Loading…
· Private foundation
THE DEAR FOUNDATION
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$83k
Granted FY2024
10
Grants
3
Communities
$10k
Largest
01What you fund
0177% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2023–2024.
Food & Nutrition$65kEnvironment$23kHuman Services$15kOther$30k
02FY2024 · 10 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $13k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $70k
$10,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
- ADKINS ARBORETUM$10,000
- SOCIETY OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL$10,000
- BUILDING AFRICAN MINDS$10,000
- THE NATURE CONSERVANCY$10,000
- THRIVE DC$10,000
- CHESAPEAKE WILDLIFE HERITAGE$10,000
- RED WIGGLER FOUNDATION$10,000
- FATHER MCKENNA CENTER$5,000
- PROJECT GIVEBACK COMMUNITY SERVICE ORG$5,000
- PHILLIPS WHARF ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER$2,500
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 (FY24–24, $15k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10% — the area typically sits at 7%. 100% 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.
03Your 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
Georgetown Trust for Conservation
Contribute to the sustainability of the georgetown-silver plume historic landmark district and its environs through the preservation and interpretation of the district's cultural, artistic and natural assets.
Arts & Culture
2
Sustainable Growers
—
3
Harry R Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology
The Center brings together diverse interests from the agricultural, forestry, and environmental communities for the purpose of retaining Maryland's working landscapes and the industries they support while protecting and improving the…
Food & Nutrition
4
Willowsford Conservancy Inc
To generate, preserve & enhance the willowsford community through programs, activities & services.
Environment
5
Seed Peace
To grow the local food supply by supporting farmers, preparing food plants for climate change and increasing health giving food availability for people in need
—
6
The Wetlands Institute
The mission of the wetlands institute is to promote appreciation, understanding and stewardship of wetland and coastal ecosystems through programs in research, conservation and education.
—
7
Oxbow Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Education
8
The Land Institute
Develop a grain agriculture system with the ecological stability of natural systems and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops.
—
9
Trees for the Triangle
We plant native trees in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina.
Environment
10
South Carolina Coastal Conservation
We work to protect the health of the natural resources of the south carolina coastal plain and ensure a high quality of life for all of the people who live in and love this special place.
Environment
11
Winnett Food Forest
Food & Nutrition
12
Ecology Learning Center
The mission of the ecology learning center is to deeply root students in Maine's ecological & cultural landscapes, foster authentic real-world learning through mentorship & craft, and cultivate compassionate and resilient leaders prepared…
—
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Red Wiggler Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Adkins Arboretum Ltd. 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
9 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
5/9
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Food & Nutrition$65,000Other$30,000Environment$22,500Human Services$15,000
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.
- Who funds CAPITAL AREA FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds CHESAPEAKE WILDLIFE HERITAGE ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds THRIVE DC ↗
- Who funds RED WIGGLER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ADKINS ARBORETUM ↗
- Who funds FATHER MCKENNA CENTER ↗
- Who funds PROJECT GIVEBACK COMMUNITY SERVICE ORG ↗
- Who funds PHILLIPS WHARF ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER ↗
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.
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCA6.4× affinity5 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: 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 organisation THE DEAR 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
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
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.
04Through 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: PHILLIPS WHARF ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
low risk
8 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 204519973 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 PHILLIPS WHARF ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER, 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
- Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
- WatchSustained operations— Filing through 2025; revenue contracted over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 2% of their budget — diversified.
- 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 Dear Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Dear 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.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines