How much does The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation give?

The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation reported 18 grants totaling $568,600 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 10 and 17 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (30%), Youth Development (20%), Religion (14%).

Who are The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: St Mary Church ($241k), United Way of Genesee County ($200k), United Way of Saginaw County ($178k).

Does The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Consumers Energy Foundation, Anna Paulina Foundation, Stella & Frederick Loeb Charitable Trust.

Where is The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation based?

The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation is based in MI.

The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation

The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$569k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$201k

Largest

01What it funds

0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Philanthropy$632kYouth Development$414kReligion$289kEducation$202kHuman Services$189kHealth$127kHousing & Shelter$90kArts & Culture$55kOther$0

02FY2025 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k3 grants · $9k
$10k–50k14 grants · $359k
$50k–250k1 grant · $201k

$25,000

Median grant

States reached

$727k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
TUSCOLA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	$201,000
ST MARY CHURCH	$41,000
UNITED WAY OF GENESEE COUNTY	$40,000
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS	$36,000
FLINT PUBLIC LIBRARY	$35,000
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SAGINAW	$30,000
UNITED WAY OF SAGINAW COUNTY	$30,000
BOYS GIRLS CLUB OF FLIN	$25,000
WHALEY'S CHILDREN CENTER	$25,000
TOYS FOR HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN	$25,000
CATHOLIC CHARITIES	$25,000
NRITYANJALI	$15,000
TUSCOLA IMAGINATION LIBRARY	$12,000
CRIME STOPPERS OF FLINT GENESEE	$10,000
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA	$10,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY25–25, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 17%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.7M · 26 repeat orgs$193k to everyone else

26 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.7M

$118k

Still filing today

42%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $75k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CulturePhilanthropyHealthEducationFood & NutritionYouth DevelopmentOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

FB
Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
3× · 2017–2019 · $52k · revenue +43%
TA
THE ARC SHIAWASSEE COUNTY INC
9× · 2017–2025 · $45k · revenue +20%
MM
MYMICHIGAN MEDICAL CENTER SAGINAW
3× · 2017–2019 · $30k · revenue +24%

Funded once

MC
Mott Community College
one grant, 2018 · $40k
TF
THE FOUNDATION FOR MCC
one grant, 2017 · $35k
SM
SAINT MARY CATHOLIC CHURCH
one grant, 2017 · $15k

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

The Michigan Glass Project

Public Benefit

Mid Michigan Community Action Agency Inc

Mid michigan community action guides local residents on the path to self-sufficiency through empowerment, education and community enrichment.

—

Mymichigan Health Foundation

The corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively for charitable, educational and scientific purposes by conducting or supporting activites exclusively for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the…

Health

Michigan Chamber of Commerce

To promote conditions favorable to job creation and business success in michigan.

—

Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of Michigan

Providing patient support, community connections, education and advocacy.

Health

Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce

To be a catalyst for economic and community progress within the great lakes bay region.

—

Flint & Genesee Group

To promote the common economic interests of all the commercial enterprises in the Genesee County, Michigan community. The Organization strives to enhance the business climate in the area and advocates for public policy that supports…

Community Improvement

Michigan Credit Union Foundation

Cooperatively empowering credit unions to increase financial well-being by supporting community enrichment, financial education, and credit union development initiatives

Public Benefit

Macomb County Chamber of Commerce

The organization's mission is to promote a healthy business climate for its members and all businesses in macomb county, michigan.

Unclassified

Michigan Science Center

The mission of the michigan science center is to inspire curious minds of all ages to discover, explore and appreciate science, technology, engineering and math in a creative, dynamic learning environment.

Education

Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Channels individual, member, and corporate gifts for benefit of community.

—

Michigan Assoc of Community Mental Health Boards

Assisting the community mental health boards of michigan in developing methods for mental health planning, care and treatment.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Mymichigan Medical Center Saginaw; the most unlike its peers is Michigan Arts Access. 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

14 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 14 of the 40 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

14/14

Grantees still filing

9/14

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,332,900Philanthropy$594,000Food & Nutrition$52,000Health$46,500Arts & Culture$31,500Human Services$25,000Education$15,000Youth Development$7,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Consumers Energy FoundationMI19.4× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Consumers Energy Foundation · Anna Paulina Foundation · Stella & Frederick Loeb Charitable Trust · Wallace & Irene Bronner Family Charitable Foundation · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation · The Whiting Foundation · Tummala Charitable Foundation · The Hagerman Foundation · Saginaw Community Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Big John Steak and Onion Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

4report 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, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

Play a game based on Big John Steak and Onion’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home