How much does The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation give?

The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation reported 38 grants totaling $148,720 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 33 and 42 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (27%), Health (24%), Housing & Shelter (13%).

Who are The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: West Bay Community Charitable Foundation ($75k), St Matthews House Inc ($60k), Union Gospel Mission Association of St Paul Inc ($58k).

Does The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 15% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Xcel Energy Foundation, Mightycause Charitable Foundation.

Where is The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation based?

The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation is based in DE.

The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation

The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ron and Kathy Colby 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.

$149k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$15k

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Human Services$210kHealth$190kHousing & Shelter$103kEducation$101kFood & Nutrition$55kAnimals$34kReligion$16kPhilanthropy$15kOther$0

02FY2025 · 38 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k34 grants · $94k
$10k–50k4 grants · $55k

$3,000

Median grant

States reached

$3.3M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
UNION GOSPEL MISSION ASSOCIATION OF ST PAUL	$15,000
ST MATTHEWS HOUSE INC	$15,000
WEST BAY COMMUNITY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC	$15,000
SECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND	$10,000
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES UPPER MIDWEST	$5,000
SOLID GROUND	$5,000
HELPING PAWS OF MINNESOTA INC	$5,000
PACER CENTER INC	$5,000
OUR LADY OF PEACE	$5,000
AMERICAN BRAIN TUMOR ASSOCIATION	$5,000
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY	$3,000
ANGEL FOUNDATION	$3,000
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	$3,000
BLAKE SCHOOL	$3,000
EMMA NORTON SERVICES	$3,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $248k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$762k · 45 repeat orgs$21k to everyone else

45 repeat relationships: 37 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$762k

$20k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%

+43%

Still filing today

91%

38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $500 went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesHealthEducationArts & CultureAnimalsPhilanthropyOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

WB
WEST BAY COMMUNITY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
6× · 2020–2025 · $75k · revenue +104%
SM
ST MATTHEWS HOUSE INC
6× · 2020–2025 · $60k · revenue +205%
UG
UNION GOSPEL MISSION ASSOCIATION OF ST PAUL INC
6× · 2020–2025 · $58k · revenue +23%

Funded once

SS
ST STEPHEN THE MARTYR
one grant, 2020 · $15k
MS
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC - DOCTORS WITHOUT
one grant, 2020 · $2k
HS
HOLY SPIRIT CHURCH & SCHOOL
one grant, 2024 · $1k

How this is measured

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

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—

Minnesota Business Partnership

The minnesota business partnership's mission is to maintain a high quality of life for all minnesotans by ensuring that the state's economy remains strong, globally competitive and its prospects for growth bright by working with elected…

—

Minnesota Council on Foundations

MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.

—

Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The minnesota chamber of commerce proactively leads the business community statewide to: advance pro-business, responsible minnesota public policy that creates jobs and grows the econony; provde member services to address evolving business…

—

University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education

The Minneapolis Foundation

The foundation cultivates generosity by taking action on the greatest civic, social, and economic needs partnering with nonprofits, facilitating grantmaking, driving research and advocacy, and providing services to donors seeking to make a…

Philanthropy

Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States Inc

The fsmb serves as the voice for state medical boards, supporting them through education, assessment, research and advocacy while providing services and initiatives that promote patient safety, quality health care and regulatory best…

Health

Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education

Union Health System

To serve our communities by provding innovative and compassionate healthcare.

Health

Banner -University Medical Group

Assist banner health complete its mission to make health care easier so life can be better by providing integrated & coordinated care & population health management.

Health

Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation

Purpose: we inspire, advocate and invest to advance community visions. continued on sch o

Philanthropy

Ecumen

We empower individuals and families to confidently navigate aging so that it is a purposeful journey filled with dignity and support.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Angel Foundation; the most unlike its peers is University of Michigan. 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

47 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 47 of the 54 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

45/47

Grantees still filing

36/47

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Human Services$247,700Other$207,990Health$91,250Education$74,000Housing & Shelter$71,500Food & Nutrition$55,000Philanthropy$35,250

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Saint Paul & Minnesota FoundationMN31.6× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Margaret a Cargill Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · United Way Worldwide · Ch Robinson Worldwide Foundation · Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Minnesota Community Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

11report 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

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Ron and Kathy Colby Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Ron and Kathy Colby Family 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.

Play a game based on Ron and Kathy Colby Family’s filings →

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 endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home