· Private foundation
The Johnson Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $3k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $65k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $150k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL | $100,000 |
| SALISBURY ACADEMY | $50,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| PARTNERS IN LEARNING | $20,000 |
| NOVANT FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| NAZARETH CHILD & FAMILY CONNECTION | $10,000 |
| MARLIE DRU SULLIVAN FOUNDATION | $3,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $52k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +78% since the first grant, against -90% for those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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, 44% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $123k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- SASALISBURY ACADEMY2× · 2024–2025 · $150k · revenue +43%
- NCNAZARETH CHILDREN'S HOME INC3× · 2017–2025 · $27k · revenue +20%
- RHROWAN HELPING MINISTRIES2× · 2017–2019 · $25k · revenue +78%
Funded once
- BTBELL TOWER GREEN INCone grant, 2018 · $400k · revenue -90%
- SGSHELTER GUARDIANS INCone grant, 2019 · $250k · revenue -91%
- EKEMILY K CENTERone grant, 2017 · $5k
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.
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.
Salisbury-rowan community action agency is committed to providing education, child care, and other services to the underprivileged residents of salisbury, north carolina and two surrounding counties.
In the spirit of keeping our focus on patient-centered, equitable and compassionate care while ensuring our organization is sustainable for future generations, we have restated our mission, vision and values and are now guided by our…
Promoting, enhancing and managing the development of the commercial, business, economic, residential, civic, and historical development of downtown salisbury, north carolina.
The organization provides shelter for homeless, abused, and abandoned animals. the shelter also provides an opportunity for adoption of these animals
Mission novant health exists to improve the health of our communities, one person at a time. vision we, the novant health team, will deliver the most remarkable patient experience, in every dimension, every time. values -compassion: we…
Endangered animal rescue and adoption
Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release injured, orphaned and ill local wildlife. we focus on wildlife conservation education so that people and animals can live in productive harmony.
Mission novant health exists to improve the health of our communities, one person at a time. vision we, the novant health team, will deliver the most remarkable patient experience, in every dimension, every time. values -compassion: we…
To raise funds for cultural arts for arts & cultural organizations within rowan county. to grant out funds to arts & cultural organizations for the creative arts, advance arts education and development of the salisbury/rowan cultural…
The mission and purpose of the organization is to provide support for pediatric cancer patients and their families of eastern north carolina including but not limited to volunteers, education, and community awareness.
Promoting economic and industrial development in rowan county, north carolina
How this is measured
11 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. 11 of the 22 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds BELL TOWER GREEN INC ↗
- Who funds SHELTER GUARDIANS INC ↗
- Who funds SALISBURY ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds NAZARETH CHILDREN'S HOME INC ↗
- Who funds ROWAN HELPING MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds THE V FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PIEDMONT PLAYERS THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds SALISBURY SYMPHONY INC ↗
- Who funds THE Center for Disordered Eating dba Carolina Resource Center for Eating ↗
- Who funds MARLIE DRU SULLIVAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VICTORY JUNCTION GANG CAMP INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Foundation for the Carolinas · Margaret C Woodson Foundation Inc · The Wallace Family Foundation Inc · The Hurley-Trammell Foundation · Brady Foundation · The Cannon Foundation Inc · Duke Energy Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Johnson Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Johnson Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Johnson Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Johnson Foundation Inc 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.
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