How much did THE BUSH FOUNDATION grant in FY2024?

Philanthropy$94MCommunity Improvement$81MEducation$21MHuman Services$20MArts & Culture$14MHousing & Shelter$12MHealth$9.1MFood & Nutrition$5.1MEnvironment$3.8MOther$74M

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2020

identify recruitrecruit engageengage cohortcohort leadersleaders attendattend bushconnectsession

2021

evictionlearnit'sspeakersperspectivesprisonpartners develop

2022

archibald legacygranite fallstourismsteward searchsearch contributorrecognition becomingbecoming finalist

2023

ecosystem othersothers solvesolve problemswinnersfinalistsadvocacyproblem solving

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 143 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k5 grants · $26k
$10k–50k47 grants · $968k
$50k–250k47 grants · $6.9M
$250k+44 grants · $45M

$150,000

Median grant

States reached

$1.5B

Total assets

Largest grants

EXODUS FINANCIAL SERVICES$4,200,000
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS$3,150,000
OWAMNIYOMNI OKHODAYAPI$2,625,000
WAKAN TIPI AWANYANKAPI$2,482,095
COMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICIO INC$1,700,000
SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$1,600,000
SAINT PAUL AND MINNESOTA FOUNDATION$1,600,000
NORTHCOUNTRY COOPERATIVE FOUNDATION$1,410,000
BUILD WEALTH MN INC$1,375,000
MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION$1,350,000
LEAVITT PARTNERS$1,335,000
MIDWEST INDIGENOUS IMMERSION NETWORK$1,270,050
BUSH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM - COHORT 20$1,215,658
BUSH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM - COHORT 20$1,210,371
FOUR BANDS COMMUNITY FUND INC$1,200,000

02The need

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 (FY20–24, $19.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12% — the area typically sits at 11%. 88% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 27% of THE BUSH FOUNDATION’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 60% of the giving stays in MN; read by stated purpose it is 39% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

THE BUSH FOUNDATIONlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address · 38% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

84%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$280M · 178 repeat orgs$53M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +73% since the first grant, against +70% for the ones you funded once.

178 repeat relationships — 94 still active in FY2024, 84 since wound down; 20 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

178

145

Total granted

$280M

$30M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+73%

+70%

Still filing today

79%

64%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 56% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Community ImprovementArts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterOther

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

NDN COLLECTIVE INC
3× · 2020–2022 · $51M · revenue +473% · 71% of their budget
SP
SAINT PAUL AND MINNESOTA FOUNDATION
5× · 2020–2024 · $11M · revenue +34%
NG
NATIVE GOVERNANCE CENTER
4× · 2020–2024 · $6.0M · revenue +6311% · 70% of their budget

Funded once

FH
FAMILY HOUSING FUND
one grant, 2021 · $4.0M · revenue -6%
MI
MINNESOTA INCLUSIVE GROWTH FUND LLC
one grant, 2021 · $2.5M
CO
CITY OF LAKES COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTgraduated
one grant, 2021 · $2.2M · revenue +782% · 44% of their budget

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.

African Development Center

Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota

Human Services

Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and

Advance public policy & job growth strategies to create an environment for businesses to prosper

—

Minnesota Business Partnership

To maintain a high quality of life for all minnesotans.

—

United Way of Ne Minnesota

Invest in nonprofits, programs, collaborations that equip, empower and create opportunities for all to thrive.

—

Great Plains Food Bank

The Great Plains Food Bank is North Dakota's largest hunger-relief organization with a mission to end hunger through community partnerships. Our vision is a hunger-free North Dakota and western Minnesota. Both our mission and vision are…

Food & Nutrition

Diversity Council

Education to embrace diversity for building a healthy, inclusive, and prosperous community.

—

Minnesota Voice

Minnesota Voice is a collaboration of organizations working toward permanent change in social, racial, and economic justice by increasing civic engagement and voter participation across the state.

Public Benefit

Minnesota Indigenous Business Alliance

ACT: Align Partners, Connect Businesses to Resources and Transform Native Economies.

Community Improvement

Minneapolis Downtown Council

To promote the growth and development of the downtown area and its businesses.

—

Economic Club of Minnesota

The econonic club of minnesota (ecom) provides a high-profile, non-partisan platform for national and international leaders in business, government and public policy to present their ideas on how minnesota can better compete in the global…

Social Science

Central Minnesota Jobs & Training

Strengthen central mn communities through leadership in workforce excellence

—

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Embolden creative leaders to transform society through equity, empathy, & imagination.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Charities Review Council and the most unlike its peers is Arcata Press. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side

Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 23 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.8% lost their exemption, against 9% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

0.8%2/265

the rest of the field

3,298/38,724

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.

06the grantee network

259 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

104

Early backer (in before they grew)

247/259

Grantees still filing

204/259

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Philanthropy$94,081,450Community Improvement$80,546,775Other$91,824,983Education$20,784,226Human Services$19,919,320Arts & Culture$13,693,813Housing & Shelter$11,606,000

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.

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.

The McKnight FoundationMN142.8× affinity88 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The McKnight Foundation · Northwest Area Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Target Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Women's Foundation of Minnesota · Headwaters Foundation for Justice · Propel Nonprofits · Greater Twin Cities United Way · Mortenson Family 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 organisation THE BUSH 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.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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.

05Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: THE EQUITY IN ACTION WAY FOUNDATION.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

low risk

~8 months of operating runway; revenue held over 2 filed years.

Track record & reputation

medium risk

2 years of Form 990 filings, still active.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 992355123 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on THE EQUITY IN ACTION WAY FOUNDATION, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 8 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2025; revenue held over the period.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 100% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to The Bush Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Bush Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

THE BUSH FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Where the work is directed

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

259 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to The Bush Foundation?

More from the funding graph

THE BUSH FOUNDATION

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Where the work is directed

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

259 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to The Bush Foundation?

More from the funding graph