How much does The Hough Foundation give?

The Hough Foundation reported 22 grants totaling $1,055,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 13 and 20 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Hough Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (51%), Health (30%), Environment (7%).

Who are The Hough Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Big Sky Community Organization ($370k), Blank Park Zoo Foundation Inc ($200k), Kalamazoo College ($150k).

Does The Hough Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 18% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Hough Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Hough Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Foren Family Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, California Community Foundation.

Where is The Hough Foundation based?

The Hough Foundation is based in MI.

The Hough Foundation

The Hough Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Hough 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.

$1.1M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$501k

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$4.3MHealth$2.5MEnvironment$595kRecreation & Sports$380kAnimals$205kReligion$180kFood & Nutrition$73kHuman Services$59kOther$0

02FY2024 · 22 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k11 grants · $34k
$10k–50k7 grants · $135k
$50k–250k2 grants · $135k
$250k+2 grants · $751k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$12M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
HILLSDALE COLLEGE	$501,000
BEAUMONT HOSPITAL FOUNDATION	$250,000
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH SYSTE	$75,000
BIG SKY COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION	$60,000
APOPO US INC	$35,000
NORTHBROOK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH	$25,000
WARRIORS AND QUIET WATERS	$25,000
KALAMAZOO COLLEGE	$20,000
FOUNDATION ST LOUIS ACADEMY	$10,000
SAUGATUCK DUNES COASTAL ALLIANCE	$10,000
CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK	$10,000
HENRY FORD COLLEGE FOUNDATION	$6,500
MOTOR CITY LYRIC OPERA	$5,000
SOCIETY FOR RE-INSTITUTIONALIZATION	$5,000
MARY'S MERCY CENTER	$5,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY18–24, $74k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 86% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

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.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$4.2M · 25 repeat orgs$235k to everyone else

25 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2024, 10 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$4.2M

$162k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+41%

+53%

Still filing today

60%

59%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $73k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthHuman ServicesEducationEnvironmentArts & CultureAnimalsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

BP
BLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC
2× · 2020–2021 · $200k · revenue +49%
KC
KALAMAZOO COLLEGE
8× · 2017–2024 · $150k · revenue +41%
SD
SAUGATUCK DUNES COASTAL ALLIANCE
8× · 2017–2024 · $53k · revenue +291%

Funded once

GC
GLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN
one grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue -22%
LC
LORAS COLLEGE
one grant, 2017 · $25k · revenue +11%
GW
GANNA WALSKA LOTUSLANDgraduated
one grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +53%

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Mymichigan Medical Center Midland

Creating healthy communities - together

Health

Michigan Biotechnology Institute

Bridging the gap between early-stage innovation and commercial application. partnering to de-risk, develop and scale-up discoveries into commercially-viable technology packages.

Education

Delta Dental Fund

Delta dental fund's mission is to improve the oral health of the public and to advance dental science and the dental profession through research and education.

—

Organ Procurement Agency of Michigan

We honor life through donation.

—

Michigan Humane Society

To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.

Animals

Mercy College of Health Sciences

We, mercy college of health sciences and trinity health, serve together in the spirit of the gospel as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within our communities. mercy college of health sciences is a member of trinity health.

Religion

Michigan State Medical Society

Promote a health care environment that supports physicians in caring for and enhancing the health of michigan citizens through science, quality, and ethics in the practice of medicine.

—

University of Maryland Dermatologists Pa

Under the medical service plan of the university of maryland school of medicine, medical services are rendered by the members of the faculty on behalf of the school of medicine in connection with their duties to provide clinical…

Health

Mymichigan Medical Group

Creating healthy communities - together

Health

University of Maryland Neurosurgeryassociates Pa

Education

Lymphoma Research Foundation

To eradicate lymphoma and serve those touched by this disease.

Health

Michigan State University Research Foundation

To provide support for the board of trustees of michigan state university and to promote, sponsor, assist, and carry out educational, scientific, charitable and related activities and objectives of michigan state university.

Education

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Fiscal Sponsorship Allies Inc; the most unlike its peers is Warfighter Scuba. 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

32 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 32 of the 49 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

32/32

Grantees still filing

20/32

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$4,212,600Other$3,372,000Environment$427,500Animals$205,000Health$145,500Human Services$74,000Food & Nutrition$60,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Foren Family FoundationMI15.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Foren Family Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · California Community Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Hough Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Hough Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Hough Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Hough 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.

Play a game based on Hough’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home