· Private foundation
The Aj Blain 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 FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k8 grants · $33k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LOVE & SONSHINE MINISTRIES | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $7,600 |
| WE THE PEOPLE LAUREL HIGH | $7,000 |
| YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT | $5,000 |
| ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE | $4,525 |
| DIANA SHAY PLLC | $3,000 |
| GIRL SCOUTS OF MONTANA | $2,500 |
| JUNIOR LEAGUE OF BILLINGS | $2,500 |
| GRAVITAS LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE | $1,000 |
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 (FY19–24, $33k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% 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.
12 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 3 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, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k 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
- RMROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE5× · 2018–2025 · $312k · revenue +29%
- IGIndividual grant recipient4× · 2017–2020 · $121k
- DSDIANA SHAY PLLC5× · 2021–2025 · $118k
Funded once
- BCBILLINGS CLINIC FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $25k · revenue +51%
- FOFRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - MONTANAgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $16k · revenue +100%
- FOFRIENDS OF CHILDRENone grant, 2024 · $15k
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.
To provide a safe, stable , and nurturing home where young mothers can discover their strengths, and their children can experience the joys of childhood.
At the heart of our work is our flagship program, an eight-month educational experience offering participants a unique opportunity to develop strong leadership skills along with personal and professional growth. we also offer a variety of…
Friends of the children - eastern montana has a mission of impacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with professional mentors - 12+ years, no matter what. 92% go on to…
Friends of the children utah has a mission of impacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with professional mentors 12+ years, no matter what. 92% go on to enroll in…
Inspiring wyoming's leaders through exploration and connection.
Billings clinic's mission is quality, compassionate cre for all, with a vision of reimagining health care through connection, service and innovation.
Caring people, preparing youth for life.
Empowermt creates a more just and inclusive society by developing youth and adult leaders who work to end mistreatment, correct systemic inequities, and strengthen communities. empowermt envisions a montana where each person is respected…
Friends - portland commits to standing alongside our community's youth as they work to overcome barriers to their success. each child receives 1:1 support and guidance from a salaried, professional mentor (called a friend), from…
To create and sustain an optimal business climate, business prosperity and a strong montana economy through advocacy, education and collaboration, working to provide an empowered and educated workforce, reduce business growth obstacles,…
To advocate for children and youth, drive systemic reeform, and boldly challenge the status quo so every young person who has experienced trauma or instability has the opportunity to thrive.
Big brothers big sisters of utah's vision is that all children achieve success in life. our mission is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Friends of the Children - Montana and the most unlike its peers is Hatch. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 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. 12 of the 37 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 ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR LEAGUE OF BILLINGS INC ↗
- Who funds BILLINGS CLINIC FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TUMBLEWEED RUNAWAY PROGRAM INC ↗
- Who funds LOVE AND SONSHINE MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN - MONTANA ↗
- Who funds EAGLE MOUNT BILLINGS ↗
- Who funds CORPORATION OF GONZAGA UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds HATCH ↗
- Who funds GROWTHSKILLS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LANDONS LEGACY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FRIENDSHIP HOUSE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE 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: Dennis & Phyllis Washington Foundation · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · Montana Community Foundation Inc · Town Pump Charitable Foundation · Donald & Carol Roberts Foundation in Memory of Virginia K Weston Inc · Gianforte Family Charitable Trust · Melvin & Lois Hoiness Foundation · Charles M Bair Family Trust · Dan & Jeanne Scott Family Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc
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 The Aj Blain 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 The Aj Blain Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Aj Blain 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.