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Plinth

· Public charity

Michigan Architectural Foundation

The mission of the MICHIGAN ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION is to advance public awareness of how architecture enriches life in the state of michigan.

$114k
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$20k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Arts & Culture$101kRecreation & Sports$50kCommunity Improvement$22kEnvironment$20kPhilanthropy$10kMembership Benefit$10kEducation$9k
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 1 grants below total $20,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $114,058 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $94,058 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

$20,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIRST NEIGHBOR LLC$20,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 85% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%BALDWIN PUBLIC LIBRARY: $9k → 8%POINTE AUX BARQUES LIGHTHOUSE SOCIE: $15k → 12%KALAMAZOO NATURE CENTER: $10k → 12%HIGHLAND CEMETARY ASSOCIATION: $10k → 14%BATTLE CREEK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%MACKINAC STATE HISTORIC PARKS: $30k → 14%PEOPLE FOR PALMER PARK: $20k → 21%GABL MEDIA GROUP: $7k → 7%DETROIT PUBLIC TELEVISION: $15k → 8%AIAM MICHIGAN: $11k → 21%NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MINORITY A: $7k → 21%AIAM MICHIGAN: $6k → 21%DETROIT SOUND CONSERVANCY: $20k → 21%FIRST NEIGHBOR LLC: $20k → 21%EASTERN MARKET DEVELOPMENT CO: $10k → 21%SEAFOAM PALACE MUSEUM INC: $8k → 21%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.

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 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
Preservation Detroit

Education Preservation Advocacy

2
American Institute of Architects Detroit Chapter

To provide continuing education to its members and others and to promote public awareness in the value of its members and the contributions of the profession to the detroit metropolitan area.

3
Detroit Theater Organ Society

Theater organ concerts & movie theatre

Arts & Culture
4
Arboretum Detroit

Arboretum Detroits mission is to establish and maintain a public arboretum that demonstrates reforesting Detroits landscape with stands of trees that highlight their form and diversity,

Environment
5
Muskegon Heritage Association

Maintain historical museum

6
Mack Alive

The nbsp;mission nbsp;of nbsp;mack nbsp;alive nbsp;is nbsp;to nbsp;enhance nbsp;the nbsp;growth nbsp;and nbsp;development nbsp;on nbsp;the nbsp;eastside nbsp;of nbsp;detroit

Health
7
Little Traverse Conservancy Conservation Trust

To protect scenic and natural lands in northern Michigan.

8
Cinema Detroit

Motion picture exhibition

Arts & Culture
9
Michigan City Historical Socie

To promote historical study and preserve the lighthouse museum

10
Norwood Park Historical Society

Preservation, conservation and restoration of a historical chicago landmark property.

11
Detroit Historical Society

The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.

Arts & Culture
12
Home Builders Association of Michigan

A voice of the building industry in Michigan. The primary purpose is to positively influence the legislative, regulatory and legal issues that affect the industry.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Michigan Society of Architects and the most unlike its peers is National Organization of Minority Architects. 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

12 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. 12 of the 17 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
8/12
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MACKINAC STATE HISTORIC PARKS — $30,000 · OtherMACKINAC STATE HISTORIC PARKSMICHIGAN SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS — $17,450 · OtherMICHIGAN SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTSHighland Cemetery Association — $10,000 · OtherHighland Cemetery AssociationROUND ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE PRESERVATIO — $10,000 · OtherROUND ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE PRESERVATIOBALDWIN PUBLIC LIBRARY — $8,791 · OtherBALDWIN PUBLIC LIBRARYSEAFOAM PALACE MUSEUM INC — $7,500 · OtherSEAFOAM PALACE MUSEUM INCGABL MEDIA GROUP — $6,500 · OtherGABL MEDIA GROUPAMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS GRAND RAPIDS — $5,500 · OtherAMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS GRAND RAPIDSIDLEWILD FOUNDATION OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION — $20,000 · Arts & CultureIDLEWILD FOUNDATION OF HISTORIC PRE…DETROIT SOUND CONSERVANCY — $20,000 · Arts & CultureDETROIT SOUND CONSERVANCYDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA — $15,000 · Arts & CultureDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIAPOINTE AUX BARQUES LIGHTHOUSE — $15,000 · Arts & CulturePOINTE AUX BARQUES LIGHTHOUSEPEOPLE FOR PALMER PARK — $20,000 · Recreation & SportsPEOPLE FOR…EASTERN MARKET DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $10,000 · Community ImprovementNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MINORITY ARCHITECTS — $6,500 · Community ImprovementKalamazoo Nature Center — $10,000 · EnvironmentBATTLE CREEK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $10,000 · Philanthropy
Other$95,741Arts & Culture$70,000Recreation & Sports$20,000Community Improvement$16,500Environment$10,000Philanthropy$10,000

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$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetIDLEWILD FOUNDATION OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION — $20,000 over 1y, 48% of budgetDETROIT SOUND CONSERVANCY — $20,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetPEOPLE FOR PALMER PARK — $20,000 over 1y, 8.9% of budgetMICHIGAN SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS — $17,450 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPOINTE AUX BARQUES LIGHTHOUSE — $15,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetKalamazoo Nature Center — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBATTLE CREEK COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHighland Cemetery Association — $10,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetEASTERN MARKET DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION — $10,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MINORITY ARCHITECTS — $6,500 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetAMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS GRAND RAPIDS — $5,500 over 1y, 3.7% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.

Amazonsmile FoundationWA1.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Michigan Architectural 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%3%13%28%50%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report 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, 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 17 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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