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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Shaw Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.3M
Granted FY2024still arriving
8
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$400k
Largest
01What you fund
0190% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Education$4.8MHuman Services$2.1MEnvironment$1.6MHealth$310kArts & Culture$130kFood & Nutrition$122kInternational$45kReligion$31kOther$0
02FY2024 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k3 grants · $40k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $250k
  • $250k+3 grants · $1.0M
$150,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$247k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BRETHREN VILLAGE$400,000
THE LANCASTER CONSERVANCY$398,000
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE$250,000
LANCASTER FARMLAND TRUST$150,000
PENN STATE UNIVERSITY$100,000
SECHLER FAMILY FOUNDATION$20,000
MESSIAH UNIVERSITY$10,000
WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT$10,000
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, $2.2M) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 1% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: $10k → 11%WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: $7k → 14%WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: $5k → 14%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $300k → 9%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $300k → 9%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $202k → 9%UNITED CHURCHES ELIZABETHTOWN AREA: $30k → 9%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $400k → 9%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $300k → 9%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $300k → 9%BRETHREN VILLAGE: $300k → 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.

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 Shaw Family 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. Read by recipient address, 99% of the giving stays in PA; read by stated purpose it is 91% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Shaw Family Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 2.2% directed abroad (not shown)

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.
$8.8M · 8 repeat orgs$563k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +70% since the first grant, against -11% for the ones you funded once.

8 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
14

Total granted

$8.8M
$433k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+70%
-11%

Still filing today

75%
29%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $130k 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
EducationHuman ServicesEnvironmentRecreation & SportsFood & NutritionPhilanthropyOther

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

  • BV
    BRETHREN VILLAGE
    7× · 2017–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +44%
  • GC
    GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
    8× · 2017–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +18%
  • LF
    LANCASTER FARMLAND TRUST
    7× · 2017–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +70%

Funded once

  • PF
    PENNSYLVANIA FRIENDS OF AGRICULTURE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue -3%
  • TP
    THE POTTER'S HOUSE
    one grant, 2018 · $100k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2022 · $50k

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
Chatham University

Chatham university prepares women and men to be world ready: to build lives of purpose and value and fulfilling work. (see continuation on schedule o)in addition to appropriate professional skills and liberal arts learning, chatham…

Education
2
Alvernia University

Alvernia university is a catholic comprehensive university with a liberal arts foundation founded by the bernardine franciscan sisters in 1958. see continuation on schedule o.

3
French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust Inc

To preserve, steward, and connect people to the land in northern chester county pennsylvania. see additional information on schedule o.french & pickering is recognized as a leader in regional land conservation, the organization is…

Environment
4
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
5
Wesleyan University

Wesleyan university is dedicated to providing an education in liberal arts by building a diverse, energetic community of students, faculty, and staff who value independence of mind and generosity of spirit. see additional description in…

Education
6
Cedar Crest College

Cedar crest college is a liberal arts college primarily for women dedicated to the education of the next generation of leaders. the college prepares students for life in a global community by educating the whole student at all stages of…

Education
7
Portersville Christian School

The mission of portersville christian school is to glorify god by preparing students to serve christ and instilling high standards spiritually, academically, socially, and physically. the school provides a high-quality academic program, a…

Education
8
Delaware Valley University

See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…

9
The Trustees of the Smith College

Smith college educates women of promise for lives of distinction and purpose. a college of and for the world, smith college links the power of the liberal arts to excellence in research and scholarship, developing leaders for society's…

Education
10
Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Inc

See schedule oper the bylaws of the delaware & lehigh national heritage corridor(which were updated by the merged board of the national canal musuem and the d&l), our mission is to work with government entities, non-profit organizations…

Arts & Culture
11
Willowsford Conservancy Inc

The mission of the willowsford conservancy is to protect our land and promote conservation and sustainable farming so that our community discovers a deeper connection to nature and each other.

Environment
12
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lancaster Farmland Trust and the most unlike its peers is Sechler Family Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

13 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. 13 of the 26 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
7/13
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE — $2,413,400 · EducationELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGEGETTYSBURG COLLEGE — $2,082,100 · EducationGETTYSBURG COLLEGE+1 more — $10,000 · EducationBRETHREN VILLAGE — $2,101,500 · Human ServicesBRETHREN VILLAGE+2 more — $52,000 · Human ServicesLANCASTER FARMLAND TRUST — $1,098,000 · EnvironmentLANCASTER FARMLAND…LANCASTER COUNTY CONSERVANCY — $463,000 · EnvironmentLANCASTER COUNTY C…THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY — $410,000 · OtherTHE PENNSYLV…PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY — $250,000 · OtherPENNSYLVANIA…THE POTTER'S HOUSE — $100,000 · OtherTHE POTTER'S…PENN STATE UNIVERSITY — $100,000 · OtherPENN STATE U…Individual grant recipient — $50,000 · Other+10 more — $143,212 · Other+10 morePENNSYLVANIA FRIENDS OF AGRICULTURE FOUNDATION — $100,000 · Food & NutritionWORLD VISION INC — $45,000 · InternationalROCK FORD FOUNDATION — $30,000 · Arts & Culture
Education$4,505,500Human Services$2,153,500Environment$1,561,000Other$1,053,212Food & Nutrition$100,000International$45,000Arts & Culture$30,000

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 budgetELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE — $2,413,400 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetBRETHREN VILLAGE — $2,101,500 over 7y, 0.7% of budgetGETTYSBURG COLLEGE — $2,082,100 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetLANCASTER FARMLAND TRUST — $1,098,000 over 7y, 3.8% of budgetLANCASTER COUNTY CONSERVANCY — $463,000 over 4y, 4.6% of budgetPENNSYLVANIA FRIENDS OF AGRICULTURE FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 8.5% of budgetWORLD VISION INC — $45,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetROCK FORD FOUNDATION — $30,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetUNITED CHURCHES ELIZABETHTOWN AREA — $30,000 over 1y, 7.4% of budgetWOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC — $22,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSECHLER FAMILY FOUNDATION — $20,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetMESSIAH UNIVERSITY — $10,000 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.

  • Who funds ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE
  • Who funds BRETHREN VILLAGE
  • Who funds GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
  • Who funds LANCASTER FARMLAND TRUST
  • Who funds LANCASTER COUNTY CONSERVANCY
  • Who funds PENNSYLVANIA FRIENDS OF AGRICULTURE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds WORLD VISION INC
  • Who funds ROCK FORD FOUNDATION
  • Who funds UNITED CHURCHES ELIZABETHTOWN AREA
  • Who funds WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC
  • Who funds SECHLER FAMILY FOUNDATION
  • Who funds MESSIAH UNIVERSITY
  • Who funds Elizabethtown Football Club 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.

Lancaster County Community FoundationPA15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Lancaster County Community Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Shaw Family 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%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • Wounded Warrior Project Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
4report 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 26 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