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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Penobscot Fund

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.

$150k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What you fund
0195% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Food & Nutrition$336kHuman Services$175kCivil Rights$151kEnvironment$50kHealth$40kHousing & Shelter$30kArts & Culture$28kEmployment$28kOther$0
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
GOOD FOUNDATION$50,000
SHARE OUR STRENGTHNO KID HUNGRY$50,000
CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS$50,000
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:

Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $252k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 97% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%FAMILY RESOURCES OF COLUMBIA COUNTY: $5k → 11%GOOD FOUNDATION: $50k → 17%FAMILY RESOURCES OF COLUMBIA COUNTY: $3k → 11%GOOD FOUNDATION: $50k → 17%GOOD FOUNDATION: $50k → 17%REDHOOK INITIATIVE: $10k → 20%PINE STREET INN: $5k → 16%REDHOOK INITIATIVE: $10k → 20%REDHOOK INITIATIVE: $8k → 20%PINE STREET INN: $5k → 16%WOMEN IN NEED: $3k → 17%CHiPs: $7k → 20%CHiPs: $5k → 20%CHARITY WATER: $3k → 17%HOT BREAD KITCHEN: $10k → 17%HOT BREAD KITCHEN: $10k → 17%HOT BREAD KITCHEN: $8k → 17%HORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN: $5k → 16%HORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN: $4k → 16%HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS: $3k → 16%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
PA
CA
CO
VA
DC
TX

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.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$787k · 20 repeat orgs$181k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +63% since the first grant, against +48% for the ones you funded once.

20 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2024, 17 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

20
25

Total granted

$787k
$181k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+48%

Still filing today

85%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

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

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

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

’17’18’19’20’22’23’24
Human ServicesFood & NutritionArts & CultureCivil RightsHealthEnvironmentOther

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

  • GB
    GREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC
    4× · 2017–2020 · $63k · revenue +89%
  • HB
    HOT BREAD KITCHEN LTD
    3× · 2017–2019 · $28k · revenue +61%
  • RH
    RED HOOK INITIATIVE
    3× · 2018–2020 · $28k · revenue +50%

Funded once

  • Central Texas Food Bank Inc
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue -28%
  • KA
    KEEP AUSTIN FEDgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +51%
  • NEIGHBORS TOGETHER CORPORATION
    one grant, 2020 · $20k · revenue -38%

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
West Side Center for Community Life

To pursue anti-hunger initiatives through the west side campaign against hunger (wscah) program whose mission is to alleviate hunger by ensuring that all new yorkers have access with dignity to a choice of healthy food and supportive…

Youth Development
2
Hunger Solutions New York Inc

We strive to maximize participation in, and support for, federally funded nutrition assistance programs including supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap), the school breakfast program and national school lunch program, the summer…

Food & Nutrition
3
The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri

The food bank for central & northeast missouri is a regional disaster and hunger relief network that acquires and distributes millions of meals each year to help neighbors get the food they need to thrive. (continued on schedule o)the…

Food & Nutrition
4
Food Bank for New York City

Food bank for nyc has been the city's major hunger-relief organization driven by our mission to empower every new yorker to achieve food security for good. we harness the collective power of our network of food providers, partners, and…

Community Improvement
5
Island Harvest Ltd

The mission of island harvest is to end hunger and reduce food waste on long island.

Human Services
6
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank

Our mission is to solve hunger in central pennsylvania by ensuring that everyone struggling with hunger has access to enough wholesome food every day. we will achieve this bold goal with the help of our generous donors, volunteers and…

Food & Nutrition
7
The Bronx Parent Housing Network Inc

Bronx parent housing network is committed to making a difference in solving the housing problem in new york city by transforming lives and creating holistic paths to employment so that individuals and families can secure safe, clean,…

Human Services
8
Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York Inc

To lead a network of partners to alleviate hunger, prevent food waste, and nourish the communities we serve. our vision is that all people have the nutritious food they need to thrive.

Food & Nutrition
9
Brooklyn Community Foundation

Spark lasting social justice change, mobilizing people, capital, & expertise for a fair brooklyn.

Philanthropy
10
United Food Bank

United Food Bank unites communities to alleviate hunger.

Food & Nutrition
11
Feeding San Diego

On a mission to connect every person facing hunger with nutritious meals by maximizing food rescue. through direct service and community partnerships, feeding san diego provides more than 26 million meals each year to children, families,…

Food & Nutrition
12
Boston Harbor Now Inc

Our mission is to ensure that the people of greater boston benefit from a vibrant, resilient, and inclusive waterfront, harbor, and islands; these spaces are equitable, accessible, and adapted to climate change; and to ensure our public,…

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Neighbors Together Corporation and the most unlike its peers is Charity Global Inc. 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 backsteadyTexas Policy & Professional…Food Insecurity ReliefPerforming Arts Organizatio…Urban District ManagementDisability Support Services
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 39 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr20%29%10–20yr21%14%20–35yr14%40%35–55yr10%17%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr20%16%10–20yr21%39%20–35yr14%40%35–55yr10%5%55yr+

The field is 21% 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 11% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/35
the rest of the field
11%
6,465/56,776

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

35 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. 35 of the 45 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)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
35/35
Grantees still filing
25/35
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

SHARE OUR STRENGTH — $180,000 · OtherSHARE OUR STRENGTHGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $63,000 · OtherGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INCAZUERO EARTH PROJECT — $22,500 · OtherNEIGHBORS TOGETHER CORPORATION — $20,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $17,500 · Other+17 more — $123,936 · Other+17 moreGOOD PLUS FOUNDATION INC — $150,000 · Human ServicesGOOD PLUS FOUNDATION INCHOT BREAD KITCHEN LTD — $27,500 · Human ServicesHOT BREAD KITCHEN LTDRED HOOK INITIATIVE — $27,500 · Human ServicesRED HOOK INITIATIVECOMMUNITY HELP IN PARK SLOPE INC — $12,000 · Human ServicesPINE STREET INN INC — $10,000 · Human ServicesHORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN — $9,000 · Human Services+4 more — $15,500 · Human Services+4 moreTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC — $150,000 · Civil RightsTHE CENTER FOR RE…+1 more — $1,000 · Civil RightsCentral Texas Food Bank Inc — $25,000 · Food & NutritionKEEP AUSTIN FED — $25,000 · Food & NutritionBROOKLINE FOOD PANTRY INC — $20,000 · Food & NutritionGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $3,000 · Food & NutritionACHROMA CORPORATION — $30,000 · HealthEVERY MOTHER COUNTS — $5,000 · HealthTHE MUSEUM OF FOOD AND DRINK — $8,000 · Arts & CulturePRO PUBLICA INC — $5,000 · Arts & CultureBROOKLINE MUSIC SCHOOL INC — $3,000 · Arts & CultureFLYING DEER NATURE CENTER — $10,000 · EnvironmentCOLUMBIA LAND CONSERVANCY INC — $5,000 · Environment
Other$426,936Human Services$251,500Civil Rights$151,000Food & Nutrition$73,000Health$35,000Arts & Culture$16,000Environment$15,000

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 budgetSHARE OUR STRENGTH — $180,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS INC — $150,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetGOOD PLUS FOUNDATION INC — $150,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetGREATER BOSTON FOOD BANK INC — $63,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetACHROMA CORPORATION — $30,000 over 3y, 18% of budgetHOT BREAD KITCHEN LTD — $27,500 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetRED HOOK INITIATIVE — $27,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetCentral Texas Food Bank Inc — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKEEP AUSTIN FED — $25,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetBROOKLINE FOOD PANTRY INC — $20,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetNEIGHBORS TOGETHER CORPORATION — $20,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetTRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY — $13,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC — $13,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY HELP IN PARK SLOPE INC — $12,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetFLYING DEER NATURE CENTER — $10,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetPINE STREET INN INC — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NORTHEASTERN NEW YORK INC — $9,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHORIZONS FOR HOMELESS CHILDREN — $9,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAKASHINGA INC — $7,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetROSIE'S PLACE INC — $7,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPRO PUBLICA INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY — $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL WILDERNESS LEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCOLUMBIA LAND CONSERVANCY INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK CONSERVANCY INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetEVERY MOTHER COUNTS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS INC — $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBROOKLINE MUSIC SCHOOL INC — $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHARITY GLOBAL INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWOMEN IN NEED INC — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT SOCIETY OF NEW YORK — $1,936 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetREFUGEE & IMMIGRANT CENTER FOR EDUCATION & LEGAL SERVICES — $1,000 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.

Eugene M Lang FoundationNY13.5× affinity4 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Eugene M Lang Foundation · The New York Community Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Verizon Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Network for Good · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust

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 Penobscot Fund 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 12%
  • The Home for Little Wanderers Inc38% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Food Bank Inc22% of income from government
  • Horizons for Homeless Children21% of income from government
  • Trustees of Boston University12% of income from government
  • Pine Street Inn Inc11% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Legal Services Inc3% of income from government
  • Brookline Music School Inc1% of income from government
  • Rosie's Place Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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 45 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