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· Private foundation

The Merchants Bonding Company 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.

$469k
Granted FY2025still arriving
186
Grants FY2025still arriving
33
States reached
$103k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0197% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2025.

Health$777kPhilanthropy$217kArts & Culture$183kHuman Services$167kRecreation & Sports$145kEducation$136kAnimals$109kEnvironment$102kOther$0
02FY2025 · 186 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k172 grants · $172k
  • $10k–50k13 grants · $194k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $103k
$500
Median grant
33
States reached
$1.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CHILDREN'S CANCER CONNECTION$102,805
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION$30,000
GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION$30,000
MERCYONE DES MOINES FOUNDATION$25,000
VARIETY - THE CHILDRENS CHARITY$15,400
EVERYSTEP FOUNDATION$12,750
GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE DES MOINES$10,750
DOROTHY'S HOUSE$10,250
UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA$10,000
DES MOINES CAROUSEL FOUNDATION$10,000
BLANK CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL$10,000
GREATER DES MOINES PUBLIC ART FOUNDATION$10,000
CHILDSERVE FOUNDATION$10,000
GENESIS YOUTH FOUNDATION$10,000
WEST DES MOINES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOUNDATION$7,500
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:

Your human-services grants (FY18–25, $225k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 95% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%ANN'S HEART: $400 → 6%Angel Reach: $1k → 9%FLAT RIVER OUTREACH MINISTRIES: $400 → 11%GRACE KLEIN COMMUNITY INC: $750 → 16%Humanitarian Service Project: $400 → 7%ANGEL REACH: $1k → 9%METROCEST SERVICES: $1k → 14%Flat River Outreach Ministries: $400 → 11%Humanitarian Service Project: $400 → 7%Pinky Swear Foundaiton: $5k → 11%Shoes That Fit: $1k → 14%Flat River Outreach Ministries: $400 → 11%HUMANITARIAN SERVICE PROJECT: $400 → 7%PINKY SWEAR FOUNDATION: $5k → 11%FAMILY PROMISE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY: $1k → 9%CHARLOTTES WINGS: $600 → 8%SANCTUM HOUSE: $400 → 8%SHORT YEARS PARTNERSHIP: $1k → 6%DES MOINES REFUGEE SUPPORT: $3k → 6%LUTHERAN SERVICES IN IOWA: $2k → 10%WEST DES MOINES HUMAN SERVICES FRIENDS FOUNDATION: $1k → 10%Children & Families of Iowa: $1k → 10%CHILDREN & FAMILIES OF IOWA: $500 → 10%CHILDREN & FAMILIES OF IOWA: $500 → 10%CHILDREN & FAMILIES OF IOWA: $500 → 10%HOMES OF OAKRIDGE HUMAN SERVICES (OAKRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES): $500 → 10%JOPPA: $26k → 10%YOUNG WOMENS RESOURCE CENTER: $3k → 10%DOROTHY'S HOUSE: $25k → 10%DOROTHY'S HOUSE: $10k → 10%DOROTHY'S HOUSE: $10k → 10%YOUNG WOMENS RESOURCE CENTER: $400 → 10%CHILDSERVE FOUNDATION: $10k → 10%ChildServe Foundation: $3k → 10%ChildServe Foundation: $400 → 10%PUPPY JAKE FOUNDATION: $35k → 10%ORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION: $26k → 10%PUPPY JAKE FOUNDATION: $25k → 10%ORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION: $6k → 10%PUPPY JAKE FOUNDATION: $5k → 10%ORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION: $1k → 10%ORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION: $1k → 10%ORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION: $1k → 10%FAMILY CANCER NETWORK: $750 → 10%BLOOD SWEAT & BEERS: $750 → 10%FAMILY CANCER NETWORK: $750 → 10%Family Cancer Network: $750 → 10%BLOOD SWEAT & BEERS: $750 → 10%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

WA
ID
MT
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
WY
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
CA
UT
CO
NE
MO
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NM
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
AL
GA
TX
FL

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
repeat funding

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.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.1M · 156 repeat orgs$332k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +22% since the first grant, against +1% for the ones you funded once.

156 repeat relationships — 81 still active in FY2025, 75 since wound down; 101 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

156
148

Total granted

$2.1M
$190k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%
+1%

Still filing today

65%
59%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 70% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $142k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesHealthEducationPhilanthropyYouth DevelopmentAnimalsOther

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

  • VT
    VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA
    7× · 2018–2025 · $239k · revenue +35%
  • CC
    CHILDREN'S CANCER CONNECTION
    8× · 2018–2025 · $109k · revenue +28%
  • GO
    GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION
    4× · 2022–2025 · $85k · revenue +5%

Funded once

  • AE
    AGC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION INCgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $60k · revenue +88%
  • NA
    NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS
    one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -22%
  • HC
    HCI CARE SERVICES
    one grant, 2018 · $7k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

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
Common Good Iowa

Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.

—
2
Iowa Credit Union Foundation

Founded in 1995 as the philanthropic arm of the iowa credit union league and guided by the credit union philosophy of "people helping people", the iowa credit union foundation (the foundation) works to champion financial well-being for…

Unclassified
3
United Way of East Central Iowa

Unite the caring power of communities to invest in effective solutions to improve people's lives.

Philanthropy
4
Unity Healthcare Foundation

To provide financial assistance to unity healthcare to help enable it to carry out its exempt function of providing health care to the community.

Philanthropy
5
Midwest Dairy Association

Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.

—
6
Feeding South Dakota

To eliminate hunger in south dakota.

Food & Nutrition
7
Iowa City Hospice Inc

To provide high-quality and compassionate care to community members approaching the end of life.

Human Services
8
Family Promise of Greater Des Moines

To provide shelter and services to families experiencing homelessness

—
9
University of Iowa Facilities Corporation

The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.

—
10
The Foundation for Health Care Continuums

The mission of the foundation for health care continuums is to strengthen each community we serve by providing a wide spectrum of housing and health care services that honor the evolving, aging population.

Health
11
Iowa Health System

To improve the health of the people and communities we serve.

Health
12
Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce

Our mission is to inspire the iowa city area to be greater by: 1) elevating business, 2) investing in strategic initiatives, and 3) advocating for the economic resiliency of the greater community.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Childserve Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Iowa Rugby Collective Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCancer Support ServicesEnvironmental Conservation …Community FoundationsYouth Sports ProgramsHealth Access Advocacy and …Developmental Disabilities …Senior Support ServicesChristian Youth CampsChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Jewish Community Organizati…Lgbtq+ Community SupportAffordable Housing Construc…Community Arts CentersLocal History MuseumsFood Banks and PantriesCommunity College Foundatio…Community FoundationsUnited Way AffiliatesAnimal Rescue and Shelter
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 38. You back the younger end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number13%7%<5yr9%9%5–10yr14%20%10–20yr12%23%20–35yr14%23%35–55yr39%18%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value13%2%<5yr9%2%5–10yr14%14%10–20yr12%20%20–35yr14%24%35–55yr39%37%55yr+

The field is 13% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 2% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 6% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
1%4/295
the rest of the field
6%
1,702/28,910

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.

04the grantee network

274 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. 274 of the 411 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)
48
Early backer (in before they grew)
268/274
Grantees still filing
145/274
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

EveryStep Foundation — $256,450 · OtherEveryStep FoundationVARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA — $239,365 · OtherVARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWAEASTER SEALS OF IA — $162,383 · OtherEASTER SEALS OF IACHILDREN'S CANCER CONNECTION — $108,805 · OtherCHILDREN'S CANCER CONNECTIONAGC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC — $60,000 · Other+123 more — $847,533 · Other+123 morePUPPY JAKE FOUNDATION — $65,000 · Human ServicesPUPPY JAKE…SCKIC Inc — $45,250 · Human ServicesSCKIC IncORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION — $35,000 · Human ServicesORCHARD PL…JOPPA — $26,108 · Human ServicesJOPPACHILDSERVE FOUNDATION INC — $12,900 · Human ServicesCHILDSERVE…PINKY SWEAR FOUNDATION — $10,200 · Human Services+12 more — $28,275 · Human Services+12 moreMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF IOWA INC — $30,000 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc — $29,050 · HealthWESLEYLIFE — $15,000 · HealthBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC — $13,875 · HealthELLIPSIS INC — $7,000 · HealthNATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS-IOWA INC — $5,700 · HealthIOWA HEALTHIEST STATE INITIATIVE — $5,500 · HealthORCHARD PLACE — $5,500 · Health+10 more — $19,820 · HealthGREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION — $85,000 · AnimalsBLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC — $11,000 · Animals+4 more — $5,000 · AnimalsBRAVO GREATER DES MOINES INC — $22,000 · Arts & CultureGREATER DES MOINES PUBLIC ART FOUNDATION — $20,000 · Arts & CultureDES MOINES METRO OPERA INC — $18,250 · Arts & CultureDES MOINES SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION — $12,500 · Arts & CultureDES MOINES COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE — $9,000 · Arts & CultureHOYT SHERMAN PLACE FOUNDATION — $6,300 · Arts & Culture+4 more — $6,976 · Arts & CultureDES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS — $39,500 · Community ImprovementWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC — $27,000 · Community ImprovementIOWA CENTER FOR ECONOMIC SUCCESS — $5,000 · Community Improvement+2 more — $2,150 · Community ImprovementIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION — $28,550 · EducationNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS — $10,000 · EducationDMACC FOUNDATION — $8,500 · EducationHORIZON SCIENCE ACADEMY DES MOINES — $5,000 · EducationAGC OF IOWA FOUNDATION — $4,900 · EducationHERITAGE RANCH INC — $3,000 · EducationReaching Higher Iowa — $2,500 · Education+8 more — $11,200 · Education
Other$1,674,536Human Services$222,733Health$131,445Animals$101,000Arts & Culture$95,026Community Improvement$73,650Education$73,650

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetVARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA — $239,365 over 7y, 4.6% of budgetCHILDREN'S CANCER CONNECTION — $108,805 over 8y, 6.6% of budgetGREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION — $85,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetPUPPY JAKE FOUNDATION — $65,000 over 3y, 6.7% of budgetAGC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC — $60,000 over 1y, 4.7% of budgetSCKIC Inc — $45,250 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetDES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS — $39,500 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetUNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA — $38,046 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION — $35,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF IOWA INC — $30,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetTHE YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER DES MOINES — $29,400 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc — $29,050 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION — $28,550 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetJOPPA — $26,108 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetBRAVO GREATER DES MOINES INC — $22,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetIOWA COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $21,250 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER DES MOINES PUBLIC ART FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCOMMUNITY FDN OF GREATER DES MOINES F/K/A GREATER DES MOINES COMMUNITY FDN — $18,700 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetDES MOINES METRO OPERA INC — $18,250 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetFAMILIES FORWARD — $18,050 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL IOWA — $16,150 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetGREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN — $15,500 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetWESLEYLIFE — $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC — $13,875 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCHILDSERVE FOUNDATION INC — $12,900 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetDES MOINES SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION — $12,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC — $11,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPINKY SWEAR FOUNDATION — $10,200 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetTHE DES MOINES CAROUSEL FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetNATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetIOWA STATE FAIR FOUNDATION — $9,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetDES MOINES COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE — $9,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetDMACC FOUNDATION — $8,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL IOWA — $8,389 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetMID-IOWA COUNCIL OF BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA INC — $8,350 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetFOOD BANK OF IOWA — $8,303 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCAN PLAY — $8,150 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetTHE SURETY FOUNDATION INC — $8,100 over 5y, 1.7% of budgetELLIPSIS INC — $7,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetGIRL SCOUTS OF GREATER IOWA — $6,562 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHOYT SHERMAN PLACE FOUNDATION — $6,300 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHOPE MINISTRIES — $6,175 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS-IOWA INC — $5,700 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetRAISE THE BAR INITIATIVE — $5,662 over 5y, 3.3% of budgetIOWA HEALTHIEST STATE INITIATIVE — $5,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetORCHARD PLACE — $5,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHOSPICE OF THE CHESAPEAKE FOUNDATION INC — $5,100 over 5y, 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.

  • Who funds VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S CANCER CONNECTION ↗
  • Who funds GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds PUPPY JAKE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds AGC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds SCKIC Inc ↗
  • Who funds DES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS ↗
  • Who funds UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
  • Who funds ORCHARD PLACE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF IOWA INC ↗
  • Who funds THE YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER DES MOINES ↗
  • Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
  • Who funds IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds WAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds JOPPA ↗
  • Who funds BRAVO GREATER DES MOINES INC ↗
  • Who funds IOWA COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds GREATER DES MOINES PUBLIC ART FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds COMMUNITY FDN OF GREATER DES MOINES F/K/A GREATER DES MOINES COMMUNITY FDN ↗
  • Who funds DES MOINES METRO OPERA INC ↗
  • Who funds FAMILIES FORWARD ↗
  • Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
  • Who funds GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN ↗
  • Who funds WESLEYLIFE ↗
  • Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗

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.

EMC Insurance Foundat…Prairie Meadows Race …Ita Group FoundationThe West Bancorporati…Meredith Corporation …Golf Charitable Found…Community Fdn of Grea…Athene Charitable Fou…Variety - the Childre…United Way of Central…R & R Realty Group Fo…Pella Rolscreen Found…
EMC Insurance FoundationIA89.8× affinity43 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: EMC Insurance Foundation · Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · Ita Group Foundation · The West Bancorporation Foundation Inc · Meredith Corporation Foundation · Golf Charitable Foundation of Greater Des Moines · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Athene Charitable Foundation · Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa · United Way of Central Iowa · R & R Realty Group Foundation · Pella Rolscreen 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 Merchants Bonding Company 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 100%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 7%
  • Community Rehabilitation Center in — 26% of income from government
  • Oregon Food Bank — 21% of income from government
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc — 7% of income from government
  • Best Buddies International Inc — 4% of income from government
  • Food for the Poor Inc — 0% of income from government
  • Shriners Hospitals for Children — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
10get no government money at all
51report 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

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Merchants Bonding Company 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 411 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines