· Private foundation
Robert W and Lynn H Browne 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 FY2020–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $175k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $275k
- $250k+1 grant · $530k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WOODSON CENTER | $530,000 |
| CITY OF COLDWATER AQUATIC CENTER | $125,000 |
| FORD PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF BRANCH COUNTY | $50,000 |
| MEIJER GARDENS & SCULPTURE PARK FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| ALBION COLLAGE | $25,000 |
| FRONTLINE COMMUNITY CHURCH | $25,000 |
| MEALS ON WHEELS WESTERN MICHIGAN | $22,500 |
| SENIOR NEIGHBORS | $22,500 |
| ICCF COMMUNITY HOMES | $22,500 |
| HOME REPAIR SERVICES OF KENT COUNTY | $22,500 |
| PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| MACKINAC CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY | $5,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of your 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.
8 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $200k 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
- WCWOODSON CENTER3× · 2023–2025 · $568k · revenue +11%
- HRHOME REPAIR SERVICES OF KENT COUNTY INC2× · 2024–2025 · $48k · revenue +22%
- MCMACKINAC CENTER2× · 2020–2025 · $12k · revenue +64%
Funded once
- PHPORTER HILLS FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $600k · revenue +120% · 43% of their budget
- ROREGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANone grant, 2023 · $500k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - KELLOGG EYE CENTER - PAUL R LICHTER FUNDone grant, 2023 · $500k
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.
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Cornell college offers an innovative and rigorous learning community where faculty and staff collaborate with students to develop the intellectual curiosity, creativity and moral courage necessary for a lifetime of learning and engaged…
The college of wooster is a community of independent minds, working together to prepare students to become leaders of character and influence in an interdependent global community. (continued on schedule o)we engage motivated students in a…
Mcdaniel college is a diverse student-centered community committed to excellence in the liberal arts & sciences and professional studies with careful mentoring and attention to the individual. mcdaniel changes lives. we challenge students…
See schedule o.founded in 1866, carleton college is a private, coeducational liberal arts college of 2,007 students located in the historic river town of northfield, minnesota. nationally recognized as the nation's top college for…
Mitchell college educates students through a highly individualized educational approach that brings forward each student's potential, reveals their strengths, and fosters personal growth.
The morningside university experience cultivates a passion for life-long learning and a dedication to ethical leadership and civic responsibility.
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
Hilbert college is an independent institution of higher learning that embraces its catholic franciscan heritage and values. students from diverse backgrounds are educated in liberal arts and professional programs to become informed…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Home Repair Services of Kent County Inc and the most unlike its peers is Childrens Museum of Branch County Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
14 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. 14 of the 24 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 PORTER HILLS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WOODSON CENTER ↗
- Who funds GERALD R FORD PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Childrens Museum of Branch County Inc ↗
- Who funds ICCF COMMUNITY HOMES ↗
- Who funds HOME REPAIR SERVICES OF KENT COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds MEALS ON WHEELS WESTERN MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds SENIOR NEIGHBORS INC ↗
- Who funds ALBION COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Pacific Legal Foundation ↗
- Who funds MACKINAC CENTER ↗
- Who funds TIBBITS OPERA FOUNDATION AND ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds DePauw University ↗
- Who funds HILLSDALE COLLEGE ↗
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 Rapids Community Foundation · The David and Carol Van Andel Family Foundation · Peter C & Emajean Cook Foundation · The Mercantile Bank Foundation · The Sebastian Foundation · Steve & Amy Van Andel Foundation · Ufp Industries Foundation · The Meijer Foundation · Dick and Betsy Devos Family Foundation · Heart of West Michigan United Way · Frey Foundation · American Endowment 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 Robert W and Lynn H Browne 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.