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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Patricia and David Kepler 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.

$329k
Granted FY2024still arriving
11
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$125k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Environment$966kPhilanthropy$919kHealth$490kPublic Benefit$335kArts & Culture$315kRecreation & Sports$310kHuman Services$304kCommunity Improvement$160kOther$0
02FY2024 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $4k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $75k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $250k
$10,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$1.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MIDLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS INC$125,000
GREATER MIDLAND COMMUNITY CENTERS INC$75,000
UNITED WAY OF MIDLAND COUNTY$50,000
MIDLAND BUSINESS ALLIANCE FOUNDATION$25,000
MACKINAC CENTER$10,000
MIDLAND AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$10,000
THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES$10,000
BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH OF MIDLAND$10,000
ALZHEIMERS DISEASE AND RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATI$10,000
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF MIDLAND COUNTY INC$2,500
SELF LOVE BEAUTY$1,500
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 (FY17–24, $312k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 27% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES: $10k → 14%GREAT LAKES BAY FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%WEST MIDLAND FAMILY CENTER: $2k → 19%THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES: $10k → 14%MIDLAND COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING: $100k → 9%WEST MIDLAND FAMILY CENTER: $2k → 19%THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES: $10k → 14%THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES: $10k → 14%YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF SAGINAW: $10k → 18%THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES: $10k → 14%THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES: $10k → 14%TONI AND TRISH HOUSE CARE FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL: $1k → 14%COUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: $2k → 9%SELF LOVE BEAUTY: $2k → 9%COUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: $100k → 9%INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY LIVING INC: $10k → 9%FAMILY & CHILDRENS SERVICE OF MID- MICHIGAN INC: $4k → 9%COUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: $3k → 9%COUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: $3k → 9%SELF LOVE BEAUTY: $2k → 9%SELF LOVE BEAUTY: $2k → 9%FAMILY & CHILDRENS SERVICE OF MID- MICHIGAN INC: $1k → 9%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

MN
IL
MI
NV
CA
VA
TN
DC

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 7% of The Patricia and David Kepler Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

The Patricia and David Kepler Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$3.7M · 40 repeat orgs$258k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +54% since the first grant, against +11% for the ones you funded once.

40 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2024, 30 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

40
23

Total granted

$3.7M
$258k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+54%
+11%

Still filing today

90%
57%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesEducationHealthEnvironmentAnimalsRecreation & SportsOther

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

  • FL
    Four Lakes Task Force
    3× · 2018–2021 · $840k · revenue ×322 · 48% of their budget
  • MC
    MACKINAC CENTER
    8× · 2017–2024 · $335k · revenue +64%
  • MC
    Midland Center for the Arts Inc
    7× · 2017–2024 · $315k · revenue +85%

Funded once

  • MC
    MIDLAND COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING
    one grant, 2018 · $100k · revenue -3%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2018 · $50k
  • PT
    PITS TO PETS RESCUE
    one grant, 2020 · $25k

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
Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment
2
Michigan Advocacy Program

To advance the safety, independence, and economic stability of those most affected by poverty, racism, and other structurally oppressive systems by increasing access to justice and working for systemic solutions.

Crime & Legal
3
Mid Michigan Community Action Agency Inc

Mid michigan community action guides local residents on the path to self-sufficiency through empowerment, education and community enrichment.

4
Midmichigan Health Services

To provide high quality community-oriented, patient-centered health services for all.

Health
5
Michigan Assoc of Community Mental Health Boards

Assisting the community mental health boards of michigan in developing methods for mental health planning, care and treatment.

6
Michigan Chamber of Commerce

To promote conditions favorable to job creation and business success in michigan.

7
Lincoln Behavioral Services

To provide comprehensive outpatient mental health services to over 5400 individuals and their families in a consumer driven person centered delivery system. Approximately 15% of our staff members are our clients who are involved in a…

Health
8
Home Builders Association of Michigan

A voice of the building industry in Michigan. The primary purpose is to positively influence the legislative, regulatory and legal issues that affect the industry.

9
Great Lakes Center for the Arts

The Center's mission is to inspire, entertain, educate, and serve all in Northern Michigan year-round by presenting exceptional experiences across the full spectrum of the performing arts and offering impactful educational opportunities.

Arts & Culture
10
Midlands Humane Society

To protect and nurture companion animals and enrich the lives of people who love them.

Animals
11
Midland Camping Council Inc

To provide facilities for nonprofit organizations to enjoy the experience of nature in michigan, promote ourdoor education, and to offer camping enjoyment to the people of midland county.

Recreation & Sports
12
Business Leaders for Michigan

Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Midland Center for Independent Living and the most unlike its peers is Shores of the Mitten Animal Rescue and Transport. 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 46 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number23%0%<5yr15%4%5–10yr20%20%10–20yr17%14%20–35yr13%26%35–55yr14%36%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value23%0%<5yr15%0%5–10yr20%29%10–20yr17%2%20–35yr13%31%35–55yr14%38%55yr+

The field is 23% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/58
the rest of the field
12%
1,556/12,532

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.

05the grantee network

52 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. 52 of the 65 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
16
Early backer (in before they grew)
51/52
Grantees still filing
41/52
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

United Way of Midland County — $546,500 · OtherUnited Way of Midland CountyMidland County Cancer Society DBA Cancer Services — $139,999 · OtherMidland County Cancer Society DBA Cancer Servic…THE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $75,000 · OtherBLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH — $75,000 · OtherMIDLAND BUSINESS ALLIANCE FNDN — $150,000 · OtherMIDLAND BUSINESS ALLIANCE FNDNMICHIGAN BASEBALL FOUNDATION INC — $77,000 · OtherGREATER MIDLAND COMMUNITY CTRS INC — $202,200 · OtherGREATER MIDLAND COMMUNITY CTRS INC+35 more — $587,280 · Other+35 moreFour Lakes Task Force — $840,000 · EnvironmentFour Lakes Task ForceThe Little Forks Conservancy Inc — $50,000 · EnvironmentThe Little Forks Conse…+1 more — $1,000 · EnvironmentMIDLAND AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $372,725 · PhilanthropyMIDLAND A…+1 more — $1,000 · PhilanthropyTEN SIXTEEN RECOVERY NETWORK — $209,000 · HealthMICHIGAN HEALTH IMPROVEMENT ALLIANCE — $100,500 · HealthALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC — $20,000 · Health+2 more — $8,500 · HealthMACKINAC CENTER — $335,000 · Public BenefitCOUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL ASSAULT — $107,000 · Human ServicesMIDLAND COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING — $100,000 · Human ServicesTHE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES — $60,000 · Human Services+8 more — $48,500 · Human ServicesMidland Center for the Arts Inc — $315,100 · Arts & Culture
Other$1,852,979Environment$891,000Philanthropy$373,725Health$338,000Public Benefit$335,000Human Services$315,500Arts & Culture$315,100

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 budgetFour Lakes Task Force — $840,000 over 3y, 48% of budgetUnited Way of Midland County — $546,500 over 7y, 2.3% of budgetMIDLAND AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $372,725 over 7y, 2.3% of budgetMACKINAC CENTER — $335,000 over 8y, 0.7% of budgetMidland Center for the Arts Inc — $315,100 over 7y, 1.1% of budgetTEN SIXTEEN RECOVERY NETWORK — $209,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetGREATER MIDLAND COMMUNITY CTRS INC — $202,200 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetMIDLAND BUSINESS ALLIANCE FNDN — $150,000 over 4y, 2.4% of budgetMidland County Cancer Society DBA Cancer Services — $139,999 over 4y, 7.2% of budgetCOUNCIL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & SEXUAL ASSAULT — $107,000 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetMICHIGAN HEALTH IMPROVEMENT ALLIANCE — $100,500 over 3y, 2.5% of budgetMIDLAND COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING — $100,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetMICHIGAN BASEBALL FOUNDATION INC — $77,000 over 5y, 2.8% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $75,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES — $60,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION — $60,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPawtastic Friends Inc — $58,500 over 3y, 13% of budgetMichigan Crossroads Council Inc Boy Scouts of America — $55,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetThe Little Forks Conservancy Inc — $50,000 over 4y, 3.8% of budgetMIDLAND AREA HOMES INC — $50,000 over 3y, 3.4% of budgetNorthwood University — $30,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TAU BETA PI ASSOCIATION INC — $25,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHumane Society of Midland County — $12,500 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetReaching Our Community Kids — $12,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetGREAT LAKES BAY FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetCOLLEGE PARK ATHLETIC BOOSTER CLUB — $10,000 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetIndependent Community Living Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOC-SAGINAW — $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBig Brothers Big Sisters of the Great Lakes Bay Region — $10,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetCALIFORNIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMidland Center for Independent Living — $6,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMidland's Open Door — $5,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSELF LOVE BEAUTY — $5,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetCARSON CITY MUNICIPAL GOLF — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetFamily & Children's Services of Mid-Michigan Inc — $4,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetADOPTION OPTION INC — $4,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMidland County Food Assistance Network — $4,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetWEST MIDLAND FAMILY CENTER — $4,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFISH TALES — $3,500 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetEagle Village Inc — $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChildrens Grief Center of the Great Lakes Bay Region — $2,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetMidland County Child Protection Council — $2,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTONI & TRISH HOUSE FOR THE TERMINALLY ILL — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetThe Arc of Midland — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCHIPPEWA NATURE CENTER — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOS (STRAY OR STRANDED) ANIMAL RESCUE — $1,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetReece Endeavor of Midland — $1,000 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.

Midland Area Community FoundationMI91.3× affinity42 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Midland Area Community Foundation · The Charles J Strosacker Foundation · United Way of Midland County · Harry a and Margaret D Towsley Foundation · Rollin M Gerstacker Foundation · Consumers Energy Foundation · The Herbert H & Grace a Dow Foundation · Bay Area Community Foundation · Bierlein Companies Foundation · Bill and Linda Stavropoulos Family Foundation · Alden and Vada Dow Fund · Saginaw Community 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 Patricia and David Kepler 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 · 00%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    15report 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, 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 65 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.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph