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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Helen Johnston Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$97k
Granted FY2024still arriving
13
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$27k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Arts & Culture$273kHuman Services$142kEducation$140kHousing & Shelter$29kReligion$10kInternational$8kFood & Nutrition$6kRecreation & Sports$3kOther$0
02FY2024 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k10 grants · $24k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $73k
$3,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$2.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MOHAI$27,450
Individual grant recipient$25,000
Individual grant recipient$20,600
HOME TOGETHER$5,000
CASCADIA ART MUSEUM$5,000
TUNNELS TO TOWERS$4,000
DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS$3,000
RIVERSIDE ELEMENTARY PT0$2,000
ST MICHAEL PARISH$2,000
EVERETT UNION GOSPEL MISSION$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
Individual grant recipient$500
CASCADE PUBLIC MEDIAAKA KCTS 9$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 (FY17–24, $67k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%CASCADIA ART MUSEUM: $20k → 9%CASCADIA ART MUSEUM: $12k → 9%CASCADIA ART MUSEUM: $10k → 9%CASCADIA ART MEUSEUM: $10k → 9%CASCADIA ART MEUSEUM: $10k → 9%CASCADIA ART MUSEUM: $5k → 9%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.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$544k · 13 repeat orgs$73k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +89% since the first grant, against +54% for the ones you funded once.

13 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
20

Total granted

$544k
$67k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+89%
+54%

Still filing today

31%
15%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentEducationInternationalOther

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

  • CA
    CASCADIA ART MUSEUM
    6× · 2017–2024 · $67k · revenue +380%
  • STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2024 · $9k · revenue +50%
  • MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC
    4× · 2018–2024 · $7k · revenue +89%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $20k
  • M
    MOHOI
    one grant, 2021 · $15k
  • TS
    THE SOPHIA WAY- WOMENS SHELTER
    one grant, 2023 · $5k

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
Friends of Kexp

Kexp's mission is to enrich your life by championing music and discovery.

Youth Development
2
Nashville Public Radio

Nashville public radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.

Arts & Culture
3
Community Radio for Northern Colorado

Community radio for northern colorado's (crnc) mission is to strengthen our community by cultivating the mind and spirit - informing, inspiring, and entertaining. crnc strives to meet its mission by operating two public media services -…

Arts & Culture
4
Public Broadcasting of Colorado Inc

To deliver meaningful news, music, and cultural experiences to everyone in colorado using the power of the human voice in all its forms

Arts & Culture
5
Vermont Public Co

Vermont public informs, educates, and entertains through public service journalism and enlightening content rooted in vermont. our storytelling enriches lives and fosters community connection and understanding.

Arts & Culture
6
Seattle Symphony Orchestra Inc

To present symphonic music of the highest quality in a distinctive way for the cultural enrichment, education, engagement and enjoyment of the people of our community.

Arts & Culture
7
All Classical Public Media Inc

To advance knowledge of and appreciation for classical music; to build and sustain culturally vibrant communities around the arts; and to reflect the spirit of the pacific northwest with innovative and high-quality programs.

Arts & Culture
8
Kqed Inc

See schedule okqed serves the people of northern california with a community-supported alternative to commercial media, providing the knowledge needed to make informed decisions; convening community dialogue; bringing the arts to everyone;…

Arts & Culture
9
Community Wireless of Park City

Kpcw's mission is to serve summit and wasatch counties with local news, information, entertainment, and emergency alerts through its broadcast signal and digital media platforms. the station is also committed to provide its communication…

Arts & Culture
10
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

See schedule osfmoma believes the art of our time is vital and shares it with passion and purpose, and that art and the creative process can open minds and help build a better world. for that reason, we assemble unparalleled collections,…

Arts & Culture
11
Chamber Music Northwest

Chamber music northwest creates and shares the beauty, inspiration, intimacy and transformative power of small ensemble music through: unforgettable concerts with the world's greatest musicians in a welcoming environment; (continued on…

Arts & Culture
12
Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States Inc

The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cascade Public Media and the most unlike its peers is Cascadia Art Museum. 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

8 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. 8 of the 37 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/8
Grantees still filing
6/8
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MOHAI — $184,580 · OtherMOHAIIndividual grant recipient — $120,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient — $61,100 · OtherIndividual grant recipientBENNETT SCHOOL — $60,000 · OtherBENNETT SCHOOLIndividual grant recipient — $20,000 · OtherHOME TOGETHER — $18,000 · Other+25 more — $67,210 · Other+25 moreCASCADIA ART MUSEUM — $67,000 · Human ServicesCASCADIA ART…STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION — $9,000 · EducationMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC — $7,250 · InternationalCASCADE PUBLIC MEDIA — $2,000 · Arts & CultureCLASSICAL 981 — $250 · Arts & CultureUKULELE KIDS CLUB INC — $500 · Youth Development
Other$530,890Human Services$67,000Education$9,000International$7,250Arts & Culture$2,250Youth Development$500

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 budgetCASCADIA ART MUSEUM — $67,000 over 6y, 2.7% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION — $9,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC — $7,250 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCASCADE PUBLIC MEDIA — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEW BEGINNINGS — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUKULELE KIDS CLUB INC — $500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCLASSICAL 981 — $250 over 1y, 0.0% 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 CASCADIA ART MUSEUM
  • Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION
  • Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC
  • Who funds CASCADE PUBLIC MEDIA
  • Who funds BEAUTIFUL SOLES
  • Who funds NEW BEGINNINGS
  • Who funds UKULELE KIDS CLUB INC
  • Who funds CLASSICAL 981

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.

Seattle FoundationWA13.1× affinity4 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Seattle Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 organization The Helen Johnston 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 · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.

    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 37 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