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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Berger 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.

$17k
Granted FY2025still arriving
12
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20202025.

Arts & Culture$22kHuman Services$17kAnimals$16kCommunity Improvement$13kEducation$11kEnvironment$9kFood & Nutrition$8kHealth$7kOther$0
02FY2025 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$1,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$335k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PROOF ALLIANCE$3,000
SAHUARITA FOOD BANK & COMM RESRC$2,002
COMMUNITY FOOD BANK GREEN VALLEY$2,000
VIRGINIA BEACH NEPTUNE FESTIVAL$2,000
GREEN VALLEY SHERRIFF'S AUXILIARY$2,000
NORFOLK ACADEMY$1,000
ANIMAL LEAGUE OF GREEN VALLEY$1,000
CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION$1,000
TOGETHER WE CAN$1,000
VOLUNTEER HAMPTON ROADS$1,000
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MOUNT VERNON$500
ST MARYS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY$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 (FY20–25, $12k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 91% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%PROOF ALLIANCE: $3k → 14%FISH OF SANIBEL-CAPITVA INC: $5k → 11%HOSPICE OF ST MARY'S: $1k → 8%FISH OF SANIBEL-CAPITVA INC: $3k → 11%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.

76%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$85k · 21 repeat orgs$27k to everyone else

21 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2025, 12 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

21
15

Total granted

$85k
$21k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+8%
+9%

Still filing today

52%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 65% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEnvironmentHealthHuman ServicesEducationPublic Safety & DisasterOther

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

  • FISH OF SANIBEL-CAPTIVA INC
    2× · 2021–2022 · $8k · revenue +0%
  • VH
    VOLUNTEER HAMPTON ROADS
    6× · 2020–2025 · $8k · revenue +11%
  • SM
    ST MARYS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
    5× · 2020–2025 · $4k · revenue +25%

Funded once

  • SC
    SANIBEL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC
    one grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue -21%
  • SC
    SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FDTN
    one grant, 2021 · $3k
  • TS
    THE SALVATION ARMY
    one grant, 2020 · $2k

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
Science Museum of Virginia Foundation Inc

The science museum of virginia foundation, inc. serves as the private fundraising partner of the science museum of virginia, a state institution that was founded in 1970 by both the virginia academy of science and the virginia general…

Arts & Culture
2
Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Inc

The martha's vineyard agricultural society supports a resilient and sustainable agricultural community on martha's vineyard. we do this by:- offering services, education, marketing, and technical support for farmers and farmworkers on the…

Recreation & Sports
3
Sanibel & Captiva Island Association of Realtors Inc

The sanibel & captiva islands association of realtors is the trusted voice and advocate for real estate. real estate professionals adding value to our community.

4
The St George Village Botanical Garden of St Croix Inc

To promote knowledge of ,respect for and responsible use of plants, especially the plants of st. croix and the eastern caribbean.

Environment
5
Historic Virginia Land Conservancy

Promoting for the benefit of the general public, the preservation, protection and enjoyment of our natural resources, principally in the lower james, york, rappahannock and chowan rivers and surrounding watersheds.

Environment
6
Victoria Mansion

Preserve/Maintain Victoria Mansion

Arts & Culture
7
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences dba the Staten Island Museum

Founded in 1881 the Staten Island Museum engages visitors with interdisciplinary exhibitions, public programs, and educational activities for all ages. It is the mission of the Staten Island Museum to spark curiosity and generate…

Arts & Culture
8
Save the Bay Inc

Save the bay protects, restores, and improves the ecological health of the narragansett bay region, including its watershed and adjacent coastal waters, through an ecosystem-based approach to environmental action; defends the right of the…

Environment
9
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center Foundation Inc

To connect people to the marine environment, inspiring a more sustainable future. we aspire to be a driver in conservation, education, tourism, and sustainability, leading the charge to save wildlife and their ecosystems.

10
American Association of Museums

Champion equitable and impactful museums by connecting people, fostering learning and community, and nurturing museum excellence.

Arts & Culture
11
Sanibel Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce Inc

To promote the prosperity of our members and preserve the quality of life in our community.

Community Improvement
12
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory

The San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory is dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats through science and outreach.

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Smithsonian Institution. 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 45 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%15%10–20yr16%25%20–35yr13%35%35–55yr16%25%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr19%23%10–20yr16%20%20–35yr13%38%35–55yr16%19%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/21
the rest of the field
13%
240,396/1,819,544

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.

04the grantee network

21 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. 21 of the 39 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
21/21
Grantees still filing
13/21
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

CLINIC REHABILITATION OF WILDLIFE — $8,500 · OtherCLINIC REHABILITATION OF WILDLIFEVOLUNTEER HAMPTON ROADS — $7,500 · OtherVOLUNTEER HAMPTON ROADSSALVATION ARMY GREEN VALLEY — $6,011 · OtherSALVATION ARMY GREEN VALLEYBEACH DAY SCHOOL — $5,600 · OtherBEACH DAY SCHOOLGREEN VALLEY SHERRIFF'S AUXILIARY — $5,000 · OtherGREEN VALLEY SHERRIFF'S AUXILIARYCOMMUNITY FOOD BANK GREEN VALLEY — $5,000 · OtherCOMMUNITY FOOD BANK GREEN VALLEYVIRGINIA BEACH NEPTUNE FESTIVAL — $4,000 · OtherVIRGINIA BEACH NEPTUNE FESTIVALST MARYS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC — $3,500 · OtherTHE SANIBEL COMMUNITY HOUSE — $3,500 · OtherBAILEY-MATHEWS NAT'NL SHELL MUSEUM — $3,000 · OtherSANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FDTN — $2,500 · OtherThe Animal League of Green Valley — $3,000 · Other+10 more — $13,231 · Other+10 moreFISH OF SANIBEL-CAPTIVA INC — $7,500 · Human ServicesFISH OF SAN…PROOF ALLIANCE — $3,000 · Human ServicesPROOF ALLIA…HOSPICE OF ST MARYS INC — $1,000 · Human ServicesHOSPICE OF …SANIBEL HISTORICAL MUSEUM & VILLAGE INC — $3,000 · Arts & CultureSANIBEL HI…THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION — $3,000 · Arts & CultureTHE MOUNT …BARRIER ISLAND GROUP FOR THE ARTS — $2,586 · Arts & CultureBARRIER IS…SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $1,000 · Arts & CultureSMITHSONIA…ANN'S CIRCLE INC — $1,000 · Arts & CultureANN'S CIRC…CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC — $4,000 · EnvironmentTHE POTOMAC CONSERVANCY INC — $1,000 · EnvironmentSANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION — $1,000 · EnvironmentSANIBEL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC — $5,000 · Recreation & SportsFRIENDS IN DEED INC — $2,000 · HealthGVR Foundation Inc — $2,000 · HealthLEONARDTOWN VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD INC — $1,000 · HealthTHE NORFOLK ACADEMY — $3,000 · EducationSANIBEL PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 · Education
Other$70,342Human Services$11,500Arts & Culture$10,586Environment$6,000Recreation & Sports$5,000Health$5,000Education$4,000

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 budgetFISH OF SANIBEL-CAPTIVA INC — $7,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetVOLUNTEER HAMPTON ROADS — $7,500 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetSANIBEL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC — $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetST MARYS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC — $3,500 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetThe Animal League of Green Valley — $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetSANIBEL HISTORICAL MUSEUM & VILLAGE INC — $3,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetTHE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION — $3,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NORFOLK ACADEMY — $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPROOF ALLIANCE — $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBARRIER ISLAND GROUP FOR THE ARTS — $2,586 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS IN DEED INC — $2,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetGVR Foundation Inc — $2,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetTHE POTOMAC CONSERVANCY INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLEONARDTOWN VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSANIBEL PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLEONARDTOWN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetANN'S CIRCLE INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOSPICE OF ST MARYS INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% 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 FISH OF SANIBEL-CAPTIVA INC
  • Who funds VOLUNTEER HAMPTON ROADS
  • Who funds SANIBEL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION INC
  • Who funds CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds ST MARYS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
  • Who funds The Animal League of Green Valley
  • Who funds SANIBEL HISTORICAL MUSEUM & VILLAGE INC
  • Who funds THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION
  • Who funds THE NORFOLK ACADEMY
  • Who funds PROOF ALLIANCE
  • Who funds BARRIER ISLAND GROUP FOR THE ARTS
  • Who funds FRIENDS IN DEED INC
  • Who funds GVR Foundation Inc
  • Who funds THE POTOMAC CONSERVANCY INC
  • Who funds SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
  • Who funds LEONARDTOWN VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD INC
  • Who funds SANIBEL PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds LEONARDTOWN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT INC
  • Who funds ANN'S CIRCLE INC
  • Who funds SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION
  • Who funds HOSPICE OF ST MARYS 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.

Moccasin Lake FoundationDE13.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Moccasin Lake Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · 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 Berger 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 40%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 4%
  • Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation4% of income from government
  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
8report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
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 39 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