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The Lighthouse Beacon Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Lighthouse Beacon 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.

$447k
Granted FY2024still arriving
36
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$200k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Education$909kInternational$200kScience & Tech$162kHuman Services$23kYouth Development$7kRecreation & Sports$2kReligion$2kCommunity Improvement$384
02FY2024 · 36 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k28 grants · $77k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $171k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
$3,300
Median grant
3
States reached
$2.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
EL HOGAR MINISTRIES INC$200,000
TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH$49,210
TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH$45,780
FLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT$27,120
KENTUCKY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION$16,102
KENTUCKY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION$12,500
Johnson Central High School$10,000
Somerset High School$10,000
TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH$8,500
KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATION INC$8,350
Johnson County Middle School$6,700
Pikeville High School$5,741
KENTUCKY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION$5,000
Rockcastle County Middle School$4,800
Belfry High School$4,000
02The need
03

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 84% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%EL HOGAR MINISTRIES INC: $200k → 10%Forest Hills Global Elementary: $1k → 12%TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH: $49k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY: $515k → 15%Lone Oak Middle School: $1k → 15%Southwestern High School: $4k → 19%Laurel Co Schools Center for Innovation: $2k → 20%Rowan County Middle School: $3k → 21%Rockcastle County Middle School: $5k → 24%Belfry High School: $4k → 25%Morgan County High School: $2k → 25%Johnson Central High School: $10k → 26%Powell County High School: $2k → 26%CORBIN ATC BOOSTER CLUB CORPORATION: $2k → 26%Black Mountain Elementary School: $440 → 27%CHALLENGER LEARNING CENTER OF KENTUCKY INC: $6k → 27%HEARTKEEP INC: $10k → 29%Knox Central High School: $3k → 33%FLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT: $27k → 35%TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH: $46k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY: $100k → 15%Somerset High School: $10k → 19%Belfry High School: $4k → 25%Johnson County Middle School: $7k → 26%Perry County Central High School: $393 → 27%HEARTKEEP INC: $10k → 29%FLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT: $5k → 35%KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATION INC: $20k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY: $21k → 15%Belfry Middle School: $1k → 25%Johnson Central High School: $5k → 26%HEARTKEEP INC: $3k → 29%FLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT: $2k → 35%TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH: $9k → 14%BLUEGRASS COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $125k → 15%Pikeville High School: $11k → 25%Johnson Central high School: $723 → 26%SCRIPTURE MEMORY MOUNTAIN MISSION INC: $2k → 29%Floyd Central High School: $413 → 35%KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATION INC: $8k → 14%Pikeville Elementary School: $7k → 25%TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH: $7k → 14%Pikeville High School: $6k → 25%TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ASSOCIATION KENTUCKY TECH: $4k → 14%Pikeville Elementary School: $3k → 25%KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATION INC: $4k → 14%Pikeville High School: $413 → 25%KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATION INC: $3k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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.
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.

66%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$781k · 8 repeat orgs$410k to everyone else

8 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 20 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
3

Total granted

$781k
$132k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
+49%

Still filing today

13%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 18% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $278k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
EducationInternationalYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY
    4× · 2021–2024 · $638k
  • FC
    FLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT
    2× · 2023–2024 · $35k
  • KE
    KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATIONINC
    3× · 2022–2024 · $34k · revenue +30%

Funded once

  • BC
    BLUEGRASS COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC
    one grant, 2022 · $125k · revenue -22%
  • CL
    CHALLENGER LEARNING CENTER OF KENTUCKY INCgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $6k · revenue +49%
  • FC
    Floyd Central High School
    one grant, 2023 · $413
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
04the grantee network

7 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. 7 of the 32 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/7
Grantees still filing
3/7
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY: $638,266 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKYTechnology Student Association Kentucky Tech: $114,097 · OtherTechnology Student Association Kentucky TechFLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT: $34,883 · OtherKENTUCKY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORP: $33,602 · Other+24 more: $118,606 · Other+24 moreEL HOGAR MINISTRIES INC: $200,000 · InternationalEL HOGAR MINISTRI…BLUEGRASS COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $125,000 · EducationBLUEGRASS COM…KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATIONINC: $34,350 · EducationKENTUCKY ENGI…CHALLENGER LEARNING CENTER OF KENTUCKY INC: $6,110 · Youth Development
Other$939,454International$200,000Education$159,350Youth Development$6,110

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEL HOGAR MINISTRIES INC: $200,000 over 1y, 26% of budgetBLUEGRASS COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC: $125,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetTechnology Student Association Kentucky Tech: $114,097 over 2y, 19% of budgetKENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATIONINC: $34,350 over 3y, 7.1% of budgetCHALLENGER LEARNING CENTER OF KENTUCKY INC: $6,110 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetSCRIPTURE MEMORY MOUNTAIN MISSION: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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 EL HOGAR MINISTRIES INC ↗
  • Who funds BLUEGRASS COMMUNITY & TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds Technology Student Association Kentucky Tech ↗
  • Who funds KENTUCKY ENGINEERING FOUNDATIONINC ↗
  • Who funds KENTUCKY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CORP ↗
  • Who funds CHALLENGER LEARNING CENTER OF KENTUCKY INC ↗
  • Who funds SCRIPTURE MEMORY MOUNTAIN MISSION ↗

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.2× affinity7 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Lighthouse Beacon Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lighthouse Beacon Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2023
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%2%8%17%30%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    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 Lighthouse Beacon Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Lighthouse Beacon 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 32 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Lighthouse Beacon’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