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· Private foundation

Morris and Helen Silver Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$7k
Granted FY2023
5
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What you fund
0173% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172023.

Health$111kArts & Culture$101kCrime & Legal$20kEducation$6kYouth Development$5kHousing & Shelter$3kRecreation & Sports$3kPublic Safety & Disaster$3kOther$0
02FY2023 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$1,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$3.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$3,414
Individual grant recipient$1,500
HGRM$1,000
CRYSTAL PEAKS YOUTH RANCH$500
GRIZZLY RODEO ASSOCIATION$150
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 (FY18–18, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%WATSON'S CHILDREN'S SHELTER: $2k → 9%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 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.

47%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$150k · 8 repeat orgs$167k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +35% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.

8 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2023, 7 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
14

Total granted

$150k
$161k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+35%
0%

Still filing today

38%
36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 15% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
Arts & CultureHealthCrime & LegalAnimalsHuman ServicesEducationOther

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

  • RM
    ROCKY MOUNTAIN BALLET THEATRE
    6× · 2017–2022 · $80k · revenue +35%
  • H
    HGRM
    4× · 2017–2023 · $34k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    2× · 2018–2021 · $10k

Funded once

  • THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCHgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue +213%
  • TL
    The LifeGuard Group Inc
    one grant, 2021 · $20k · revenue -69%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2017 · $10k

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
Scenic Montana Trails
2
Rocky Mountain Horse Foundation
Science & Tech
3
Montana Pediatric Cancer Foundation
Philanthropy
4
Montana Healthcare Foundation
Philanthropy
5
Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame

To honor montana professional rodeo cowboys and cowgirls who exemplify montana western heritage.

Arts & Culture
6
The Michael Murphey Western Institute in
Arts & Culture
7
Platte Ranch Forever Home Sanctuary
Animals
8
Wind River Valley Artist Guild
9
Rocky Mountain Emmy Foundation
10
Windwalker Ridge Mustang Sanctuary Inc

Currently housing and caring for 84 displaced wild mustang horses

Animals
11
Colt Family Foundation Montana
Philanthropy
12
Four Rings Montana Family Foundation
Philanthropy

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch Co and the most unlike its peers is Rocky Mountain Ballet Theatre. 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

11 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. 11 of the 27 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)
11/11
Grantees still filing
6/11
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH — $100,000 · HealthTHE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKI…SUMMIT FOR PARKINSONS — $9,000 · HealthSUMMIT FOR PARKINSONSHGRM — $34,075 · OtherHGRMIndividual grant recipient — $10,200 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient — $10,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientBIG SKY DOC FILM FESTIVAL — $10,000 · OtherBIG SKY DOC FILM FESTIVALUNIVERSITY OF MONTANA — $8,500 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MONTANAIndividual grant recipient — $4,900 · OtherTEEN CHALLENGE — $4,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $3,414 · Other+8 more — $7,950 · Other+8 moreROCKY MOUNTAIN BALLET THEATRE — $79,875 · Arts & CultureROCKY MOUNTAIN BALLET THEATRETHE EQUUS PROJECTS INC DANCING WITH HORSES — $8,000 · Arts & CultureTHE EQUUS PROJECTS INC DANCING W…+1 more — $2,750 · Arts & CultureThe LifeGuard Group Inc — $20,000 · Crime & Legal+1 more — $500 · Crime & LegalWATSON CHILDREN'S SHELTER INC — $2,480 · Human ServicesMISSOULA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $1,850 · Community ImprovementRIVER PINES HORSE SANCTUARY — $500 · AnimalsGrizzly Rodeo Association — $150 · Education
Health$109,000Other$93,539Arts & Culture$90,625Crime & Legal$20,500Human Services$2,480Community Improvement$1,850Animals$500Education$150

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$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetTHE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetROCKY MOUNTAIN BALLET THEATRE — $79,875 over 6y, 8.5% of budgetThe LifeGuard Group Inc — $20,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetTHE EQUUS PROJECTS INC DANCING WITH HORSES — $8,000 over 2y, 20% of budgetMISSOULA ART MUSEUM — $2,750 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetWATSON CHILDREN'S SHELTER INC — $2,480 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMISSOULA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $1,850 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCrystal Peaks Youth Ranch Co — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGrizzly Rodeo Association — $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.

  • Who funds THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH
  • Who funds ROCKY MOUNTAIN BALLET THEATRE
  • Who funds The LifeGuard Group Inc
  • Who funds SUMMIT FOR PARKINSONS
  • Who funds THE EQUUS PROJECTS INC DANCING WITH HORSES
  • Who funds MISSOULA ART MUSEUM
  • Who funds WATSON CHILDREN'S SHELTER INC
  • Who funds MISSOULA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch Co
  • Who funds RIVER PINES HORSE SANCTUARY
  • Who funds Grizzly Rodeo Association

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 Bill & Rosemary Gallagher FoundationMT17.9× affinity6 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Bill & Rosemary Gallagher Foundation · Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving 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 Morris and Helen Silver 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 · 10%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    1report 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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Morris and Helen Silver Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Morris and Helen Silver 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 27 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record but names no grant recipient in the published copy, so the figures above are from FY2023, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

    Source object · view filing

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