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Plinth

· Private foundation

The Shiffman Foundation

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.

$6k
Granted FY2023
20
Grants FY2023
6
States reached
$2k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172023.

Health$17kCrime & Legal$4kCivil Rights$2kReligion$2kEnvironment$2kArts & Culture$1kEducation$750Housing & Shelter$550Other$0
02FY2023 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$100
Median grant
6
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CRAIG BELL JEWEL LOTUS$2,085
CLEAN WATER FOR THE WORLD$1,000
FUND FOR EQUAL JUSTICE$750
GEEZ$500
PEOPLES WATER BOARD$250
Individual grant recipient$220
SUGAR LAW CENTER$200
ST PETERS EPISCOPAL CHURCH$150
JUSTICE FOR OUR NEIGHBORS JFON-MI$120
MI INTERFAITH POWER AND LIGHT$100
Individual grant recipient$100
CATHOLIC WORKER HOUSE DETROIT$100
JESUIT CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN$100
DETROIT PUBLIC TELEVISION$100
LOST VOICES$100
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 (FY17–21, $800) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%CORNER SHOWER & LAUNDRY: $350 → 21%CORNER SHOWER & LAUNDRY: $100 → 21%CORNER SHOWER & LAUNDRY: $100 → 21%FREEDOM HOUSE: $100 → 21%FREEDOM HOUSE: $100 → 21%WE THE PEOPLE OF DETROIT: $50 → 21%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

VT
MT
MN
IL
MI
NY
OH
PA
NJ
CA
MO
DC

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.

50%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$15k · 24 repeat orgs$15k to everyone else

24 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2023, 18 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

24
59

Total granted

$15k
$11k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+7%
+59%

Still filing today

33%
24%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesCommunity ImprovementCivil RightsInternationalEnvironmentOther

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

  • CW
    CLEAN WATER FOR THE WORLD
    4× · 2017–2023 · $1k · revenue +73%
  • KENYON COLLEGE
    2× · 2020–2022 · $600 · revenue +37%
  • CS
    Corner Shower and LaundryInc
    3× · 2019–2021 · $550 · revenue +7%

Funded once

  • 1P
    1968 PROJECT
    one grant, 2017 · $2k
  • SP
    ST PETERS EPISCOPAL CURCH
    one grant, 2022 · $1k
  • BC
    BOGGS CNTR COMM LEAD
    one grant, 2017 · $700

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
Detroit Justice Center

The Detroit Justice Center works alongside communities to create economic opportunities, transform the justice system, and promote equitable and just cities.

Crime & Legal
2
Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice

The organization is known as the leader in the movement and is seen as the "go to" experts on environmental justice and sustainable redevelopment because of its knowledge and its network.

Health
3
Detroit Historical Society

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.

Arts & Culture
4
The Detroit Equity Report Inc

To promote equality and inclusion in society.

Employment
5
Action for Liberation

Michigan Liberation is dedicated to the leadership development of community members and creation of effective campaigns to advance racial, gender and economic justice in Michigan

Civil Rights
6
Michigan Advocacy Program

To advance the safety, independence, and economic stability of those most affected by poverty, racism, and other structurally oppressive systems by increasing access to justice and working for systemic solutions.

Crime & Legal
7
Michigan Roundtable for Just Communities

Michigan roundtable for just communities is a racial and social justice organization whose purpose is eradicate racism, discrimination, and systemic inequities by cultivating multigenerational just and beloved communities.

Religion
8
Detroit Food Policy Council

The organization was founded by a group of concerned citizens, working in cooperation with the detroit city council, to shape food policy and to work for a more localized, more just, and environmentally friendly food system. the…

Food & Nutrition
9
About Face Detroit
10
Good Jobs Now Inc

To build the political and economic power of low and moderate-income detroiters of color through neighborhood-driven community organizing and civic engagement in order to change public policy and communities for the better.

11
Say Detroit

Providing pathways to success for detroiters in need.

Housing & Shelter
12
New Detroit Inc

New detroit inc (the corporation) is a coalition of leaders working to achieve racial understanding and racial equity in metropolitan detroit. the corporations principal source of revenue is from grants and contributions.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Detroit Public Media and the most unlike its peers is Clean Water for the World. 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 backsteadyFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…Christian Missionary Organi…Legal Aid & Immigration Ser…Community Arts OrganizationsGovernment Accountability R…Small Business Development …Jewish Community Federations
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 37 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%8%<5yr13%4%5–10yr20%19%10–20yr15%19%20–35yr14%23%35–55yr18%27%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%13%<5yr13%5%5–10yr20%5%10–20yr15%6%20–35yr14%9%35–55yr18%63%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 13% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/28
the rest of the field
12%
6,511/53,828

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

25 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. 25 of the 97 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)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
25/25
Grantees still filing
17/25
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

FUND FOR EQUAL JUSTICE INC — $4,010 · OtherFUND FOR EQUAL JUSTICE INCCRAIG BELL JEWEL LOTUS — $2,085 · OtherCRAIG BELL JEWEL LOTUS1968 PROJECT — $2,000 · Other1968 PROJECTST PETERS EPISCOPAL CHURCH — $1,770 · OtherST PETERS EPISCOPAL CHURCHST PETERS EPISCOPAL CURCH — $1,450 · OtherST PETERS EPISCOPAL CURCH+78 more — $13,410 · Other+78 moreDetroit Jews for Justice — $1,230 · Civil RightsINTERFAITH COUNCIL FOR PEACE & JUSTICE — $200 · Civil RightsCLEAN WATER FOR THE WORLD — $1,300 · EnvironmentTHE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS INC — $500 · Arts & CultureSheldon Art Museum Archaeological and Historical Society Inc — $250 · Arts & CultureGENERAL BAKER INSTITUTE — $250 · Arts & CultureDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA — $100 · Arts & CultureTRUTHOUT — $100 · Arts & CultureCorner Shower and LaundryInc — $550 · Human ServicesFREEDOM HOUSE DETROIT — $200 · Human ServicesWe the People of Detroit — $50 · Human ServicesKENYON COLLEGE — $600 · EducationMICHIGAN COALITION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS — $400 · InternationalFONKOZE USA INC — $90 · International
Other$24,725Civil Rights$1,430Environment$1,300Arts & Culture$1,200Human Services$800Education$600International$490

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetFUND FOR EQUAL JUSTICE INC — $4,010 over 7y, 1.6% of budgetCLEAN WATER FOR THE WORLD — $1,300 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetKENYON COLLEGE — $600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCorner Shower and LaundryInc — $550 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetTHE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS INC — $500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMICHIGAN COALITION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS — $400 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetSheldon Art Museum Archaeological and Historical Society Inc — $250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGENERAL BAKER INSTITUTE — $250 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFREEDOM HOUSE DETROIT — $200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MAURICE & JANE SUGAR LAW CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE — $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRUTHOUT — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHWEST SOLUTIONS INC — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMON GROUND — $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLOST VOICES — $100 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFONKOZE USA INC — $90 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWe the People of Detroit — $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCO-ETTE CLUB INC — $50 over 1y, 0.1% of budget826 MICHIGAN INC — $50 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 FUND FOR EQUAL JUSTICE INC
  • Who funds CLEAN WATER FOR THE WORLD
  • Who funds Detroit Jews for Justice
  • Who funds KENYON COLLEGE
  • Who funds Corner Shower and LaundryInc
  • Who funds THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS INC
  • Who funds MICHIGAN COALITION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
  • Who funds Sheldon Art Museum Archaeological and Historical Society Inc
  • Who funds GENERAL BAKER INSTITUTE
  • Who funds INTERFAITH COUNCIL FOR PEACE & JUSTICE
  • Who funds FREEDOM HOUSE DETROIT
  • Who funds THE MAURICE & JANE SUGAR LAW CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

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.

The Kresge FoundationMI24.5× affinity10 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Kresge Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · WK Kellogg Foundation · United Way for Southeastern Michigan · The Fred & Barbara Erb Family Foundation · The Ford Foundation · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation · Dte Energy Foundation · Ethel and James Flinn Foundation · The Skillman Foundation · The Annenberg 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 Shiffman 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 · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 97 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 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2023, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph