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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Joshua P & Elizabeth D Darden Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$93k
Granted FY2022
2
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$67k
Largest
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172022.

Animals$1.7MEducation$785kEnvironment$381kHealth$50kScience & Tech$50kArts & Culture$10kOther$0
02FY2022 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2022

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $26k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $67k
$66,666
Median grant
1
States reached
$63k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
VIRGINIA AQUARIUM FOUNDATION$66,666
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY$26,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 94% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%FLORIDA WILDLIFE FEDERATION: $10k → 19%SEWANEE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH: $100k → 13%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $26k → 8%EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL: $150k → 9%VA AQUARIUM AND MARINE SCIENCE CENTER: $567k → 10%CHKD: $15k → 19%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $100k → 22%CHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION: $5k → 6%VA AQUARIUM AND MARINE SCIENCE CENTER: $500k → 10%ACCESS COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $10k → 19%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $100k → 22%VA AQUARIUM AND MARINE SCIENCE CENTER: $500k → 10%WHRO PUBLIC MEDIA: $5k → 19%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $100k → 22%VA AQUARIUM AND MARINE SCIENCE CENTER: $67k → 10%VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL: $10k → 19%THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $50k → 22%VIRGINIA AQUARIUM FOUNDATION: $67k → 10%NORFOLK SPCA: $10k → 19%NORFOLK ACADEMY: $500k → 19%CANCER CAER FOUNDATION OF TIDEWATER: $10k → 19%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
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
Wake Forest University

Wake Forest University, a 501(c)(3) institution of higher education, is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the liberal arts and in graduate and professional education. The organization is comprised of seven constituent parts: Wake…

Education
2
Norfolk Christian Schools

It is the mission of norfolk christian schools to equip students spiritually, intellectually, and physically to love god and to serve him as christ's ambassadors in the world.

Education
3
The Coral Reef and Marine Science Foundation Inc C/O James Bildner
4
Norfolk Collegiate School

To educate a diverse body of students to thrive in a college setting and beyond.

Education
5
Hampden-Sydney College

Since 1775, the mission of Hampden-Sydney College has been to form good men and good citizens in an atmosphere of sound learning.

Education
6
Nansemond River Preservation Alliance

To educate and engage citizens to be environmental stewards of our local environment to restore Suffolks impaired waterways increase shoreline stabilization and biodiversity create access to water for all and educate our community and…

Environment
7
Virginia Beach City Public Schools Entrepreneurship and Business
Education
8
The Salish Sea School

The salish sea schools mission is to awaken curiosity and deepen connections with the sea through shore and sea exploration programs for all ages.

Environment
9
Tennessee Aquarium

The mission of the Tennessee Aquarium is to connect people with nature and empower them to make informed decisions about water and wildlife.

Animals
10
The Everglades Foundation Inc

The mission of the foundation is to restore and protect america's everglades through its three programmatic pillars: science, advocacy and education. (continued on schedule o)

Environment
11
Foxcroft School

Foxcroft's mission is to help every girl explore her unique voice and to develop the skills, confidence, and courage to share it with the world with emphasis on Our Values of Respect, Integrity, Kindness, Service.

Education
12
Phillips Exeter Academy

Unite goodness and knowledge and inspire youth from every quarter to lead purposeful lives. [text in quotations is taken from the academy's deed of gift, drafted in 1781] knowledge and goodness "above all, it is expected that the attention…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Access College Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. 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

11 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. 11 of the 17 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
8/11
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

VA AQUARIUM AND MARINE SCIENCE CENTER — $1,633,334 · OtherVA AQUARIUM AND MARINE SCIENCE CENTERTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $376,000 · OtherTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY+6 more — $181,666 · Other+6 moreTHE NORFOLK ACADEMY — $500,000 · EducationTHE NORFOLK ACADEMYTHE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL IN VIRGINIA — $150,000 · EducationTHE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL HIG…UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH — $100,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH+1 more — $10,000 · EducationFlorida Wildlife Federation — $10,000 · AnimalsNORFOLK SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS INC — $10,000 · AnimalsChildren's Hospital of the King's Daughters — $15,000 · HealthTHE VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL INC — $10,000 · Arts & CultureCHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC — $5,000 · Environment
Other$2,191,000Education$760,000Animals$20,000Health$15,000Arts & Culture$10,000Environment$5,000

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 budgetTHE NORFOLK ACADEMY — $500,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $376,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL HIGH SCHOOL IN VIRGINIA — $150,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCANCER CARE FOUNDATION OF TIDEWATER — $25,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetChildren's Hospital of the King's Daughters — $15,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORFOLK SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetTHE VIRGINIA ARTS FESTIVAL INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetACCESS COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCHESAPEAKE BAY FOUNDATION INC — $5,000 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.

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.

The Barr FoundationVA13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Barr Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Joshua P & Elizabeth D Darden 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.

2025
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
    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 17 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 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2022, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

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