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Northwood Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Northwood 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.

$400
Granted FY2022
1
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$400
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2022.

Arts & Culture$100kHousing & Shelter$100kYouth Development$40kHealth$35kPhilanthropy$32kReligion$30kEducation$25kHuman Services$25kOther$0
02FY2022 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$400
Median grant
1
States reached
$2k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
COUNCIL OF MICHIGAN FOUNDATIONS$400
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–21, $115k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%CAMP CASEY: $15k → 8%LIFT FOUNDATION: $100k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Community Foundation of Lorain County

The community foundation responds to the changing needs of the community by making grants to local nonprofit organizations, awarding scholarships to help local students, working together with donors to build community endowment and…

Philanthropy
2
Community Foundation of Jackson Hole

To improve lives through philanthropic leadership

Philanthropy
3
The Minnesota Camp Fire Foundation

Ensure camp fire minnesota's strong future. with nature as the catalyst, camp fire minnesota energizes youth to discover their spark so their futures glow brighter.

Youth Development
4
The Common Application Inc

The common application is a not-for-profit membership organization of over 1,100 colleges and universities across the globe committed to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. every year, over 1.5 million students…

Education
5
Children and Youth Justice Center

The center for children & youth justice was founded in 2006 with one mission: reform the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to improve the lives of generations of children and youth in washington state. our focus is large-scale,…

Crime & Legal
6
Common Good Iowa

Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.

—
7
Community Reach Center Foundation

Community reach center foundation raises funds that support the services and programs of community reach center, inc. and provides properties and facilities used by community reach center systems for general and administrative purposes.…

—
8
Cdc Small Business Finance Corporation

We help build inclusive and equitable communities by providing people access to the capital and opportunities they deserve.

Community Improvement
9
Columbus Medical Association Foundation

The columbus medical association foundation, through the governance and oversight of its board of physicians and other experts, effects change within specific priority areas to improve the health and wellbeing of the residents and…

Health
10
Common Impact Inc

Common impact's mission is to strengthen the capacity of social change organizations, enabling them to better run and scale their programs. through its partnership with companies, common impact taps into the business skills and expertise…

Unclassified
11
The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area Inc

The community foundation of the holland/zeeland area seeks to ensure that our community thrives today, tomorrow, and forever by building our community's endowment to support high impact charitable projects, helping donors achieve their…

Philanthropy
12
The Vermont Community Foundation

The vermont community foundation helps to build philanthropic resources to sustain healthy and vital vermont communities. the foundation connects and mobilizes people through giving to multiply the impact of philanthropy.

Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kalamazoo Community Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Kiva Microfunds. 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

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 14 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
5/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE BARN THEATRE SCHOOL: $100,000 · OtherTHE BARN THEATRE SCHOOLKALAMAZOO READY 4S: $30,000 · OtherKALAMAZOO READY 4SKALAMAZOO GOSPEL MISSION: $30,000 · OtherKALAMAZOO GOSPEL MISSIONCOMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF KALAMAZOO: $25,000 · OtherCOMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF KALAMAZOOKALAMAZOO RESA FOUNDATION: $20,000 · OtherKALAMAZOO RESA FOUNDATIONCOMMUNITY AIDS RESOURCE & EDUCATION SERVICES OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN: $10,000 · OtherFIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF KALAMAZOO: $10,000 · OtherLIFT FOUNDATION: $100,000 · Human ServicesLIFT FOUNDATIONCAMP CASEY CORPORATION: $15,000 · Human ServicesCAMP CASEY CORPORATIONPREVENTION WORKS INC: $25,000 · HealthKALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $10,000 · PhilanthropyCOUNCIL OF MICHIGAN FOUNDATIONS: $2,250 · PhilanthropyELE'S PLACE INC: $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentKIVA MICROFUNDS: $4,500 · International
Other$225,000Human Services$115,000Health$25,000Philanthropy$12,250Youth Development$10,000International$4,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLIFT FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 8.7% of budgetPREVENTION WORKS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetCOMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF KALAMAZOO: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetCAMP CASEY CORPORATION: $15,000 over 1y, 5.1% of budgetKALAMAZOO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetELE'S PLACE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCOMMUNITY AIDS RESOURCE & EDUCATION SERVICES OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetKIVA MICROFUNDS: $4,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOUNCIL OF MICHIGAN FOUNDATIONS: $2,250 over 6y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Suzanne Upjohn Delano…Marvin and Rosalie Ok…The Ronda E Stryker a…Tyler-Little Family F…Dorothy U Dalton Foun…Harold and Grace Upjo…United Way of South C…Kalamazoo Community F…Ws & Lois Vandalson F…The Burdick-Thorne Fo…Trittschuh Family Cha…Mike and Sharon Seely…
Suzanne Upjohn Delano Parish FoundationMI17.9× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Suzanne Upjohn Delano Parish Foundation · Marvin and Rosalie Okun Foundation · The Ronda E Stryker and William D Johnston Foundation · Tyler-Little Family Foundation · Dorothy U Dalton Foundation Inc · Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation · United Way of South Central Michigan · Kalamazoo Community Foundation · Ws & Lois Vandalson Foundation · The Burdick-Thorne Foundation · Trittschuh Family Charitable Foundation · Mike and Sharon Seelye Family Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Northwood Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Northwood Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's 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
    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 · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Northwood Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Northwood 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 14 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2022, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Northwood’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home