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· Private foundation

Michael W Louis Private 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.

$775k
Granted FY2025still arriving
30
Grants FY2025still arriving
10
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Education$1.7MHealth$951kEnvironment$560kRecreation & Sports$465kCivil Rights$415kPhilanthropy$221kArts & Culture$193kCommunity Improvement$90kOther$0
02FY2025 · 30 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k6 grants · $33k
  • $10k–50k18 grants · $314k
  • $50k–250k6 grants · $429k
$11,250
Median grant
10
States reached
$8.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATIONAL LOUIS UNVERSITY$100,000
COLORADO COLLEGE$90,000
VALLEYWISE HEALTH FOUNDATION$88,500
PARK CITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$50,000
HONOR HEALTH FOUNDATION$50,000
DESERT VOICES$50,000
THE FIRST TEE OF PHOENIX$45,000
FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS$40,000
UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION$30,000
LAKE OWEN ASSOCIATION$29,000
PHOENIX COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL$22,500
RYE NATURE CENTER$15,000
WINTER SPORTS SCHOOL$15,000
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO$15,000
NEW CANAAN LIBRARY$11,250
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 (FY18–25, $37k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%TRANSPORTATION CHILDREN'S CENTER: $10k → 16%CARVER CENTER: $3k → 9%THERE WITH CARE: $5k → 12%CARVER CENTER: $3k → 9%THERE WITH CARE: $5k → 12%5 STEPS TO FIVE: $2k → 9%NOURISH PHOENIX: $10k → 11%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

VT
IL
WI
NY
MA
CT
CA
UT
CO
VA
MD
AZ
DC

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$4.5M · 38 repeat orgs$237k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +42% since the first grant, against +33% for the ones you funded once.

38 repeat relationships — 20 still active in FY2025, 18 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

38
12

Total granted

$4.5M
$130k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%
+33%

Still filing today

82%
58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $108k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthEnvironmentHuman ServicesArts & CultureRecreation & SportsOther

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

  • NL
    National Louis University
    7× · 2017–2025 · $870k · revenue +113%
  • THE FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS INC
    8× · 2017–2025 · $455k · revenue +49%
  • TC
    THE COLORADO COLLEGE
    6× · 2018–2025 · $375k · revenue +43%

Funded once

  • PP
    PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACT
    one grant, 2023 · $20k
  • CB
    CHEQUAMEGON BAY UNITED IMPACT LAND TRUST
    one grant, 2024 · $20k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $20k

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
Arizona Community Foundation

To lead, serve and collaborate to mobilize enduring philanthropy for a better arizona.

Philanthropy
3
Augustana College

Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…

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
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
7
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

See schedule ouniversity corporation for atmospheric research (ucar), on behalf of, and in cooperation with its member university members, is engaged in the management of long-term atmospheric and related research and educational…

Science & Tech
8
Banner -University Medical Group

Assist banner health complete its mission to make health care easier so life can be better by providing integrated & coordinated care & population health management.

Health
9
Colorado Academy

Creating curious, kind, courageous, and adventurous learners and leaders.

Education
10
Park University

Park university's mission is to transform lives through accessible, student-centered, quality higher education.

Education
11
Lodestar Charitable Foundation

To perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes of the arizona community foundation, an az nonprofit corporation, so long as the arizona community foundation, inc. remains a qualified organization.

12
The Peak School

The peak school seeks to ignite a passion for learning, to develop students of diverse talents and backgrounds who think critically and act with integrity, and to graduate compassionate, confident, capable students who will embrace their…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Phoenix Country Day School and the most unlike its peers is Lake Owen Association Inc. 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 backsteadyHealth Access Advocacy and …Community FoundationsIndependent K-12 SchoolsFood Banks and PantriesYouth Sports ProgramsPublic Library OperationsPolicy Research and AdvocacySchool District FoundationsChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Local History MuseumsEnvironmental Conservation …Dance 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 42 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%7%5–10yr19%7%10–20yr16%29%20–35yr13%17%35–55yr16%41%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%1%5–10yr19%2%10–20yr16%28%20–35yr13%16%35–55yr16%54%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%0/46
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,519

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

46 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. 46 of the 60 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
45/46
Grantees still filing
34/46
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

National Louis University — $870,000 · EducationNational Louis UniversityTHE COLORADO COLLEGE — $375,000 · EducationTHE COLORADO COLLEGEUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION — $110,000 · EducationUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATIONPHOENIX COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL — $97,500 · EducationPHOENIX COUNTRY DAY SCHOOLUniversity of Arizona Foundation — $80,000 · EducationWINTER SPORTS SCHOOL IN PARK CITY — $70,000 · Education+8 more — $134,250 · Education+8 moreDESERT VOICES — $415,000 · OtherDESERT VOICESRYE NATURE CENTER — $120,000 · OtherRYE NATURE CENTERDESIGN BUILD BLUFF — $90,000 · OtherDESIGN BUILD BLUFFIndividual grant recipient — $80,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipien…Individual grant recipient — $70,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipien…ZION CANYON MESA — $60,000 · OtherSANDRA DAY O'CONNOR INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY — $60,000 · Other+20 more — $231,500 · Other+20 moreTHE FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS INC — $455,000 · HealthTHE FOUNDATION FIGHTI…VALLEYWISE HEALTH FOUNDATION — $253,500 · HealthVALLEYWISE HEALTH FOU…BARROW NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $150,000 · HealthBARROW NEUROLOGICAL F…HONORHEALTH FOUNDATION — $50,000 · HealthHONORHEALTH FOUNDATIO…+1 more — $15,000 · HealthLAKE OWEN ASSOCIATION INC — $244,500 · EnvironmentLAKE OWEN…DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN INC — $100,000 · EnvironmentDESERT BO…New Canaan Nature Center Association Inc — $45,000 · EnvironmentNew Canaa…+2 more — $20,000 · EnvironmentARIZONA GOLF AND LIFE SKILLS INC DBA FIRST TEE - PHOENIX — $250,000 · Recreation & SportsCHEQUAMEGON AREA MOUNTAIN BIKE ASSOCIATI — $52,500 · Recreation & SportsARIZONA CYCLING ASSOCIATION — $12,500 · Recreation & SportsPARK CITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $200,000 · PhilanthropyNEW CANAAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC — $21,250 · PhilanthropyTHE ADLER PLANETARIUM — $95,000 · Arts & CultureBALLET WEST — $40,000 · Arts & CultureCABLE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM INC — $37,500 · Arts & CultureTHE HEARD MUSEUM — $20,000 · Arts & Culture
Education$1,736,750Other$1,126,500Health$923,500Environment$409,500Recreation & Sports$315,000Philanthropy$221,250Arts & Culture$192,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetNational Louis University — $870,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetTHE FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS INC — $455,000 over 8y, 0.3% of budgetTHE COLORADO COLLEGE — $375,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetVALLEYWISE HEALTH FOUNDATION — $253,500 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetARIZONA GOLF AND LIFE SKILLS INC DBA FIRST TEE - PHOENIX — $250,000 over 7y, 3.8% of budgetLAKE OWEN ASSOCIATION INC — $244,500 over 8y, 46% of budgetPARK CITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $200,000 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetBARROW NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $150,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetUC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION — $110,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetDESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN INC — $100,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetPHOENIX COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL — $97,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ADLER PLANETARIUM — $95,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetDESIGN BUILD BLUFF — $90,000 over 2y, 53% of budgetUniversity of Arizona Foundation — $80,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWINTER SPORTS SCHOOL IN PARK CITY — $70,000 over 5y, 1.4% of budgetSANDRA DAY O'CONNOR INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY — $60,000 over 3y, 2.6% of budgetCHEQUAMEGON AREA MOUNTAIN BIKE ASSOCIATI — $52,500 over 5y, 4.5% of budgetPark City Education Foundation — $45,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetNew Canaan Nature Center Association Inc — $45,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetBALLET WEST — $40,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCABLE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM INC — $37,500 over 3y, 3.5% of budgetMAMA'S KITCHEN — $22,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE NEW CANAAN LIBRARY INC — $21,250 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetNEW CANAAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC — $21,250 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE HEARD MUSEUM — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGRALAND COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTEP STUDENT EXPEDITION PROGRAM INC — $20,000 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetPhoenix Children's Hospital — $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetARIZONA CYCLING ASSOCIATION — $12,500 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetTHERE WITH CARE — $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetNEW WAY ACADEMY — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTRANSPORTATION CHILDREN'S CENTER INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetChrist Church School Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFOOD ALLERGY RESEARCH & EDUCATION INC — $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE MORTON ARBORETUM — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWashington and Lee University — $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRYE FUND FOR EDUCATION INC — $5,500 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetFOOD BANK OF THE ROCKIES — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPORT CHESTER CARVER CENTER INC — $5,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE DIAPER BANK OF CONNECTICUT INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget5 Steps to Five — $2,000 over 1y, 1.1% 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.

  • Who funds National Louis University
  • Who funds THE FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS INC
  • Who funds THE COLORADO COLLEGE
  • Who funds VALLEYWISE HEALTH FOUNDATION
  • Who funds ARIZONA GOLF AND LIFE SKILLS INC DBA FIRST TEE - PHOENIX
  • Who funds LAKE OWEN ASSOCIATION INC
  • Who funds PARK CITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
  • Who funds BARROW NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION
  • Who funds UC SAN DIEGO FOUNDATION
  • Who funds DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN INC
  • Who funds PHOENIX COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
  • Who funds THE ADLER PLANETARIUM
  • Who funds DESIGN BUILD BLUFF
  • Who funds University of Arizona Foundation
  • Who funds WINTER SPORTS SCHOOL IN PARK CITY
  • Who funds SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR INSTITUTE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
  • Who funds CHEQUAMEGON AREA MOUNTAIN BIKE ASSOCIATI
  • Who funds HONORHEALTH FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Park City Education Foundation
  • Who funds New Canaan Nature Center Association Inc
  • Who funds BALLET WEST
  • Who funds CABLE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM INC
  • Who funds MAMA'S KITCHEN
  • Who funds THE NEW CANAAN LIBRARY INC
  • Who funds NEW CANAAN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds THE HEARD MUSEUM
  • Who funds GRALAND COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
  • Who funds DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
  • Who funds STEP STUDENT EXPEDITION PROGRAM INC
  • Who funds Phoenix Children's Hospital

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.

Louis Foundation IncAZ17.9× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Louis Foundation Inc · Half Moon Foundation · Arizona Community Foundation · Century Foundation · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Pfizer 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 organization Michael W Louis Private 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 · 30%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 49%
  • The Diaper Bank of Connecticut Inc49% of income from government
  • Transportation Children's Center Inc2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get no government money at all
11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Michael W Louis Private Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Michael W Louis Private 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 60 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