· Private foundation
The Samaritan Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $42k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $20k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $171k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $71,000 |
| INSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHEOLOGY | $50,000 |
| MICHIGAN FLYWHEELERS MUSEUM | $50,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS | $20,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY OF BENTON HARBOR | $7,000 |
| KRASL ART CENTER | $7,000 |
| WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN FOR GAZA WASHINGTON DC | $6,000 |
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE | $5,000 |
| HAYA WASHINGTON | $4,000 |
| CASA OF SW MI | $4,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $3,000 |
| FIRST TEE BENTON HARBOR | $2,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $2,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF BENTON HARBOR | $1,000 |
| HOPE RESOURCES | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
19 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- IOINSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY9× · 2017–2025 · $1.2M · revenue +95% · 60% of their budget
- MFMICHIGAN FLYWHEELERS MUSEUM INC8× · 2017–2025 · $101k · revenue +71%
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC9× · 2017–2025 · $72k · revenue +98%
Funded once
- SAST AUGUSTINE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCHone grant, 2019 · $5k
- UAUCONN ANTHROPOLGY DEPT AND MARITIME STUDIES PROGRAMone grant, 2017 · $2k
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.
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.
Operation of a nautical history museum.
The organization is dedicated to preservation of michigan great lakes and waterways, maritime history and culture, and provides maritime education opportunities to the public through permanent and changing exhibits, research library, and…
Operation and maintenance of a museum to collect, care for, exhibit, interpret and demonstrate artifacts that will serve to illustrate and maintain the history of hancock county and ohio.
The wisconsin maritime museum connects all people with wisconsin's waterways, by engaging and educating the public about wisconsin's maritime history, wisconsin's world war ii submarines, uss cobia, and the great lakes. the wisconsin…
Preserving the history of our area brings an understanding to the past and present, and provides a guide for the future. we not only maintain exhibits, artifacts and a research library, we provide a forum for engaging the community and…
Finance impacts everyone. as a socially relevant organization, the museum of american finance seeks to improve understanding of the influence of financial institutions and capital markets on the u.s. and global economies, and on…
The mission of the national museum of industrial history, in affiliation with the smithsonian institute is: to forge a connection between america's industrial past and the innovations of today by educating the public and inspiring the…
The museum is an educational corporation formed to ignite a life-long passion for exploring, discovering, and valuing nature and science.
Port discovery children's museum's mission is to connect purposeful play and learning within its walls and beyond.
Historical museum & educational society
The minnesota marine art museum engages visitors in meaningful visual art experiences through education and exhibitions that explore the ongoing and historic human relationship with water.
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
How this is measured
10 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. 10 of the 23 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds INSTITUTE OF NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY ↗
- Who funds THE HERITAGE MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN FLYWHEELERS MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds KRASL ART CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF GREATER SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES WESTERN MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds THE FIRST TEE OF BENTON HARBOR INC ↗
- Who funds HOPE RESOURCES ↗
- Who funds HAYA WASHINGTON ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Berrien Community Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Samaritan Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Samaritan Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Samaritan Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Samaritan 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.
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