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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Ellwood Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2.7M
Granted FY2024still arriving
66
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$160k
Largest
01What you fund
0194% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20182024.

Health$5.9MEducation$4.0MHuman Services$2.8MCrime & Legal$445kRecreation & Sports$445kEmployment$350kArts & Culture$195kScience & Tech$165kOther$0
02FY2024 · 66 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k44 grants · $875k
  • $50k–250k22 grants · $1.8M
$30,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$42M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE BROOKWOOD COMMUNITY$160,000
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER$160,000
MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER$160,000
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL SCHOOL$130,000
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE$100,000
THE CENTER FOUNDATION$90,000
MARBRIDGE FOUNDATION$80,000
BRIARWOOD SCHOOL$80,000
STRAKE JESUIT LEARNING RESOURCE$75,000
HUB HOUSTON$75,000
AWARE ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION$75,000
Individual grant recipient$70,000
CHILD ADVOCATES$60,000
TIRR FOUNDATION$60,000
HOSPICE AT TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER$60,000
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 (FY18–21, $190k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 87% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%MARBRIDGE FOUNDATION: $25k → 10%HOUSTON AREA WOMEN'S CENTER: $25k → 16%HOUSTON AREA WOMEN'S CENTER: $25k → 16%COVENANT HOUSE: $10k → 16%HOUSTON APHASIA RECOVERY CENTER: $10k → 16%PATHWAYS FOR LITTLE FEET: $35k → 16%OPEN DOOR MISSION: $25k → 16%HOLLY HALL: $25k → 16%DEPELCHIN CHILDREN'S CENTER: $10k → 16%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 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.

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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$15M · 70 repeat orgs$535k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +35% since the first grant, against +9% for the ones you funded once.

70 repeat relationships — 64 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

70
13

Total granted

$15M
$520k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+35%
+9%

Still filing today

59%
38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHealthHuman ServicesCrime & LegalRecreation & SportsEmploymentOther

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

  • TB
    THE BRIARWOOD SCHOOL
    6× · 2018–2024 · $540k · revenue +22%
  • TH
    THE HUB HOUSTON INC
    6× · 2018–2024 · $385k · revenue +122%
  • GI
    GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF HOUSTON
    6× · 2018–2024 · $350k · revenue +44%

Funded once

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER HOUSTON
    one grant, 2018 · $120k
  • TC
    THE CENTER FOUNDATION 3550 WEST DALLAS
    one grant, 2018 · $80k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2018 · $75k

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.

1
Breakthrough Houston

The mission of Breakthrough Houston (BTH) is to work with highly motivated students to achieve post-secondary success and empower aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educational advocates.

Education
2
The Arc of Harris County

To promote wellness, enriching the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

3
St John's School

See Schedule OSt. John's School is an independent, co-educational day school presenting a 13-year sequence of college preparatory training. A non-profit institution, it was founded in 1946 to provide the community with a school of exacting…

4
Trees for Houston

Plant, protect and promote trees all over the greater Houston area.

5
Connectability

ConnectAbility's mission is to empower those with life altering disabilities and their caregivers to reach their fullest potential.

Human Services
6
Trinity Charter School

The trinity charter schools system has 11 campuses in texas. all 11 campuses work with youth who have emotional difficulties, and need active engagement in planning and guiding their own academic careers through student led credit…

Education
7
Made Houston

MADE Houston was formed to create a school community focused on nurturing and developing the unique academic and social needs of students with learning differences and to successfully transition students into mainstream schools.

Education
8
American Academy of Neurology

The Academy's mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all.

Community Improvement
9
The Woodlands Christian Academy

TWCA is an independent, Christ-centered college preparatory school that integrates learning with biblical faith and challenges our students to reach their highest potential - intellectually, creatively, physically, and socially - for the…

10
Texas Heart Medical Group

To provide cutting-edge cardiac care to diagnose, treat, and prevent cardiovascular diseases.

Health
11
Presbyterian School

Family, School, and Church united in the education and support of each child - this is the founding premise upon which Presbyterian School nurtures and challenges its students. The school provides an educational program of the highest…

Education
12
Children's Hospital Corporation

Provider of pediatric healthcare, education, research & community service

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Texas Children's Hospital and the most unlike its peers is Covenant House Texas. 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 42 years old; the field is 11. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number30%0%<5yr17%2%5–10yr21%16%10–20yr17%20%20–35yr8%29%35–55yr8%33%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value30%0%<5yr17%6%5–10yr21%15%10–20yr17%15%20–35yr8%28%35–55yr8%35%55yr+

The field is 30% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 19% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/48
the rest of the field
19%
3,802/20,393

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.

04the grantee network

46 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 46 of the 84 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
46/46
Grantees still filing
34/46
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER — $1,750,000 · OtherMD ANDERSON CANCER CENTERUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL SCHOOL — $630,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL SCHOOLRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE — $620,000 · OtherRONALD MCDONALD HOUSEAWARE ALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION — $375,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $370,000 · OtherSTRAKE JESUIT LEARNING RESOURCE — $355,000 · OtherHOSPICE AT TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER — $330,000 · OtherHouston Area Parkinson Society — $285,000 · Other+40 more — $3,570,000 · Other+40 moreThe Brookwood Community Inc — $930,000 · EducationThe Brookwood Communi…THE BRIARWOOD SCHOOL — $540,000 · EducationTHE BRIARWOOD SCHOOLYELLOWSTONE ACADEMY INC DBA YELLOWSTONE SCHOOLS — $335,000 · EducationYELLOWSTONE ACADEMY I…TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY — $270,000 · EducationTEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVE…Small Steps Nurturing Center — $230,000 · EducationSmall Steps Nurturing…ARCHWAY ACADEMY — $180,000 · EducationARCHWAY ACADEMYJoy Development School — $120,000 · EducationThe Gateway Academy Inc — $120,000 · Education+3 more — $165,000 · Education+3 moreTHE HUB HOUSTON INC — $385,000 · HealthTHE HUB HOUS…TIRR Foundation — $310,000 · HealthTIRR Foundat…THE MENNINGER CLINIC — $260,000 · HealthTHE MENNINGE…Texas Heart Institute — $180,000 · HealthTexas Heart …Texas Children's Hospital — $180,000 · HealthTexas Childr…AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC — $120,000 · HealthAMERICAN CAN…The Blue Bird Circle — $90,000 · HealthTHE IMMUNIZATION PARTNERSHIP — $75,000 · HealthMental Health Association — $60,000 · Health+2 more — $30,000 · HealthPURSUIT FOUNDATION — $455,000 · Human ServicesPURSUIT FOUN…MARBRIDGE FOUNDATION INC — $340,000 · Human ServicesMARBRIDGE FO…Pathways for Little Feet — $240,000 · Human ServicesPathways for…Houston Area Women's Center — $165,000 · Human ServicesHouston Area…Holly Hall — $125,000 · Human ServicesHolly HallOpen Door Mission — $125,000 · Human ServicesOpen Door Mi…DEPELCHIN CHILDREN'S CENTER — $60,000 · Human ServicesHouston Aphasia Recovery Center — $60,000 · Human ServicesCOVENANT HOUSE TEXAS — $60,000 · Human Services+1 more — $40,000 · Human ServicesCHILD ADVOCATES INC — $355,000 · Crime & LegalChildren's Assessment Center Foundation — $90,000 · Crime & LegalGOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF HOUSTON — $350,000 · EmploymentBo's Place — $195,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$8,285,000Education$2,890,000Health$1,690,000Human Services$1,670,000Crime & Legal$445,000Employment$350,000Arts & Culture$195,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetThe Brookwood Community Inc — $930,000 over 6y, 1.0% of budgetTHE BRIARWOOD SCHOOL — $540,000 over 6y, 1.0% of budgetPURSUIT FOUNDATION — $455,000 over 5y, 16% of budgetTHE HUB HOUSTON INC — $385,000 over 6y, 5.6% of budgetCHILD ADVOCATES INC — $355,000 over 6y, 1.2% of budgetGOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF HOUSTON — $350,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetMARBRIDGE FOUNDATION INC — $340,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetYELLOWSTONE ACADEMY INC DBA YELLOWSTONE SCHOOLS — $335,000 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetTIRR Foundation — $310,000 over 6y, 3.5% of budgetHouston Area Parkinson Society — $285,000 over 6y, 4.1% of budgetTEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY — $270,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MENNINGER CLINIC — $260,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetPathways for Little Feet — $240,000 over 6y, 9.9% of budgetSmall Steps Nurturing Center — $230,000 over 6y, 1.2% of budgetThe W Oscar Neuhaus Memorial Foundation — $210,000 over 6y, 0.6% of budgetBo's Place — $195,000 over 6y, 2.1% of budgetTexas Heart Institute — $180,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetCamp Allen Camp & Conference Center — $180,000 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetTexas Children's Hospital — $180,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetARCHWAY ACADEMY — $180,000 over 6y, 2.4% of budgetHouston Area Women's Center — $165,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetHolly Hall — $125,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetOpen Door Mission — $125,000 over 6y, 1.0% of budgetJoy Development School — $120,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC — $120,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Gateway Academy Inc — $120,000 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetYES Prep Public Schools Inc — $95,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Blue Bird Circle — $90,000 over 6y, 1.7% of budgetChildren's Assessment Center Foundation — $90,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetCamp For All Foundation — $75,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetTHE IMMUNIZATION PARTNERSHIP — $75,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetSpringSpirit Inc — $70,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetREMIND — $70,000 over 6y, 1.8% of budgetDEPELCHIN CHILDREN'S CENTER — $60,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetSPECIAL OLYMPICS OF TEXAS INC — $60,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetMental Health Association — $60,000 over 6y, 21% of budgetHouston Aphasia Recovery Center — $60,000 over 6y, 2.5% of budgetThe Westview School Inc — $60,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetCOVENANT HOUSE TEXAS — $60,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetCANCARE INC — $60,000 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF GALVESTON - HOUSTON — $40,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE WILL ERWIN HEADACHE RESEARCH FOUNDATION — $30,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetRETINA RESEARCH FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetHOUSTON EYE ASSOCIATES FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetTEXAS BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR HEARING AND SPEECH — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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 The Brookwood Community Inc
  • Who funds THE BRIARWOOD SCHOOL
  • Who funds PURSUIT FOUNDATION
  • Who funds THE HUB HOUSTON INC
  • Who funds CHILD ADVOCATES INC
  • Who funds GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF HOUSTON
  • Who funds MARBRIDGE FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds YELLOWSTONE ACADEMY INC DBA YELLOWSTONE SCHOOLS
  • Who funds TIRR Foundation
  • Who funds Houston Area Parkinson Society
  • Who funds TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
  • Who funds THE MENNINGER CLINIC
  • Who funds Pathways for Little Feet
  • Who funds Small Steps Nurturing Center
  • Who funds The W Oscar Neuhaus Memorial Foundation
  • Who funds Bo's Place
  • Who funds Texas Heart Institute
  • Who funds Camp Allen Camp & Conference Center
  • Who funds Texas Children's Hospital
  • Who funds ARCHWAY ACADEMY
  • Who funds Houston Area Women's Center
  • Who funds Holly Hall
  • Who funds Open Door Mission
  • Who funds Joy Development School

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.

Greater Houston Community FoundationTX47.1× affinity26 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Houston Community Foundation · Strake Foundation · Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation · Vivian L Smith Foundation · Shell USA Company Foundation · The John M O'Quinn Foundation · The Elkins Foundation · MD Anderson Foundation · Sterling-Turner Foundation · John P McGovern Foundation · The William Stamps Farish Fund · The Brown Foundation Inc

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 Ellwood 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Ellwood Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Ellwood 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 84 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph