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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Bowers Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$20k
Granted FY2024still arriving
4
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What you fund
0192% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20182024.

Philanthropy$368kEducation$26kHealth$24kEnvironment$20kRecreation & Sports$6kPublic Safety & Disaster$5kHuman Services$4kHousing & Shelter$3kOther$0
02FY2024 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $10k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$5,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$317k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNITE TO LIGHT$10,000
GRAZIA FOUNDATION$5,000
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION$4,000
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF TAMPA BAY INC$1,000
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 (FY19–19, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, 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.

area typical 9%AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS: $5k → 14%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.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$61k · 9 repeat orgs$36k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +75% since the first grant, against +23% for the ones you funded once.

9 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
9

Total granted

$61k
$32k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+75%
+23%

Still filing today

89%
89%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthInternationalRecreation & SportsEducationHousing & ShelterHuman ServicesOther

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

  • UT
    UNITE TO LIGHT INC
    2× · 2018–2024 · $20k · revenue +100%
  • GF
    GRAZIA FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2024 · $10k · revenue +75%
  • HO
    HOSPICE OF SANTA BARBARA INC
    4× · 2018–2022 · $10k · revenue +52%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA
    one grant, 2019 · $20k
  • AN
    American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branchesgraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $5k · revenue +39%
  • TH
    TRANSITION HOUSE
    one grant, 2023 · $1k · revenue +9%

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
Santa Barbara Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Santa barbara humane operates two campuses located in santa barbara and santa maria providing care for community-owned and homeless animals. both campuses offer affordable high quality veterinary care, compassionate behavior training…

Animals
2
James Barry Robinson Institute

The Barry Robinson Center offers programs to improve the lives of children and their families.

Human Services
3
Therapy Dogs of Santa Barbara Inc

To empower people to live more fulfilling lives through the human-animal bond.

Animals
4
Raphael House of San Francisco Inc

The mission of raphael house is to help low-income families and families experiencing homelessness strengthen family bonds by achieving stable housing and financial independence.

Human Services
5
Abbott House

Founded in 1963, abbott house builds lasting foundations under children, families, and adults with complex needs. we support nearly 2,500 individuals which includes, children in foster care, unaccompanied immigrant children, adults with…

Human Services
6
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of Marshfield Inc

Ronald mcdonald house charities (rmhc) mission is to keep families with sick children together and near the care and resourses they need. rmhc of marshfield is dedicated to easing the burden of families whose lives have been disrupted as a…

Health
7
Project Drawdown

Project drawdown's mission is to drive meaningful climate action by advancing science-based solutions and strategies. project drawdown's work is focused on three pillars: science - advancing science-based climate solutions and strategies;…

Education
8
Children's Hospital

Organization's mission to improve health outcomes for children; be a leader in creating innovative solutions to pediatric healthcare problems; and excel in care, advocacy, research. as the nation's children's hospital, the mission of…

Health
9
Mary's Shelter

Believing in the value of every life, mary's path empowers vulnerable teen mothers in foster care and their babies to create lives of dignity, hope and self-sufficiency.

Human Services
10
Children's Hospital Corporation

Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service

Health
11
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of Greater Washongton Dc Inc

Ronald mcdonald house charities of greater washington, dc (rmhcdc) provides essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and promote healing when children need healthcare.

Health
12
Visiting Nurse Service of New York Home Care Ii

Vns health home care is part of one of the nation's largest nonprofit home and community-based health care organizations. we help people live, age, and heal where they feel most comfortable. please refer to schedule o for additional…

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund and the most unlike its peers is Creative Play Children's Learning Center 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

18 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. 18 of the 20 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)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
18/18
Grantees still filing
16/18
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND — $367,826 · Community ImprovementFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND+1 more — $1,000 · Community ImprovementUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA — $20,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY…HOSPICE OF SANTA BARBARA INC — $10,000 · OtherHOSPICE OF…Individual grant recipient — $4,500 · OtherIndividual…NATIONAL BRAIN TUMOR SOCIETY INC — $4,000 · OtherNATIONAL B…WILLBRIDGE OF SANTA BARBARA INC — $2,000 · Other+3 more — $2,500 · Other+3 moreUNITE TO LIGHT INC — $20,000 · InternationalDIRECT RELIEF — $1,000 · InternationalGRAZIA FOUNDATION — $10,000 · HealthRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF TAMPA BAY INC — $3,000 · HealthRECLAIMED HOPE INITIATIVE — $1,000 · HealthTFTSP YOUTH GOLF COUNCIL ST PETERSBURG FL INC — $5,000 · Recreation & SportsWILDROCK INC — $1,000 · Recreation & SportsUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION — $4,000 · EducationCREATIVE PLAY CHILDREN'S LEARNING CENTER INC — $2,000 · EducationAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $5,000 · Human Services
Community Improvement$368,826Other$43,000International$21,000Health$14,000Recreation & Sports$6,000Education$6,000Human Services$5,000

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 budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND — $367,826 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITE TO LIGHT INC — $20,000 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetGRAZIA FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 8.1% of budgetHOSPICE OF SANTA BARBARA INC — $10,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTFTSP YOUTH GOLF COUNCIL ST PETERSBURG FL INC — $5,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION — $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL BRAIN TUMOR SOCIETY INC — $4,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF TAMPA BAY INC — $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCREATIVE PLAY CHILDREN'S LEARNING CENTER INC — $2,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetWILLBRIDGE OF SANTA BARBARA INC — $2,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTRANSITION HOUSE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Kind Mouse Productions Inc — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRECLAIMED HOPE INITIATIVE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetVIRGINIA DISCOVERY MUSEUM INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetDIRECT RELIEF — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWILDROCK INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetHUMANE SOCIETY OF AMHERST COUNTY — $500 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.

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.

Network for GoodDC7.1× affinity4 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Network for Good · 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 Bowers 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%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • The Kind Mouse Productions Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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 20 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph