· Private foundation
The Plank Family Foundation Inc
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $15k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $41k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $175k
- $250k+2 grants · $1.5M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BEST IS AHEAD FOUNDATION INC | $1,000,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND | $500,000 |
| JOHNS HOPKINS BAYVIEW MEDICAL CENTER | $100,000 |
| WESTLAKE YOUTH ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION | $75,000 |
| BEST BUDDIES INTERNATIONAL | $21,800 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND | $19,577 |
| MAPLEWOOD ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION INC | $5,000 |
| CHESTNUT RIDGE FIRE DEPARTMENT | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–21, $2.6M) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +25% since the first grant, against +18% for the ones you funded once.
28 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 23 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $197k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- BIBEST IS AHEAD FOUNDATION INC3× · 2022–2024 · $1.8M · revenue +218% · 80% of their budget
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY5× · 2017–2022 · $1.3M · revenue +64%- GWGREATER WASHINGTON PARTNERSHIP4× · 2017–2021 · $1.0M · revenue +16%
Funded once
- FFFIGHT FOR CHILDREN INCone grant, 2017 · $2.0M · revenue -54% · 75% of their budget
- PFPLANK FOUNDATION FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP INCone grant, 2017 · $400k · revenue -99% · 94% of their budget
- TVTHE V FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $250k · revenue +54%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Greater Baybrook Alliance GBA is a non-profit community development organization whose mission is to act as a catalyst and conduit for equitable development and reinvestment in the Brooklyn, Brooklyn Park, Curtis Bay neighborhoods and…
Greater Baltimore Committee, Inc. is a not-for-profit, civic-interest corporation comprised of business and professional organizations located within the Greater Baltimore Area. Its purpose is to provide a strong, unified and effective…
To cultivate career advancement opportunities for local talent, facilitate talent acquisition for local employers, increase access to capital for local entrepreneurs' social ventures, and foster cross-sector collaboration to address city…
The greater baltimore board of realtors, inc. is an advocate for the business and professional interests of its members, the practice of high ethical standards in the transfer of real property, and preserving private property rights.
The cfa society baltimore, inc. was founded in 1948. the cfa society baltimore, inc. was established to provide the financial community with information and knowledge, while advocating ethical conduct with regard to investments and…
Neighborhood impact investment fund, inc. (niif) mobilizes capital and leverages partnerships to support community development, drive economic opportunity, and promote equity in baltimore's disinvested neighborhoods.
To raise and manage funds and to provide financial support to the university of baltimore. the foundation provides leadership, guidance, and support to the university's administration in advancing the mission and vision of the university.
The north baltimore aquatic club leads the nation in competitive swimming. our diligently designed, professionally coached and internationally renowned program encourages the development of character and self-discipline. these qualities,…
To restore the quality of baltimore's rivers, streams and harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy, and thriving communities.
Visit baltimore is the tourism arm of baltimore, responsible for generating incremental economic benefits through attraction of convention and leisure visitors, and works to provide experience for all guests.
The council was organized for the purpose of providing its members with adequate representation in various union related matters.
To educate the community on the adverse conditions under which they are living and propose various methods of alleviating conditions by conducting public forums and publishing studies.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Fight for Children Inc and the most unlike its peers is Plank Foundation for Entrepreneurship 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.
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 22 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 19% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 7% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
48 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. 48 of the 89 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 FIGHT FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds BEST IS AHEAD FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds GREATER WASHINGTON PARTNERSHIP ↗
- Who funds COLLEGEBOUND FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WESTLAKE YOUTH ATHLETIC ORGANIZATION IN ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR URBAN FAMILIES INC ↗
- Who funds University of Notre Dame du Lac ↗
- Who funds PLANK FOUNDATION FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds BALTIMORE CIVIC FUND INC ↗
- Who funds THE V FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BOOMER ESIASON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HARBOR HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds ST PAUL'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS INC ↗
- Who funds Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development Inc ↗
- Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS BAYVIEW MEDICAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds TEAM RUBICON INC ↗
- Who funds CAL RIPKEN SR FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NFX ↗
- Who funds THE HOLTON ARMS SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds MAPLEWOOD ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds ASSOCIATED BLACK CHARITIES INC ↗
- Who funds Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation ↗
- Who funds Best Buddies International Inc ↗
- Who funds Youth Leadership Foundation 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.
Open a dossier: Baltimore Community Foundation Inc · The Abell Foundation Inc · The United Way of Central Maryland Inc · T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving Inc · The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc · T Rowe Price Foundation · Annie E Casey Foundation Inc · The Morris Goldseker Foundation of Maryland Inc · France-Merrick Foundation Inc · Patricia and Mark Joseph Shelter Foundation Inc · The Stephen & Renee Bisciotti Foundation · Fund for Educational Excellence Inc
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 Plank Family Foundation Inc 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.
- Center for Urban Families Inc — 36% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins University — 12% of income from government
- Cal Ripken Sr Foundation Inc — 12% of income from government
- Chesapeake Arts Center Inc — 7% of income from government
- Best Buddies International Inc — 4% of income from government
- The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore — 2% of income from government
- Harbor Hospital Inc — 0% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Inc — 0% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Plank Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Plank Family Foundation Inc 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.