· Private foundation
Plough Foundation
Its FY2025 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 FY2017–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- $50k–250k2 grants · $400k
- $250k+4 grants · $4.9M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| YOUTH VILLAGES | $2,000,000 |
| METROPOLITAN INTER-FAITH ASSOCIATION (MIFA) | $1,500,000 |
| MEMPHIS LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $1,000,000 |
| FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES | $400,000 |
| MEMPHIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $200,000 |
| MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART | $200,000 |
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 (FY17–23, $12.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% 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.
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 +25% since the first grant, against -4% for the ones you funded once.
53 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2023, 47 since wound down.
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 FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- MIMetropolitan Inter-Faith Association6× · 2017–2023 · $5.9M · revenue +33%
- AARTSMEMPHIS5× · 2018–2022 · $5.3M · revenue +18% · 52% of their budget
YOUTH VILLAGES INC5× · 2017–2023 · $4.8M · revenue +140%
Funded once
- BDBinghampton Development Corporationone grant, 2017 · $600k · revenue -59%
- CPCIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE INCone grant, 2019 · $500k · revenue -12%
- MJMEMPHIS JEWISH HOUSING DEVELOPMENT- PLOUGH TOWERSone grant, 2021 · $421k · revenue -4%
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.
Develop and implement programs to meet major urban challenges that exist for memphis, tennessee
To serve our members and partners by improving the quality of life through regional economic prosperity.
Assist private development projects
Memphis recovery centers, inc. (mrc) provides compassionate treatment services for youth and adults suffering from substance addiction and co-occurring disorders, utilizing professional methods to improve spiritual, physical, emotional,…
City leadership's mission is to recruit, develop, and catalyze leaders for the benefit of the city of memphis. the organization was founded in order to maximize the leadership capital and potential of memphis. city leadership strives to…
To provide housing and services to low, very low, and extremely low income families.
The foundation is executing a strategic business plan that leverages the competitive strengths within the region while expanding the infrastructure, educational opportunities, and entrepreneur support needed to expand entrepreneurship.
To produce lifelong learners, critical thinkers, effective communicators, and productive members of the global community
In response to the love of god, the methodist rehabilitation center, is dedicated to the restoration and enhancement of the lives of those we serve. we are committed to excellence and leadership in the delivery of comprehensive…
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Memphis, Inc. sees a world where every family has what they need to ensure the best health outcomes for their children. They provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and…
Methodist Medical Center provides quality healthcare, in alignment with Covenant Health's mission to serve the community by improving the quality of life through better health regardless of a patient's ability to pay.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Memphis Chamber Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Common Table Health Alliance. 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 39 years old; the field is 61. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 14% 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 14% 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.
79 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. 79 of the 106 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 MEMPHIS JEWISH FEDERATION ↗
- Who funds Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association ↗
- Who funds ARTSMEMPHIS ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF THE MID SOUTH ↗
- Who funds YOUTH VILLAGES INC ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds B'NAI B'RITH HOME AND HOSPITAL FOR AGED INC (D/B/A MEMPHIS JEWISH HOME & REHAB) ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER ↗
- Who funds MID-SOUTH FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds Rhodes College ↗
- Who funds Habitat for Humanity ↗
- Who funds Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Inc ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS UNION MISSON ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEEWEST INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds MEMPHISSHELBY CRIME COMMISSION ↗
- Who funds CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds AGAPE CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds Binghampton Development Corporation ↗
- Who funds CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds CHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS JEWISH HOUSING DEVELOPMENT- PLOUGH TOWERS ↗
- Who funds MERITAN INC ↗
- Who funds LITERACY MID-SOUTH INC ↗
- Who funds MEMPHIS CHAMBER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THEATRE MEMPHIS ↗
- Who funds OPERA MEMPHIS INC ↗
- Who funds HARWOOD CENTER 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: Community Foundation of Greater Memphis Inc · Christian Community Foundation of Memphis · Jr Hyde III Family Foundation · Thomas W Briggs Foundation Inc · The Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation · United Way of the Mid South · The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc · Belz Foundation · The Urban Child Institute · Self Foundation · Jewish Foundation of Memphis · Rose Montgomery Johnston Family 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 Plough 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Plough Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Plough 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.