· Private foundation
The Joseph M Ruffin Foundation
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 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
- $10k–50k14 grants · $354k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $140k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY OF VA | $80,000 |
| BSMH FOUNDATION | $60,000 |
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF RICHMOND | $45,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $45,000 |
| FULL CIRCLE GRIEF CENTER | $45,000 |
| RAL ART LEAGUE | $38,000 |
| TRI-HOPE MINISTRIES | $25,700 |
| SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION RICHARD LEE CHAPTER | $25,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $22,700 |
| COVER ONE FOUNDATION | $20,800 |
| VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM | $20,000 |
| BOYS TO MEN MENORTING NETWORK OF VA | $15,000 |
| CHARACTER WORKS INC | $15,000 |
| OPERATION CATNIP OF RICHMOND | $13,500 |
| SPUR N UP HOPE INC | $12,800 |
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, $67k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 21% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
7 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 11 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, 24% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $376k 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
- RMRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF RICHMOND2× · 2021–2025 · $57k · revenue +207%
- CICharacterWorks Inc3× · 2022–2025 · $56k · revenue +70%
- JLJacob's Ladder Inc3× · 2018–2024 · $51k · revenue +34%
Funded once
- TVTUCKAHOE VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD INCone grant, 2024 · $51k · revenue 0%
- HFHOUSING FAMILIES FIRSTgraduatedone grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue +44%
- CACAPITAL AREA RESCUE EFFORTone grant, 2022 · $16k
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.
The mission of Henrico Humane Society is to address the enormous population of homeless animals in the greater Richmond, Virginia area by providing care, shelter, and medical services until permanent homes can be found.
The mission of mountain view humane is to end pet overpopulation in southwest virginia and southern west virginia by providing safe, affordable spay/neuter services and vaccine clinics for the community.
Rockbridge Recovery supports individuals, families, and communities touched by addictive behaviors through support from peers, prevention, and education.
SWVA Wildlife Center's mission is to conserve Virginia's wildlife through rehabilitation and release while teaching care and respect of native species. We advocate for the protection of wildlife and wild places to ensure these magnificent…
The Southside SPCA is a donor-supported organization that provides shelter, medical treatment, spay/neuter and adoption services to over 36,000 puppies, kittens, cats and dogs since 1975. The organization is a no-kill shelter operating…
Empower our community to join us in ending animal suffering through leadership and action, engagement and learning, compassionate care and adoption, affordable veterinary medicine and resources, and by having the conversation about what it…
Sfc virginia is a foster-based animal rescue group in fredericksburg, va. founded in june 2019 with a focus on saving dogs and cats from rural and otherwise underserved shelters in the state, we strive to provide quality medical care…
RappCats Adoption Center, a cage-less, no kill facility is the only Virginia approved cat shelter in Rappahannock County. We work closely with the community to reduce cat overpopulation through our spay and neuter program, which provides…
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…
Virginia german shepherd rescue is an all volunteer organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of the german shepherd dog (and sometimes other breeds/mixes). the rescue provide a safe haven for german shepherds who…
The Roanoke Valley SPCA is a community resource that provides pet adoption, retention, and education services in Virginia's Blue Ridge.
Provide shelter, care, and treatment to homeless animals in the city of portsmouth community through permanent adoptions, spay/neuter programs, and community education.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the most unlike its peers is Signs of Fun. 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 22 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 2% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
40 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. 40 of the 60 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 Bon Secours Mercy Health Foundation ↗
- Who funds RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF RICHMOND ↗
- Who funds CharacterWorks Inc ↗
- Who funds TUCKAHOE VOLUNTEER RESCUE SQUAD INC ↗
- Who funds Jacob's Ladder Inc ↗
- Who funds HOUSING FAMILIES FIRST ↗
- Who funds FULL CIRCLE GRIEF CENTER ↗
- Who funds RAPPAHANNOCK FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA LIVING MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds SPUR N UP HOPE INC ↗
- Who funds GoochlandCares ↗
- Who funds RICHMOND ANIMAL LEAGUE INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS TO MEN MENTORING NETWORK OF VIRGINIA INC ↗
- Who funds OPERATION CATNIP OF RICHMOND INC ↗
- Who funds FEED MORE INC ↗
- Who funds SOUNDSCAPES INC ↗
- Who funds 2 END THE STIGMA INC ↗
- Who funds ST JOSEPH'S VILLA ↗
- Who funds PREVENT A LITTER VETERINARY HOSPITAL ↗
- Who funds HEALTHY HARVEST FOOD BANK INC ↗
- Who funds HANDS ACROSS MATHEWS INTERFAITH ↗
- Who funds Lancova Partners for Pets Inc ↗
- Who funds ANNA JULIA COOPER SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds RICHMOND RUFF HOUSE ↗
- Who funds JOURNEY HOUSE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds RICHMOND SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS ↗
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: The Community Foundation Inc · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation · Herndon Foundation · Richard S Reynolds Foundation · Shelton H Short Jr Trust · Townebank Foundation · Carmax Foundation · The Randolph and Susan Reynolds Foundation · Robins Foundation · Pga Tour Charities Inc · Bon Secours - Richmond Health System 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 Joseph M Ruffin 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.
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How do I get to The Joseph M Ruffin Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Joseph M Ruffin 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.