· Private foundation
The Brethen Foundation
Its FY2024 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 FY2023–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k10 grants · $20k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $30k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE UNIVERISTY OF TENNESSEE FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CARDINAL GLENNON CHILDRENS FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| CARDINAL GLENNON CHILDRENS FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| NRA FOUNDATION INC | $6,000 |
| PELOTONIA | $5,000 |
| TOYS FOR TOTS | $5,000 |
| SMOKY MOUNTAIN SERVICE DOGS | $2,000 |
| RIKKI'S REFUGE ANIMAL SHELTER | $500 |
| AMERICAN ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION | $500 |
| HABITAT FOR HUMANITY | $500 |
| CARDINAL GLENNON CHILDRENS FOUNDATION | $275 |
| SMOKY MOUNTAIN SERVICE DOGS | $240 |
| AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS | $119 |
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 (FY23–24, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 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.
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 ensure every companion animal has access to quality medical care, compassionate shelter, and a loving home.
Since 1944, the north shore animal league america's mission has been to save the lives of pets through adoption, rescue, education, medical care, spay/neuter and advocacy.
Rescue animals
To assist disabled veterans, active military personnel, first responders with disabilities, and those who have served our country honorably to live with dignity and independence. america's vetdogs trains and places guide dogs for…
Rescue pointer dogs and treat back to health and f
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Marine Toys for Tots Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Adopt a Pit Rescue. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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. 8 of the 15 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 CARDINAL GLENNON CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NRA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds PELOTONIA ↗
- Who funds MARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WESTERVILLE SUNRISE ROTARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Smoky Mountain Service Dogs ↗
- Who funds ADOPT A PIT RESCUE ↗
- Who funds THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.
Open a dossier: 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 Brethen 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 Brethen Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Brethen 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.