· Public charity
The Commonwealth Institute for
To use policy, research, and analysis to advance the well-being of Virginia communities, and improve the economic security and social opportunities of all Virginians.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Community 5050 | $35,000 |
| Virginia Community Voice | $25,000 |
| Peter Paul RVA | $25,000 |
| Sacred Heart Center | $25,000 |
| BlackHopeVA | $20,000 |
| FailSafeERA | $15,521 |
| Hebron VA Inc | $15,000 |
| LULAC Palante Family Technology Ce | $15,000 |
| Keeping Us Secure & Prosperous | $15,000 |
| Afrikana Institute | $15,000 |
| We R Me Foundation | $15,000 |
| The Family One | $15,000 |
| COSPU | $15,000 |
| I Vote For Me | $15,000 |
| NoLefTurns | $15,000 |
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, $136k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 89% 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.
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.
17 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 67% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k 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
- NVNEW VIRGINIA MAJORITY2× · 2019–2020 · $121k · revenue +19%
- PCPREVENT CHILD ABUSE VIRGINIA2× · 2021–2022 · $113k · revenue +8%
- VPVIRGINIA POVERTY LAW CENTER INC2× · 2020–2022 · $96k · revenue +84%
Funded once
- VFVOICES FOR VIRGINIA'S CHILDRENgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue +203%
- CCCHESAPEAKE CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK INCgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $40k · revenue +232%
- VLVIRGINIA LEAGUE FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD INCORPORATEDgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $40k · revenue +58%
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.
To establish an effective, long-term and resilient political infrastructure that advocates for and delivers public policy victories which reflect the values held in common by our members.
The mission of Virginia Legal Aid Society is to resolve serious legal problems of low-income people, promote economic and family stability, reduce poverty through effective legal assistance, and to champion equal justice.
Virginia community action partnership (vacap) is the statewide membership association for virginia's thirty-one non-profit and public community action agencies. vacaps mission is to build the capacity and competencies of virginias…
VCIC works with schools, businesses, and communities to achieve success through inclusion.
The voice for victims of crime and those who serve them
Our mission is to empower formerly incarcerated persons, veterans, at-risk youth, substance abusers and those suffering from homelessness. We help these groups of people overcome barriers that hinder their effective transition following…
Habitat for Humanity Virginia provides support to Virginia affiliates so that they can build or facilitate affordable housing by offering advocacy, organizational development, funding, and resource development
The aim is to address injustices arising fromisolation and racial and socio-economicinequity, through a process that strengthensour diverse social fabric. by strengtheninginstitutions and fostering publicrelationships, broad-based…
Virginia Anti-Violence Project (VAVP) is dedicated to supporting and advocating for the safety and well-being of LGBTQIA+ individuals, particularly those who are BIPOC and youth. As a national organization rooted in Virginia, we address…
VCDC delivers vital financial resources and support while collaborating with local organizations dedicated to social impact, ensuring the creation of affordable homes in vibrant neighborhoods where everyone can thrive.
VACIR is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic coalition of organizations that exists to win dignity, power and quality of life for all immigrant and refugee communities.
Virginia Interfaith Power & Light collaborates among people of faith and conscience to grow healthy communities by advancing climate and environmental education.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Virginia Organizing Inc and the most unlike its peers is Kusp. 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 14 years old; the field is 16. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 18% of your grantees by number, and just 10% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 7% lost their exemption, against 12% 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.
22 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. 22 of the 32 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 NEW VIRGINIA MAJORITY ↗
- Who funds PREVENT CHILD ABUSE VIRGINIA ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA POVERTY LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds PROGRESS NOW EDUCATION ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA COMMUNITY VOICE INC ↗
- Who funds PETER PAUL DEVELOPMENT CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds SACRED HEART CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds VOICES FOR VIRGINIA'S CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds Virginia Civic Engagement Table ↗
- Who funds CHESAPEAKE CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA LEAGUE FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds LEGAL AID JUSTICE CENTER ↗
- Who funds REAL CHANCES INC ↗
- Who funds Failsafe-Era Inc ↗
- Who funds Kusp ↗
- Who funds HEBRON VA INC ↗
- Who funds NOLEF TURNS ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA NEW MAJORITY EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA ORGANIZING INC ↗
- Who funds The Family One ↗
- Who funds PROGRESS NOW INC ↗
- Who funds Virginia Interfaith Center For Public Policy ↗
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: Richmond Memorial Health Foundation · The Community Foundation Inc · Weissberg Foundation · New Venture Fund · Robins Foundation · Charlottesville Area Community Foundation · Hopewell Fund · If Foundation · Virginia Nonprofit Housing Coalition · Eugene & Agnes E Meyer Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · Potomac Health 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 Commonwealth Institute for 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 Commonwealth Institute for?
Find your warmest path to The Commonwealth Institute for 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.