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetPROJECT VISION HAWAII: $17,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS OF HONOLULU BOTANICAL GARDENS: $16,500 over 5y, 2.3% of budgetHAWAII CONSERVATION ALLIANCE FOUNDATION: $16,500 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetHAWAII LITERACY INC: $15,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetFAMILY PROGRAMS HAWAII: $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MEDIATION CENTER OF THE PACIFIC INC: $15,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetRESIDENTIAL YOUTH SERVICES & EMPOWERMENT: $15,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLAWAKUA CHARITABLE FUND: $15,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetALOHA HARVEST: $15,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHALE MAHAOLU: $15,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetIHS THE INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SERVICES INC: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWAIKIKI COMMUNITY CENTER: $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetALOHA MEDICAL MISSION: $10,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetHUI ALOHA 808: $9,000 over 3y, 13% of budgetNEVER QUIT DREAMING: $9,000 over 2y, 6.0% of budgetMALAMA MAUNALUA: $8,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetPEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALTERNATIVE STRUCTURES INTERNATIONAL: $5,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetALEXANDER & BALDWIN SUGAR MUSEUM: $5,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetPARENTS AND CHILDREN TOGETHER: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEW LEAF RANCH INC: $3,500 over 2y, 7.6% of budgetTHE FOOD BASKET INC: $2,525 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetKAUAI FOOD BANK INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPUBLIC SCHOOLS OF HAWAII FOUNDATION: $2,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetDEATH RIDE TOUR INC: $2,400 over 2y, 0.7% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds BALLET HAWAII ↗
  • Who funds MAUI FOOD BANK INC ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII FOODBANK INC ↗
  • Who funds SPRYE INC ↗
  • Who funds KALIHI-PALAMA HEALTH CENTER (HALE HO'OLA HOU) ↗
  • Who funds FAMILY PROMISE OF HAWAII ↗
  • Who funds HALE KIPA INC ↗
  • Who funds WAIANAE DISTR COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH & ↗
  • Who funds PALAMA SETTLEMENT ↗
  • Who funds KOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES ↗
  • Who funds Kapi'olani Health Foundation ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF THE WAIKIKI AQUARIUM ↗
  • Who funds PROJECT VISION HAWAII ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF HONOLULU BOTANICAL GARDENS ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII CONSERVATION ALLIANCE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds HAWAII LITERACY INC ↗
  • Who funds FAMILY PROGRAMS HAWAII ↗
  • Who funds THE PANTRY ↗
  • Who funds THE MEDIATION CENTER OF THE PACIFIC INC ↗
  • Who funds RESIDENTIAL YOUTH SERVICES & EMPOWERMENT ↗
  • Who funds LAWAKUA CHARITABLE FUND ↗
  • Who funds ALOHA HARVEST ↗
  • Who funds HALE MAHAOLU ↗
  • Who funds IHS THE INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SERVICES INC ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

J Watumull FundBank of Hawaii Charit…Aloha United Way IncAtherton Family Found…Tradewind Group Found…The Harry and Jeanett…Central Pacific Bank …Harold Kl Castle Foun…First Hawaiian Bank F…The Cades FoundationThe Clarence Tc Ching…The Queen's Medical C…
J Watumull FundHI46.8× affinity20 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: J Watumull Fund · Bank of Hawaii Charitable Fdn · Aloha United Way Inc · Atherton Family Foundation · Tradewind Group Foundation · The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc · Central Pacific Bank Foundation · Harold Kl Castle Foundation · First Hawaiian Bank Foundation · The Cades Foundation · The Clarence Tc Ching Foundation · The Queen's Medical Center

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Michael J Marks Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Michael J Marks Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Michael J Marks Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Michael J Marks 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 65 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Michael J Marks’ filings →

    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 endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home