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· Private foundation

The Strong Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.5M
Granted FY2024still arriving
16
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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 FY2019–2024.

Education$2.2MArts & Culture$2.1MEnvironment$1.0MHealth$1.0MYouth Development$735kHuman Services$580kAnimals$280kFood & Nutrition$245kOther$0
02FY2024 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$100,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$24M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PACIFIC CANCER FOUNDATION$100,000
MANOA HERITAGE CENTER$100,000
HUI NO'EAU$100,000
REHABILITATION HOSPITAL OF THE PACIFIC FOUNDATION$100,000
THE MAUI FARM$100,000
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION$100,000
HAWAII THEATRE CENTER$100,000
TEACH FOR AMERICA-HAWAII$100,000
HISTORIC HAWAII FOUNDATION$100,000
LIVING PONO PROJECT$100,000
MA KA HANA KA IKE BUILDING PROGRAM$100,000
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY$100,000
BOOK TRUST HAWAII CHAPTER$100,000
VARIETY SCHOOL OF HAWAII$100,000
MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION IN HAWAII DBA MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA OF HAWAII$50,000
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 (FY20–24, $290k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%LIVING PONO PROJECT: $100k → 9%LAAKEA VILLAGE: $90k → 9%FEEDING HAWAII TOGETHER: $100k → 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 6% of The Strong 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 HI; read by stated purpose it is 91% — less of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

The Strong Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 6.3% 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.

45%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$3.8M · 23 repeat orgs$4.7M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +41% since the first grant, against +33% for the ones you funded once.

23 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

23
53

Total granted

$3.8M
$4.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+41%
+33%

Still filing today

96%
81%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $450k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationEnvironmentHealthHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION
    2× · 2019–2024 · $225k · revenue +164%
  • Teach for America Inc
    2× · 2021–2024 · $200k · revenue +5%
  • HT
    HAWAII THEATRE CENTER
    2× · 2021–2024 · $200k · revenue +407%

Funded once

  • MH
    MAUI HEALTH FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $200k · revenue +91%
  • SF
    Straub Foundationgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue +33%
  • HH
    HUI HOOLEIMALUO
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue -25%

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
E Kupaku Ka Aina - the Hawaii Land Restoration Institute
Environment
2
Papahana Kuaola

Papahana kuaola's mission is to create quality educational programs focused on environmental restoration and economic sustainability fully integrated with hawaiian knowledge in order to exemplify a lifestyle respectful of kanaka, `aina,…

Environment
3
Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens
Philanthropy
4
Hui Aloha Kiholo

Our mission is to protect, perpetuate, and enhance the cultural and natural landscape of the kiholo bay area through collaborative management and active community stewardship.

Arts & Culture
5
Kula Aupuni Niihau a Kahelelani Aloha (Kanaka)

Preserve niihau cultural values and language.

Education
6
Hawaii Education Institute
—
7
Mohala Pua School Dba Honolulu Waldorf School

See schedule o.at honolulu waldorf school, we educate each child to find meaning, passion, and purpose in life and to contribute to the creation of a better world for all. through a curriculum based on the developmental stages of the human…

Education
8
Hawaii - American Nurses Association Foundation
Environment
9
Ho'ola Lahui Hawaii

To improve the health and well-being of our community.

Human Services
10
Kanu O Ka Aina Learning Ohana

Serving and perpetuating sustainable hawaiian communities through education with aloha.

Arts & Culture
11
Na Mamo o Kawa

to rehabilitate, curate, and steward the natural and cultural resources of Kawa to honor the past, benefit the present, and preserve for the future generations of Ka'u, the Island of Hawaii and all humankind.

Environment
12
Kapi'olani Medical Specialists

Kapi'olani medical specialists (dba hawai'i pacific health medical group) is a multispecialty provider group dedicated to providing world-class care for adults and children across hawai'i and the pacific region working in partnership with…

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Historic Hawai'i Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Rotary District 5000 Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 40 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number24%0%<5yr14%2%5–10yr18%9%10–20yr18%36%20–35yr12%27%35–55yr13%27%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%0%<5yr14%1%5–10yr18%7%10–20yr18%40%20–35yr12%23%35–55yr13%28%55yr+

The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
1%1/74
the rest of the field
13%
856/6,525

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.

05the grantee network

73 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. 73 of the 83 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
21
Early backer (in before they grew)
71/73
Grantees still filing
59/73
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HUI NO'EAU — $200,000 · OtherHUI NO'EAUBOOK TRUST HAWAII CHAPTER — $190,000 · OtherBOOK TRUST HAWAII CHAPTERTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $190,000 · OtherTHE NATURE CONSERVANCYPACIFIC CANCER FOUNDATION — $175,000 · OtherCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICE — $140,000 · OtherASSISTANCE DOGS OF HAWAII — $180,000 · OtherHAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $150,000 · Other+28 more — $2,219,386 · Other+28 moreHAWAII THEATRE CENTER — $200,000 · Arts & CultureHAWAII THEATRE CENTERMANOA HERITAGE CENTER FKA MANOA VALLEY CULTURAL HERITAGE FOUND — $200,000 · Arts & CultureMANOA HERITAGE CENTER…HAWAII OPERA THEATRE — $175,000 · Arts & CultureHAWAII OPERA THEATREBISHOP MUSEUM — $125,000 · Arts & CultureBISHOP MUSEUMHUI HOOLEIMALUO — $100,000 · Arts & CultureHUI HOOLEIMALUOTHE LAHAINA RESTORATION FOUNDATION — $100,000 · Arts & CultureTHE LAHAINA RESTORATI…HISTORIC HAWAI'I FOUNDATION — $100,000 · Arts & CultureHISTORIC HAWAI'I FOUN…MAUI ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS — $100,000 · Arts & CultureMAUI ACADEMY OF PERFO…Hui O Waa Kaulua — $100,000 · Arts & CultureHui O Waa KauluaMAUI ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER — $100,000 · Arts & CultureMAUI ARTS & CULTURAL …AWAIAULU INC — $92,290 · Arts & CultureAWAIAULU INCWAIOLI CORPORATION — $78,885 · Arts & CulturePEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM — $75,000 · Arts & Culture+3 more — $150,000 · Arts & Culture+3 moreUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION — $225,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF HAWA…Teach for America Inc — $200,000 · EducationTeach for America …ISLAND SCHOOL — $200,000 · EducationISLAND SCHOOLCARDEN ACADEMY OF MAUI — $200,000 · EducationCARDEN ACADEMY OF …REAL ONGOING OPPORTUNITIES TO SOAR INC — $200,000 · EducationREAL ONGOING OPPOR…PARKER SCHOOL — $100,000 · EducationPARKER SCHOOLHAWAII PACIFIC UNIVERSITY — $100,000 · EducationHAWAII PACIFIC UNI…CHAMINADE UNIVERSITY OF HONOLULU — $100,000 · EducationCHAMINADE UNIVERSI…MONTESSORI OF MAUI INC — $50,000 · EducationNA AIKANE O MAUI INC — $50,000 · Education+1 more — $25,000 · EducationMAUI HEALTH FOUNDATION — $200,000 · HealthMAUI HEAL…Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific Foundation — $200,000 · HealthRehabilit…Kapi'olani Health Foundation — $150,000 · HealthKapi'olan…Straub Foundation — $100,000 · HealthStraub Fo…KOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES — $100,000 · HealthKOKUA KAL…+1 more — $25,000 · HealthHAWAIIAN ISLANDS LAND TRUST — $100,000 · EnvironmentMOLOKAI LAND TRUST — $100,000 · EnvironmentHALEAKALA CONSERVANCY INC — $100,000 · EnvironmentKOKUA HAWAII FOUNDATION — $100,000 · EnvironmentNATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN — $75,160 · EnvironmentUHIWAI O HALEAKALA — $70,000 · EnvironmentAKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS — $50,000 · EnvironmentHAWAI'I FOREST INSTITUTE — $50,000 · Environment+1 more — $15,000 · EnvironmentHO'OLA NA PUA — $150,000 · Human ServicesLiving Pono Project — $100,000 · Human ServicesFEEDING HAWAII TOGETHER — $100,000 · Human ServicesLA'AKEA VILLAGE — $90,000 · Human ServicesGIRL SCOUTS OF HAWAII — $200,000 · Youth DevelopmentMA KA HANA KA IKE BUILDING PROGRAM — $135,000 · Youth Development
Other$3,444,386Arts & Culture$1,696,175Education$1,450,000Health$775,000Environment$660,160Human Services$440,000Youth Development$335,000

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 budgetUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION — $225,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $200,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetHAWAII THEATRE CENTER — $200,000 over 2y, 8.7% of budgetISLAND SCHOOL — $200,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetGIRL SCOUTS OF HAWAII — $200,000 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetMANOA HERITAGE CENTER FKA MANOA VALLEY CULTURAL HERITAGE FOUND — $200,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetCARDEN ACADEMY OF MAUI — $200,000 over 2y, 4.0% of budgetHUI NO'EAU — $200,000 over 2y, 6.9% of budgetMAUI HEALTH FOUNDATION — $200,000 over 1y, 4.2% of budgetREAL ONGOING OPPORTUNITIES TO SOAR INC — $200,000 over 2y, 14% of budgetRehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific Foundation — $200,000 over 2y, 6.7% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY — $190,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetASSISTANCE DOGS OF HAWAII — $180,000 over 2y, 7.2% of budgetPACIFIC CANCER FOUNDATION — $175,000 over 2y, 17% of budgetHAWAII OPERA THEATRE — $175,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetHAWAII COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $150,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKapi'olani Health Foundation — $150,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetHO'OLA NA PUA — $150,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetCHILD AND FAMILY SERVICE — $140,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetMA KA HANA KA IKE BUILDING PROGRAM — $135,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetBISHOP MUSEUM — $125,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE MAUI FARM INC — $100,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetStraub Foundation — $100,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetHUI HOOLEIMALUO — $100,000 over 1y, 6.6% of budgetLiving Pono Project — $100,000 over 1y, 5.8% of budgetTHE LAHAINA RESTORATION FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 5.3% of budgetPARKER SCHOOL — $100,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetHAWAIIAN ISLANDS LAND TRUST — $100,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetMALAMA NA MAKUA A KEIKI INC — $100,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetMOLOKAI LAND TRUST — $100,000 over 1y, 19% of budgetKa Lima O Maui Ltd — $100,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetHAWAII PACIFIC UNIVERSITY — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSEABURY HALL — $100,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetPONO ACADEMY — $100,000 over 1y, 100% of budgetFEEDING HAWAII TOGETHER — $100,000 over 1y, 6.3% of budgetHISTORIC HAWAI'I FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetHAWAIIAN HUMANE SOCIETY — $100,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF HAWAII — $100,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetMAUI ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS — $100,000 over 1y, 9.4% of budgetKOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES — $100,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE FRIENDS OF IOLANI PALACE — $100,000 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetVARIETY SCHOOL OF HAWAII — $100,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF MAUI INC — $100,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetDIAMOND HEAD THEATRE — $100,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetHui O Waa Kaulua — $100,000 over 2y, 26% of budgetKOKUA HAWAII FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 7.4% of budgetMAUI ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER — $100,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetCHAMINADE UNIVERSITY OF HONOLULU — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

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.

Atherton Family Found…Bank of Hawaii Charit…Cooke Foundation Limi…J Watumull FundMcInerny Foundation--Kosasa FoundationFirst Hawaiian Bank F…First Insurance Compa…Central Pacific Bank …Tradewind Group Found…Aloha United Way IncFred Baldwin Memorial…
Atherton Family FoundationHI85.1× affinity40 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Atherton Family Foundation · Bank of Hawaii Charitable Fdn · Cooke Foundation Limited · J Watumull Fund · McInerny Foundation-- · Kosasa Foundation · First Hawaiian Bank Foundation · First Insurance Company of Hawaii Charitable Foundation · Central Pacific Bank Foundation · Tradewind Group Foundation · Aloha United Way Inc · Fred Baldwin Memorial 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 Strong 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    24report 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

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to The Strong Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Strong 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.

    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 83 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

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines