· Private foundation
The Helen C Cobbs 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 $10k3 grants · $19k
- $10k–50k12 grants · $232k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| PRESBYTERIAN COMMUNITY CENTER INC | $43,925 |
| ROANOKE COLLEGE | $37,650 |
| ROANOKE AREA MINISTRIES (RAM HOUSE) | $18,825 |
| CHILD HEALTH INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP (CHIP) | $18,825 |
| FAMILY SERVICE OF ROANOKE VALLEY | $18,825 |
| RESCUE MISSION OF ROANOKE INC | $18,825 |
| GIRL SCOUTS OF VIRGINIA SKYLINE COUNCIL INC | $12,550 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC | $12,550 |
| FAMILY PROMISE OF GREATER ROANOKE | $12,550 |
| HOLLINS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION | $12,550 |
| SALEM HISTORICAL SOCIETY DBA SALEM MUSEUM | $12,550 |
| WEST END CENTER | $12,550 |
| ADULT CARE CENTER OF ROANOKE VALLEY | $9,412 |
| SALEM AREA ECUMENICAL MINISTRIES | $6,275 |
| BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA | $3,138 |
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 (FY17–25, $805k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 83% 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.
18 repeat relationships — 15 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- PCPRESBYTERIAN COMMUNITY CENTER9× · 2017–2025 · $333k · revenue +179%
- FSFAMILY SERVICE OF ROANOKE VALLEY9× · 2017–2025 · $176k · revenue +30%
- TRTHE RESCUE MISSION OF ROANOKE INC9× · 2017–2025 · $159k · revenue +26%
Funded once
- BFBRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INCgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue +47%
- RARenovation Alliance Incgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +102%
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 serve the indigent.
The mission of roane family health care is to exceed the quality of care that our patients deserve and expect while surpassing community needs through innovative technology.
We aim to develop quality soccer players, as well as well-balanced, motivated individuals who are prepared to handle life's challenges. Our programs are designed to enhance each player's personal growth.
The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra provides a professional symphony orchestra of artistic excellence and integrity to enrich lives, to educate, and to entertain diverse audiences in western Virginia with the highest quality instrumental and…
The center provides religious, educational, and charitable services including distributing clothing, refreshments, toys, gifts and religious instruction to the homeless and low income citizens of the community.
Providing primary health care and professional counseling services to all indviduals who need it.
Combat poverty by focusing on increasing self-sufficiency of low-income citizens.
Rockbridge Recovery supports individuals, families, and communities touched by addictive behaviors through support from peers, prevention, and education.
The Chamber is a Business Advocate for the Roanoke Region.
Primary mission is to extend the facilities and services of rw-c inc. to aid as many deserving individuals as can prudently be supported with the funds available to the foundation.
To provide for the basic medical and dental needs of the working poor of Rockingham County through volunteer medical professionals.
The mission of Good Shepherd Episcopal School is to inspire each child to achieve academic excellence within a diverse, nurturing community that builds character and fosters respect for one another and our shared environment, locally and…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Family Service of Roanoke Valley and the most unlike its peers is Renovation Alliance Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
15 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. 15 of the 20 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 PRESBYTERIAN COMMUNITY CENTER ↗
- Who funds ROANOKE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds FAMILY SERVICE OF ROANOKE VALLEY ↗
- Who funds THE RESCUE MISSION OF ROANOKE INC ↗
- Who funds CHILD HEALTH INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP DBA CHIP OF ROANOKE VALLEY ↗
- Who funds FAMILY PROMISE OF GREATER ROANOKE ↗
- Who funds West End Center Inc ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS OF VIRGINIA SKYLINE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds HOLLINS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA WESTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ADULT CARE CENTER OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC ↗
- Who funds APPLE RIDGE FARM INC ↗
- Who funds Salem Area Ecumenical Ministries ↗
- Who funds BRADLEY FREE CLINIC OF ROANOKE VALLEY INC ↗
- Who funds Renovation Alliance 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: Community Foundation Serving Western Virginia · Robertson Family Foundation Inc · Edgar a Thurman Fdn Children Nect · United Way of Virginia's Blue Ridge Inc · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Muse Family Foundation Co Elizabeth Muse · Carilion Medical Center · Roanoke Womens Foundation · Sam & Marion Golden Helping Hand Foundation · Evelyn F James Foundation · Powell Charitable Foundation · The Newbern 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 Helen C Cobbs 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.
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 Helen C Cobbs Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Helen C Cobbs 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.