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Plinth

· Private foundation

Suzanne Smelcer Robinson Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$50k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What you fund
0194% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20182025.

Animals$221kEnvironment$26kEducation$21kHealth$19kFood & Nutrition$17kReligion$8kPublic Safety & Disaster$7kYouth Development$2kOther$0
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k10 grants · $25k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
$2,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$794k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PAWS CHICAGO$25,000
ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY$8,000
ANTI-CRUELTY SOCIETY OF ILLINOIS$3,500
NOAH'S ARK FOUNDATION INC$3,500
CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY$2,500
ANN & ROBERT LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL$2,000
LINCOLN PARK ZOO$2,000
AMERICAN RED CROSS$1,000
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO$1,000
HEAVENLY PET SANCTUARY$500
LOVING INDEED$500
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:

Your human-services grants (FY22–25, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 57% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1k → 14%LOVING INDEED: $500 → 8%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1k → 14%LOVING INDEED: $500 → 8%LOVING INDEED: $500 → 8%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.

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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$357k · 23 repeat orgs$2k to everyone else

23 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

23
1

Total granted

$357k
$1k

Still filing today

52%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $500 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’20’21’22’23’24’25
AnimalsHuman ServicesFood & NutritionEnvironmentEducationInternationalOther

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

  • PC
    PAWS CHICAGO
    7× · 2018–2025 · $175k · revenue +159%
  • CH
    CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
    7× · 2018–2025 · $17k · revenue +38%
  • IW
    ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2024–2025 · $16k · revenue +18%

Funded once

  • JJ
    JDRF JUVENILE DIABETES RESEARCH FDN
    one grant, 2024 · $1k

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
Animal Outlook Inc

Animal outlook is a national animal protection organization working to end the abuse of farmed animals using a variety of strategies, including investigations, legal advocacy, corporate and food system reform, and vegan outreach.

Animals
2
Loving All Animals Inc

To maximize programs intended to stop killing of adoptable animals.

Philanthropy
3
Nourishing Hope

Nourishing hope provides food, mental health support, and social services to help all our neighbors thrive.

4
International Aids Vaccine Initiative Inc

A nonprofit scientific research organization that develops vaccines and antibodies for hiv, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases.

International
5
Animal Care Sanctuary

Animal care sanctuary's lifesaving mission as a no kill organization envisions a community that promotes turning compassion into action for companion animals by: 1.) adopting healthy pet companions into loving homes. 2.) promoting the…

Animals
6
The Global FoodBanking Network

To nourish the world's hungry through uniting and advancing food banks.

International
7
Michigan Humane Society

To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.

Animals
8
Chicago Zoological Society

To inspire conservation leadership by connecting people with wildlife and nature.

Animals
9
Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit

The friends are dedicated to the rescue, protection, and adoption of companion animals in need while inspiring the human-animal bond. we meet our mission by:-saving 100% of healthy and treatable animals.-providing high-quality animal care…

Animals
10
Animal Agriculture Alliance

The animal agriculture alliance is a nonprofit organization that helps bridge the communication gap between farm and fork. we connect food industry stakeholders, engage food chain influencers and promote consumer choice by helping key…

Food & Nutrition
11
Feeding Illinois

Feeding illinois is a coalition of eight feeding america food banks that provide food to over 2,400 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters that feed nearly 1.4 million residents across the entire state of illinois.

Food & Nutrition
12
Women's Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Inc

As america's first animal shelter, founded in 1869, women's humane society dba women's animal center (wac), assists people in the community, saves the lives of animals, and improves the health of pets through its shelter and adoptions…

Animals

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Greater Chicago Food Depository and the most unlike its peers is Loving Indeed Inc. 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. 13 of the 25 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
9/13
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

PAWS CHICAGO — $175,000 · AnimalsPAWS CHICAGONoahs Ark Foundation Inc — $13,000 · AnimalsNoahs Ark Foundation IncLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $12,000 · AnimalsLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETYIndividual grant recipient — $36,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientAnti-Cruelty Society of — $13,500 · OtherAnti-Cruelty Society ofAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's — $9,000 · OtherAnn & Robert H Lurie Children'sCCSNAP — $8,500 · OtherCCSNAPANTI-CRUELTY SOCIETY OF ILLINOIS — $7,000 · OtherANTI-CRUELTY SOCIETY OF ILLINOISCOOL MINISTRIES — $6,000 · OtherCOOL MINISTRIESJuvenile Diabetes — $5,000 · OtherJunior Achievement - — $5,000 · OtherAMERICAN RED CROSS — $5,000 · OtherVEAP Inc — $4,000 · OtherANN & ROBERT LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL — $4,000 · Other+3 more — $3,000 · OtherCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY — $17,000 · EnvironmentILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY — $16,000 · EducationGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $10,000 · Food & NutritionTHURSTON COUNTY FOOD BANK — $1,500 · Food & NutritionFIRST LOVE INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES — $2,000 · Human ServicesAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $2,000 · Human ServicesLOVING INDEED INC — $1,500 · Human ServicesJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO — $2,000 · International
Animals$200,000Other$106,000Environment$17,000Education$16,000Food & Nutrition$11,500Human Services$5,500International$2,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetPAWS CHICAGO — $175,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY — $17,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY — $16,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNoahs Ark Foundation Inc — $13,000 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $12,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetVEAP Inc — $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFIRST LOVE INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES — $2,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHURSTON COUNTY FOOD BANK — $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLOVING INDEED INC — $1,500 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetHeavenly Pet Sanctuary — $500 over 1y, 0.5% 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.

  • Who funds PAWS CHICAGO
  • Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
  • Who funds ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
  • Who funds Noahs Ark Foundation Inc
  • Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
  • Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY
  • Who funds VEAP Inc
  • Who funds FIRST LOVE INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES
  • Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches
  • Who funds JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO
  • Who funds THURSTON COUNTY FOOD BANK
  • Who funds LOVING INDEED INC
  • Who funds Heavenly Pet Sanctuary

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.

Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile 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 Suzanne Smelcer Robinson 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 · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%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 · 0–15%
    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 25 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-PF 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