· Private foundation
The Benton Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
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
- $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
- $250k+2 grants · $925k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE | $600,000 |
| THE CENTER FOR STUDY OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE | $325,000 |
| STAMFORD MUSEUM & NATURE CENTER | $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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 90% 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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +20% since the first grant, against +20% for the ones you funded once.
10 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2025, 7 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 FY2025, 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
Houston Museum of Natural Science8× · 2018–2025 · $3.1M · revenue +17%- TITHE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE AND ART INC9× · 2017–2025 · $1.8M · revenue +57%
- TGTHE GREENWOOD SCHOOL INC2× · 2021–2022 · $380k · revenue +3%
Funded once
Hermann Park Conservancyone grant, 2020 · $215k · revenue +3%- EAEMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITYone grant, 2020 · $125k
- ESEPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF JACKSONVILLE INCone grant, 2021 · $85k · revenue 0%
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.
See Schedule OSt. John's School is an independent, co-educational day school presenting a 13-year sequence of college preparatory training. A non-profit institution, it was founded in 1946 to provide the community with a school of exacting…
Our mission is to spark wonder and intellectual curiosity in each child. We achieve this through a purposeful blend of:Engaging academics custom-tailored to each child's abilities, strengths and interests;An unparalleled social-emotional…
The Avery Coonley School elevates high-achieving and gifted learners through immersion in a mutually talented community where intellect, curiosity, and creativity are enhanced by optimal challenge.
Hollywood Schoolhouse knows, values, and encourages fearless curiosity. Through a blended program of innovative academics and structured learning, our diverse community inspires students to be academically strong, artistically proud,…
Berkwood Hedge School provides a hands-on developmental curriculum that promotes deep and intuitive learning. Students achieve academic excellence by becoming critical thinkers and creative problem solvers. Our teachers meet the needs of…
Omni Montessori School is dedicated to adhering to the teachings of Maria Montessori by providing a child-centered environment that offers an individualized and integrated curriculum for students age 3 - grade nine.
To create transformative learning experiences that empower a diverse community of students to lead lives of intellectual curiosity, personal integrity, and compassionate contribution to a more just world.
The museum school celebrates, nurtures and enhances the ability of all participants through experimental, project-based learning. infusing the arts and utilizing resources available at local museums.
The Montessori School educates children from 18 months-6th grade. Our program is rooted in the educational philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori faithful to her method. In our caring environment, sustained by freedom peace, the school…
The mission of Forest Park Montessori School is to provide an authentic Montessori school in which the children develop a love of life and learning within a safe, peaceful, intimate setting.www.forestparkmontessori.org
The Winston School Is A Small College Preparatory School Designed To Maximize The Potential Of Bright Students Who Learn Differently. Through individualized Learning Strategies Our Students Are Empowered To Meet Confidently The Challenges…
Spruce Street School is a nurturing educational community that instills in a broad range of children the social, emotional, and intellectual skills for lifelong participation in a diverse society. We offer kindergarten through fifth grade…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Stamford Museum & Nature Center Inc and the most unlike its peers is The Institute of Classical Architecture and Art Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
11 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. 11 of the 18 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 Houston Museum of Natural Science ↗
- Who funds THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE AND ART INC ↗
- Who funds THE GREENWOOD SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds JACKSONVILLE SCHOOL FOR AUTISM INC ↗
- Who funds Stamford Museum & Nature Center Inc ↗
- Who funds Hermann Park Conservancy ↗
- Who funds EPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF JACKSONVILLE INC ↗
- Who funds MAINSPRING ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds Schreiner University ↗
- Who funds Wilderness Youth Project Inc ↗
- Who funds STORYTELLER CHILDRENS 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: National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 The Benton Family 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Stamford Museum & Nature Center Inc — 9% of income from government
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 Benton Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Benton Family 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.