· Private foundation
Norbert and Paula Gits Family Foundation
Its FY2021 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2021.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k5 grants · $2k
- $250k+1 grant · $254k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BESSEMER NATIONAL GIFT FUND CO BESSEMER TRUST COMPANY | $254,375 |
| ST MARY'S PARISH | $860 |
| ST MARY'S SCHOOL | $750 |
| LEELANAU HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $550 |
| LAKE LEELANAU LAKE ASSOCIATION | $100 |
| ALZHEIMER DISEASE FUND | $50 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY18–18, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +139% since the first grant, against +51% for the ones you funded once.
17 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2021, 12 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2021, 1% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $254k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- LHLeelanau Historical Society5× · 2017–2021 · $9k · revenue +139%
- FPFISHTOWN PRESERVATION SOCIETY INC2× · 2017–2019 · $3k · revenue +258%
- MHMUNSON HEALTHCARE FOUNDATIONS2× · 2017–2019 · $3k · revenue +44%
Funded once
INDIAN RIVER HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2019 · $1k- CCCLEVELAND CLINIC OF INDIAN RIVERone grant, 2020 · $1k
- SSSANDE SCHOOL OF HORSEMANSHIPgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $1k · revenue +34%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…
Ann arbor hands-on museum creates moments of discovery that inspire curiosity, exploration and respect for stem and the natural world. together with the leslie science & nature center, we envision a world where curiosity today leads to…
We harness the power of plants for humankind and share the joy and beauty of tropical gardening with everyone. fairchild tropical botanic garden is a museum of tropical plants within a world famous, 83-acre designed landscape. it was…
Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…
The los angeles conservancy is a nonprofit membership organization that works through education and advocacy to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic architectural and cultural resources of los angeles county.
Lincoln park zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of chicago and by advancing the highest quality of animal care, horticulture, education, science and…
The museum's mission statement is: "to discover, interpret, and disseminate - through scientific research and education - knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."
Museum has a mission to create opportunties for everyone to experience art that broadens understanding of the past, fosters community connections to the present, and creates diverse possbilities for the future.
Supports and maintains a research library of american history and culture. the american antiquarian society cultivates a deeper understanding of the american past, grounded in its ever-growing collection of printed and manuscript sources.…
The mission of lowell observatory is to pursue the study of astronomy, especially the study of our solar system and its evolution; to conduct pure research in astronomical phenomena; and to maintain quality public education and outreach…
It is our mission at huron pines to conserve and enhance northern michigan's natural resources to ensure healthy water, protected places and vibrant communities. for alomst 50 years, our work across the forests, lakes and streams of…
The museum's mission statement is "turn on the science: inspire learning. inform policy. improve lives."
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Leelanau Conservancy and the most unlike its peers is Sande School of Horsemanship. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 45 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
19 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 19 of the 43 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 Leelanau Historical Society ↗
- Who funds FISHTOWN PRESERVATION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds MUNSON HEALTHCARE FOUNDATIONS ↗
- Who funds LEELANAU CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds LAKE LEELANAU LAKE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds INDIAN RIVER HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SANDE SCHOOL OF HORSEMANSHIP ↗
- Who funds FOOD FOR THE POOR INC ↗
- Who funds LEELANAU CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORS INC ↗
- Who funds OLD ART BUILDING ↗
- Who funds LEELANAU CHILDREN'S CENTER ↗
- Who funds MCKEE BOTANICAL GARDEN INC ↗
- Who funds Oberlin College ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds VERO BEACH MUSEUM OF ART INC ↗
- Who funds ARTHRITIS 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.
Open a dossier: Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation · Edmund F and Virginia B Ball Foundation Inc · The Bessemer Giving Fund · The Alpaugh Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · 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 Norbert and Paula Gits Family 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Food for the Poor Inc — 0% of income from government
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.