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Order of the Southern Cross at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Order of the Southern Cross

ORDER OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS serves as a philanthropic organization whose purpose is the preservation of our southern heritage and its history.

$112k
Granted FY2023
7
Grants FY2023
5
States reached
$24k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through 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 2023.

Arts & Culture$198kPublic Benefit$29kMembership Benefit$23kHousing & Shelter$10kEnvironment$7kRecreation & Sports$6k
02FY2023 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 7 grants below total $87,657, the rows itemized in this filing. The $111,900 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $24,243 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2023

  • Under $10k2 grants · $14k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $73k
$10,500
Median grant
5
States reached
$1.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INC$24,182
SCV OAKWOOD RESTORATION COMM$16,250
SCV CAMP 75$12,500
ORDER OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS$10,500
SCV LONGSTREET$10,000
LMA OF FREDERICKSBURG VA$7,500
MEMORIAL HALL FOUNDATION$6,725
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 87% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%ORDER OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: $11k → 11%CONFEDERATE MUSEUM - CHARLESTON: $21k → 12%FT BLAKELEY SCV CAMP NO 1864: $6k → 12%UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: $10k → 12%UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: $5k → 14%SCV CAMP 75: $13k → 21%SCV GEN JAMES LONGSTREET CAMP 128: $10k → 5%HUGUENOT SPRINGS CEMETERY FOUNDATIO: $10k → 7%LMA OF FREDERICKSBURG VA: $8k → 15%UDC RICHMOND VA: $87k → 22%MEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM INC: $12k → 23%SCV LONGSTREET: $10k → 5%LMA OF FREDERICKSBURG VA: $6k → 15%CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM: $8k → 23%MEMORIAL HALL FOUNDATION: $7k → 23%MEMORIAL HALL FOUNDATION: $5k → 23%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.

Which US states its grants reach

VA
TN
NC
SC
LA
AL
GA
TX
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 grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

24%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$64k · 4 repeat orgs$208k to everyone else

4 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2023, 1 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

4
7

Total granted

$64k
$145k

Still filing today

0%
71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 28% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $63k 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
Public BenefitArts & CultureEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • SO
    SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INC
    2× · 2022–2023 · $20k
  • MH
    MEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM INC
    2× · 2018–2020 · $17k
  • CM
    CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM
    2× · 2022–2023 · $14k

Funded once

  • UD
    UNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACYgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $87k · revenue +54%
  • CM
    CONFEDERATE MUSEUM UDC
    one grant, 2021 · $21k · revenue -13%
  • HS
    Huguenot Springs Cemetery Foundation
    one grant, 2019 · $10k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its 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
Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc

The north carolina division sons of confederate veterans is a historical honor society dedicated to preserving the good name of our confederate ancestors

—
2
Order of the Southern Cross

Order of the southern cross serves as a philanthropic organization whose purpose is the preservation of our southern heritage and its history.

—
3
Surry Historical Society
—
4
Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc

Promote Education

—
5
Southampton County Historical Society
Arts & Culture
6
Guntersvill Historical Society Inc

Non Profit Museum

—
7
National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution Thomasvi

To promote historical preservation, education, & patriotism

—
8
Barrett-Peake Heritage Foundation

The Barrett-Peake Heritage Foundation, Inc., is a nonprofit preservation organization whose mission is preserving Civil War era cemeteries and historic properties in the City of Hampton.

Arts & Culture
9
Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution
—
10
Humphreys County Historical Society

Restoring Historical Memorabilia

Arts & Culture
11
Hickman County Historical Society

To Preserve and teach Local Hictory

—
12
Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc

Promote and preserve the history of the confederacy

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sons of Confederate Veterans Inc; the most unlike its peers is Huguenot Springs Cemetery Foundation. 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

8 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. 8 of the 15 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
5/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CONFEDERATE MUSEUM UDC: $20,681 · OtherCONFEDERATE MUSEUM UDCSONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INC: $20,000 · OtherSONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INCMEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM INC: $16,899 · OtherMEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM INCCONFEDERATE MEMORIAL HALL MUSEUM: $14,262 · OtherCONFEDERATE MEMORIAL HALL MUSEUMLADIES MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION OF FREDERICKSBURG VIRGINIA: $13,200 · OtherLADIES MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION OF FREDERICKSBURG VIRGI…SONS OF COFEDERATE VETERANS INC: $12,500 · OtherSONS OF COFEDERATE VETERANS INCUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY KNOX CHAPT 89: $10,000 · OtherUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY KNOX CHAPT 89SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INC: $6,125 · OtherWHITFIELD-MURRAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $5,830 · OtherUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: $5,200 · OtherUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: $86,521 · EducationUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACYSONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INC: $24,182 · Public BenefitSONS OF CONFEDER…SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS: $16,250 · Public BenefitSONS OF CONFEDER…Order of the Southern Cross: $10,500 · Arts & CultureHuguenot Springs Cemetery Foundation: $10,300 · Arts & Culture
Other$124,697Education$86,521Public Benefit$40,432Arts & Culture$20,800

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY: $86,521 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetSONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS INC: $24,182 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetCONFEDERATE MUSEUM UDC: $20,681 over 1y, 15% of budgetSONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS: $16,250 over 1y, 22% of budgetUNITED DAUGHTERS OF THE CONFEDERACY KNOX CHAPT 89: $10,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetWHITFIELD-MURRAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $5,830 over 1y, 3.2% 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%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
    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, 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Order of the Southern Cross?

    Find your warmest path to Order of the Southern Cross 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 15 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Order of the Southern Cross’ filings →

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