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Plinth

· Private foundation

Myron Lewis Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$32k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$13k
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 FY20202025.

Philanthropy$75kReligion$60kEducation$30kArts & Culture$22kHuman Services$4kHealth$2kInternational$500
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k7 grants · $10k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $23k
$1,500
Median grant
2
States reached
$463k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
TEMPLE ISRAEL$12,855
MEMPHIS JEWISH FEDERATION$10,000
THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS$2,700
ST MARY'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL$2,200
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS HIGH SCHOOL$1,500
THEATRE MEMPHIS$1,500
VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN$1,000
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MEMPHIS$500
COLUMBIA SCHOOL OF NURSING$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 (FY22–25, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 19%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 19%VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN: $3k → 17%VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN: $1k → 17%VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN: $150 → 17%VILLAGE OF GERMANTOWN: $100 → 17%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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 29% of Myron Lewis Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 98% of the giving stays in TN; read by stated purpose it is 67% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

Myron Lewis Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 4.3% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$111k · 8 repeat orgs$8k to everyone else

8 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
8

Total granted

$111k
$5k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+27%
+1330%

Still filing today

50%
25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationInternationalOther

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

  • OM
    OPERA MEMPHIS INC
    2× · 2020–2021 · $18k · revenue +31%
  • SM
    ST MARY'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
    5× · 2020–2025 · $9k · revenue +27%
  • TV
    THE VILLAGE AT GERMANTOWN INC
    4× · 2022–2025 · $4k · revenue +19%

Funded once

  • C
    CBHS
    one grant, 2022 · $2k
  • Indiana University Foundationgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $2k · revenue +34%
  • DC
    DARTMOUTH COLLEGE FUND
    one grant, 2022 · $1k

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
Memphis Academy of Science and Engineeri

To produce lifelong learners, critical thinkers, effective communicators, and productive members of the global community

Education
2
Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce

To serve our members and partners by improving the quality of life through regional economic prosperity.

3
Mayor's Institute for Excellence in Government Inc

Develop and implement programs to meet major urban challenges that exist for memphis, tennessee

Public Benefit
4
Memphis Education Fund Inc

To work in partnership with the shelby county school district and the achievement school district on strategies that support school improvement, development, and implementation of initiatives focused on increasing k-12 educational outcomes…

Education
5
University of Memphis Foundation

The foundation accepts, manages, and disburses private support to the university of memphis.

Education
6
Opera Birmingham Inc

Opera birmingham is committed to creating the finest professional opera productions, developing talent through competition and exposure to major artists, and promoting the operatic art form through community-wide education and outreach.

Arts & Culture
7
Memphis Symphony Orchestra Inc

To enrich the lives of our diverse community through exceptional music and dynamic programs.

Arts & Culture
8
Metropolitan Jewish Health System Inc

Mjhs health system is a charitable not-for-profit established to support the activities of affiliated organizations. mjhs is built on the core values of compassion, dignity and respect, first established by the four brooklyn ladies in…

Health
9
Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation

The organization's primary exempt purpose is to provide access to and conduct activities in furtherance of higher education.

10
Medaille University

Medaille university concentrates on excellence in teaching, with an emphasis on personal attention to its diverse student body. its curriculum provides a solid liberal arts and sciences foundation with early access to career-oriented…

11
Jewish Foundation of Memphis

The mission of the jewish foundation of memphis is to encourage charitable giving, support partner agency endowment development and to build and sustain a virbant jewish community.

Religion
12
Nashville Public Radio

Nashville public radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Memphis Jewish Federation and the most unlike its peers is Essex Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

8 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. 8 of the 20 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
5/8
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

TEMPLE ISRAEL — $60,055 · OtherTEMPLE ISRAELST MARY'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL — $8,800 · OtherST MARY'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOLTHE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS — $7,833 · OtherTHE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHISUNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION — $5,133 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATIONMARGOLIN HEBREW ACADEMY-YESHIVA OF THE SOUTH — $3,900 · Other+9 more — $5,100 · Other+9 moreMEMPHIS JEWISH FEDERATION — $75,000 · PhilanthropyMEMPHIS JEWISH FEDERATIONOPERA MEMPHIS INC — $18,000 · Arts & CultureOPERA MEMPHI…THEATRE MEMPHIS — $3,500 · Arts & CultureTHEATRE MEMP…THE VILLAGE AT GERMANTOWN INC — $4,175 · Human ServicesIndiana University Foundation — $2,000 · EducationJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MEMPHIS AND THE MID-SOUTH INC — $500 · International
Other$90,821Philanthropy$75,000Arts & Culture$21,500Human Services$4,175Education$2,000International$500

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 budgetMEMPHIS JEWISH FEDERATION — $75,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetOPERA MEMPHIS INC — $18,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetST MARY'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL — $8,800 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE VILLAGE AT GERMANTOWN INC — $4,175 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHEATRE MEMPHIS — $3,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetIndiana University Foundation — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MEMPHIS AND THE MID-SOUTH INC — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetESSEX FOUNDATION INC — $100 over 1y, 0.1% 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 MEMPHIS JEWISH FEDERATION
  • Who funds OPERA MEMPHIS INC
  • Who funds ST MARY'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL
  • Who funds THE VILLAGE AT GERMANTOWN INC
  • Who funds THEATRE MEMPHIS
  • Who funds Indiana University Foundation
  • Who funds JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF MEMPHIS AND THE MID-SOUTH INC
  • Who funds ESSEX FOUNDATION INC

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.

Community Foundation of Greater Memphis IncTN17.3× affinity6 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Greater Memphis Inc · Jewish Foundation of Memphis · Plough Foundation · Christian Community Foundation of Memphis · 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 Myron Lewis 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%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    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 20 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