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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Max and Betty Ratner Family 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.

$43k
Granted FY2024still arriving
14
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$4k
Largest
01What you fund
0183% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY20192024.

Education$11kEnvironment$9kInternational$9kCivil Rights$8kArts & Culture$7kHealth$4kAnimals$2kOther$11k
02FY2024 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$4,362
Median grant
8
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE$4,363
ROOM TO READ$4,363
FIRST BOOK$4,363
PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGIC DISORDERS ASSOCIATION$4,363
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INC$4,363
NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC$4,362
CONSERVANCY GUARDIANS USA FUND INC$4,362
PALESTINE CHILDRENS RELIEF FUND$4,362
Individual grant recipient$2,146
HAMMER MUSEUM$2,146
CENTER FOR ARTS-INSPIRED LEARNING$1,063
CLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY$1,063
OPEN BOOKS LTD$1,063
ANIMAL PROTECTIVE LEAGUE$1,063
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 (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 79% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC: $4k → 12%BOSTON UNIVERSITY GIFTS & RECORDS: $4k → 16%COLOR OF CHANGE EDUCATION FUND: $4k → 10%ROOM TO READ: $4k → 10%SCI-ARC: $2k → 14%PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INC: $4k → 17%LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND: $5k → 14%EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE: $4k → 18%PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGIC DISORDERS ASSOCIATION: $4k → 12%CONSERVANCY GUARDIANS USA FUND INC: $4k → 5%CLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $1k → 17%OPEN BOOKS LTD: $1k → 14%PALESTINE CHILDRENS RELIEF FUND: $4k → 14%FIRST BOOK: $4k → 14%ANIMAL PROTECTIVE LEAGUE: $1k → 17%PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE: $4k → 14%HAMMER MUSEUM: $2k → 14%CENTER FOR ARTS-INSPIRED LEARNING: $1k → 17%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.

Which US states your grants reach

IL
NY
MA
OR
OH
CA
UT
DC
AL

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 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
Creative Commons Corporation

Develops legal and technical infrastructure for digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.

Education
2
Public Knowledge

Public knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. we work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest.

Public Benefit
3
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

4
Public Library of Science

Please see schedule o for complete description of the organization's mission.

Science & Tech
5
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
6
Commonlit Inc

To make high-quality literacy materials accessible to teachers and the general public for the advancement of education.

Education
7
Indigenous Peoples Rights Inc

To lead and coordinate the global initiative to address and prevent criminalization, violence, and impunity against indigenous peoples towards strengthening their collectives, solidarity, and actions.

Human Services
8
Center for International Environmental Law Inc

To investigate, research, write, publish, present conferences and teach with respect to global, regional, transboundary, and comparative environmental issues and to make the findings from such activities available to the general public; to…

International
9
Pro Publica Inc

Pro publica is an independent, non-profit, pulitzer prize-winning newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories. [see continuation on schedule o] we produce…

Arts & Culture
10
International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution Inc

Cprs mission is to harness the insights and experiences of its members to prevent and resolve business disputes.we do this by:(see schedule o)- convening a community of members to generate innovative and best practice resources to prevent…

11
The Paris Review Foundation Inc

The mission of the organization is to foster the development of creative individuals as writers and artists and to promote public appreciation of excellence in the literary and graphic arts by publishing a magazine containing fiction,…

Education
12
Arpi Publishing

The organization's mission is to preserve the western armenian language; createoriginal picture books, contemporary graphic novels, young adult books, andclassroom resources in western armenian; create audio books of all books…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Physicians for Human Rights Inc and the most unlike its peers is Psychophysiologic Disorders Association. 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

15 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. 15 of the 18 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)
15/15
Grantees still filing
6/15
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

FIRST BOOK — $4,363 · EducationFIRST BOOKROOM TO READ — $4,363 · EducationROOM TO READOPEN BOOKS LTD — $1,063 · EducationOPEN BOOKS LTDCENTER FOR ARTS-INSPIRED LEARNING — $1,063 · EducationCENTER FOR ARTS-INSP…PORCHLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE — $4,363 · OtherPORCHLIGHT MUSIC TH…BOSTON UNIVERSITY GIFTS & RECORDS — $4,000 · OtherBOSTON UNIVERSITY G…Individual grant recipient — $2,146 · OtherIndividual grant re…LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND — $5,000 · EnvironmentLEAGUE OF CONSERV…Conservancy Guardians USA Fund Inc — $4,362 · EnvironmentConservancy Guard…PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INC — $4,363 · InternationalPHYSICIANS FOR H…PALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUND — $4,362 · InternationalPALESTINE CHILDR…COLOR OF CHANGEORG EDUCATION FUND — $4,000 · Civil RightsCOLOR OF CHANG…EQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE — $4,000 · Civil RightsEQUAL JUSTICE …NATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC — $4,362 · Arts & CultureNATIONAL YID…ARMAND HAMMER MUSEUM OF ART AND CULTURAL CENTER INC — $2,146 · Arts & CultureARMAND HAMME…Psychophysiologic Disorders Association — $4,363 · HealthCLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $1,063 · AnimalsTHE CLEVELAND ANIMAL PROTECTIVE LEAGUE — $1,063 · Animals
Education$10,852Other$10,509Environment$9,362International$8,725Civil Rights$8,000Arts & Culture$6,508Health$4,363Animals$2,126

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 budgetLEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFIRST BOOK — $4,363 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS INC — $4,363 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPsychophysiologic Disorders Association — $4,363 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetROOM TO READ — $4,363 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUND — $4,362 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetConservancy Guardians USA Fund Inc — $4,362 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetNATIONAL YIDDISH BOOK CENTER INC — $4,362 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetEQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE — $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetARMAND HAMMER MUSEUM OF ART AND CULTURAL CENTER INC — $2,146 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCLEVELAND ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $1,063 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CLEVELAND ANIMAL PROTECTIVE LEAGUE — $1,063 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetOPEN BOOKS LTD — $1,063 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR ARTS-INSPIRED LEARNING — $1,063 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCA7.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 Max and Betty Ratner Family 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 2%
  • National Yiddish Book Center Inc2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
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 18 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2024, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

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