· Private foundation
The Brown Foundation
Its FY2025 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 FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k9 grants · $14k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $41k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF GRETNA | $41,100 |
| COOPERATIVE BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP OF VA | $5,000 |
| BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS COUNCIL - SCOUTING USA | $5,000 |
| MAHOVA | $2,500 |
| CAMPBELL MASONIC LODGE #316 | $1,000 |
| SCOTTISH RITE FOUNDATION | $200 |
| THE CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION | $200 |
| KEDRON BAPTIST CHURCH | $100 |
| NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION | $100 |
| ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION | $100 |
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 (FY17–17, $100) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
34 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2025, 27 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k 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
- DSDANVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA3× · 2017–2020 · $3k · revenue +41%
- CCCRAVEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION2× · 2018–2019 · $2k · revenue +54%
CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC9× · 2017–2025 · $1k · revenue +53%
Funded once
- AUAVERETT UNIVERSITYone grant, 2019 · $5k · revenue +17%
- IVINDIA VISION INITIATIVE INCgraduatedone grant, 2024 · $3k · revenue +40%
- EFEVERBLESS FOUNDATIONone grant, 2023 · $3k
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.
Christianity Today is a global community inspired by evangelical conviction to advance the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God. Our mission is to elevate the storytellers and sages of the global church.
Is to provide educational opportunities for gifted students who have limited academic experiences and resources but unlimited potential for leadership in society.
Grist is an independent, non profit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.
The Corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively for charitable,religious and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the corresponding provision or…
Regent University serves as a center of Christian thought and action to provide excellent education through a Biblical perspective and global context equipping Christian leaders to change the world.
Post secondary and graduate educational institution The mission of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary is to equip vocational Christian workers and other servant leaders while inspiring them to take the Word to the world.
The Center of Theological Inquiry is an independent research institution with an international visiting scholar program which convenes researchers in an ideal setting for interdisciplinary inquiries where theology casts light on global…
To support and strengthen the christian witness fulfilled by the foundation's partners in ministry and mission. these include american baptist home mission societies, american baptist international ministries and a majority of american…
Asbury Theological Seminary is a community called to prepare theologically educated, sanctified, Spirit-filled men and women to evangelize and to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world through the love of Jesus Christ, in the…
Carolina college of biblical studies exists to disciple christ-followers, through biblical higher education, for a lifetime of effective servant leadership.
The mission of Toccoa Falls College is to glorify God through seeking and developing Christian servant leaders who will impact their world with the love and message of Jesus Christ.
Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Community Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Gretna Volunteer Fire Dept Inc. 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 55 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 21 of the 60 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 BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICABLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds AVERETT UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA BAPTIST CHILDREN'S HOME AND FAMILY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR BAPTIST HERITAGE & STUDIES ↗
- Who funds INDIA VISION INITIATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds DANVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
- Who funds CRAVEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Baptist Women In Ministry Inc ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL ARBOR DAY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Good Faith Media 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: The Donor Advised Fund of the Vbf · Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation · The Community Foundation Inc · Lilly Endowment Inc · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Network for Good · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
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 Brown 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.
- Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc — 2% 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 Brown Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Brown 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.