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Plinth

· Public charity

Pacific Legal Foundation

Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) litigates nationwide to secure all Americans' inalienable rights to live responsibly and productively in their pursuit of happiness.

$145k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
9
States reached
$25k
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 FY20232025.

Public Benefit$210kSocial Science$30kEmployment$25kYouth Development$25kCrime & Legal$15k
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$15,000
Median grant
9
States reached
$119M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Talent Market$25,000
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty$15,000
Pelican Institute for Public Policy$15,000
Georgia Public Policy Foundation$15,000
Iowans for Tax Relief$15,000
Mountain States Policy Center Inc$15,000
The James Madison Institute$15,000
Platte Insitute for Economic Research$15,000
The John Locke Foundation$15,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY23–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 67% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Platte Insitute for Economic Research: $15k → 12%Texas Public Policy Foundation: $15k → 10%Talent Market: $25k → 14%The James Madison Institute: $15k → 19%Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation: $15k → 5%Mackinac Center for Public Policy: $15k → 9%Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty: $15k → 17%The John Locke Foundation Inc: $15k → 8%Georgia Public Policy Foundation: $15k → 8%Pelican Institute for Public Policy: $15k → 23%Platte Institute for Economic Research Inc: $15k → 12%Talent Market: $25k → 14%The James Madison Institute for Public Policy Studies: $15k → 19%Iowans for Tax Relief: $15k → 5%The John Locke Foundation: $15k → 8%Pelican Institute for Public Policy: $15k → 23%Pelican Institute for Public Policy: $15k → 23%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.

Which US states your grants reach

ID
MT
WI
MI
IA
NE
NC
DC
LA
GA
TX
FL

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.

61%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$185k · 5 repeat orgs$120k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
4

Total granted

$185k
$60k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

0%
+3%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24’25
Public BenefitSocial ScienceYouth DevelopmentCrime & LegalOther

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

  • AF
    America's Future Foundation
    2× · 2024–2025 · $50k · revenue 0%
  • PI
    PELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY
    3× · 2023–2025 · $45k · revenue +37%
  • TJ
    THE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION INC
    2× · 2023–2025 · $30k · revenue -8%

Funded once

  • FI
    FRONTIER INSTITUTE INC
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue -14%
  • IF
    IOWANS FOR TAX RELIEF FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue -59%
  • MC
    MACKINAC CENTER
    one grant, 2023 · $15k · revenue +3%

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
The Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research Inc

To promote the ideals of free market economics, individual liberty, and limited government through the conduct of public opinion research.

Social Science
2
Institute for Political Innovation Inc

Advance and improve the representativeness of democracy for all constituencies across the united states.

Social Science
3
Institute for Policy Innovation

It is the mission of the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) to provide education, research, analysis and recommendations to policy makers, opinion leaders and the American people designed to help solve public policy problems through…

4
The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy

Research and education on public policy issues.

5
Institute for Policy Studies

The institute for policy studies (the institute) is a 60-year-old organization that is dedicated to building a more equitable, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful society.

International
6
Frontiers of Freedom Institute

To educate the public on constitutional issues and public policy matters. We are dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, peace through strength, limited government, free enterprise, and the values embodied in the Declaration of…

Public Benefit
7
Institute for Progress

The institute for progress (ifp) is a non-partisan think tank focused on innovation policy. our organization works to accelerate and shape the direction of scientific, technological and industrial progress.

Social Science
8
Institute for Public Accuracy

To teach and disseminate educational materials to the public.

Arts & Culture
9
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc

The manhattan institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in america and its great cities.

Public Benefit
10
Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies Inc

To provide thoughtful, conservative solutions to the challenges presented by education, workforce, labor and employment issues.

Education
11
Public Policy Institute of New York State Inc

The institute conducts non-partisan research into nys governmental and economic issues of interest to business, labor and the general public.

12
Iowa Policy Project

The mission of Iowa Policy Project is to promote public policy that fosters economic opportunity while safeguarding the health and well-being of Iowa's people and the environment. By providing a foundation of fact-based, objective research…

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Texas Public Policy Foundation and the most unlike its peers is America's Future 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

13 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
6/13
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

PELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY — $45,000 · Public BenefitPELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICYFRONTIER INSTITUTE INC — $15,000 · Public BenefitFRONTIER INSTITUTE INCMOUNTAIN STATES POLICY CENTER INC — $15,000 · Public BenefitMOUNTAIN STATES POLICY CENTER INCMACKINAC CENTER — $15,000 · Public BenefitMACKINAC CENTERTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION — $15,000 · Public BenefitTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATIONTHE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 · OtherTHE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION INCTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC — $30,000 · OtherTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR P…IOWANS FOR TAX RELIEF FOUNDATION — $15,000 · OtherIOWANS FOR TAX RELIEF FOUNDATIONIOWANS FOR TAX RELIEF — $15,000 · OtherIOWANS FOR TAX RELIEFAmerica's Future Foundation — $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentAmerica's Future F…PLATTE INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH INC — $30,000 · Social SciencePLATTE INSTITUTE…GEORGIA PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION INC — $15,000 · Social ScienceGEORGIA PUBLIC P…WISCONSIN INSTITUTE FOR LAW & LIBERTY — $15,000 · Crime & Legal
Public Benefit$105,000Other$90,000Youth Development$50,000Social Science$45,000Crime & Legal$15,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetAmerica's Future Foundation — $50,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetPELICAN INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY — $45,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetTHE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC — $30,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetPLATTE INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH INC — $30,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetFRONTIER INSTITUTE INC — $15,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetIOWANS FOR TAX RELIEF FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetWISCONSIN INSTITUTE FOR LAW & LIBERTY — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMACKINAC CENTER — $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetIOWANS FOR TAX RELIEF — $15,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetTEXAS PUBLIC POLICY FOUNDATION — $15,000 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.

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.

State Policy NetworkVA24.2× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: State Policy Network · Donors Trust Inc · The Seminar Network Inc · Adolph Coors Foundation · The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Inc · The Roe Foundation · Charles Koch Institute · Atlas Economic Research Foundation · Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation · NetChoice · Charles Koch Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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 Pacific Legal 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%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    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.

    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 13 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 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