· Private foundation
The Wj and Lillian Kemler Foundation Margaret Savage President
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 59% of THE WJ AND LILLIAN KEMLER FOUNDATION MARGARET SAVAGE PRESIDENT’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $13k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $60k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ST IGNACE AREA SCHOOLS | $20,000 |
| CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY INTERNATIONAL | $10,000 |
| FORGOTTEN HARVEST | $10,000 |
| DETROIT PUBLIC TELEVISION | $10,000 |
| OAKLAND UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| SALVATION ARMY | $5,000 |
| PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH | $4,500 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF AMERICA | $2,000 |
| NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN MUSEUM | $1,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 30% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +45% since the first grant, against +17% for the ones you funded once.
10 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $21k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- IDInfact DBA Corporate Accountability5× · 2020–2024 · $52k · revenue +10%
- DPDETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA5× · 2020–2024 · $50k · revenue +45%
FORGOTTEN HARVEST INC5× · 2020–2024 · $34k · revenue +2%
Funded once
- EDELITE DETECTION K9one grant, 2022 · $20k · revenue -100%
- GRGRATIOT-ISABELLA RESDone grant, 2020 · $10k
- GVGRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITYone grant, 2022 · $10k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
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.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
Michigan farm bureau (mfb) is a member directed agricultural organization whose purpose is to represent, protect, and enhance the business, economic, social, and educational interests of our members located throughout the state of michigan.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
To educate the public about unfair business practices fraud, and to make informed decisions when choosing entities to do business with.
The Historical Society of Michigan will foster in citizens a deeper understanding of and appreciation for all Michigan history through programs and publications; preserve and promote Michigan history through conferences, publications,…
Consistent with our trade union philosophy and tradition of advocating social and economic justice for all, we also see representing the unemployed, under-employed, and low income people as part of our mission. whether organized or yet to…
An organization of professional staff at michigan state university whose main purpose is for collective bargaining. dues are collected from members to provide communication services, pay for bargaining, training, grievance, arbitration…
Informing and educating the public and decision makers about environmental issues.
Information dissemination.
A voice of the building industry in Michigan. The primary purpose is to positively influence the legislative, regulatory and legal issues that affect the industry.
Collective bargaining and representation
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Detroit Public Media and the most unlike its peers is Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 18 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 Infact DBA Corporate Accountability ↗
- Who funds DETROIT PUBLIC MEDIA ↗
- Who funds FORGOTTEN HARVEST INC ↗
- Who funds ELITE DETECTION K9 ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN HISTORY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds University of Michigan ↗
- Who funds GRATIOT COUNTY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America ↗
- Who funds Black Caucus Foundation of Michigan ↗
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Wj and Lillian Kemler Foundation Margaret Savage President 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America — 21% of income from government
- Infact Dba Corporate Accountability — 0% of income from government
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.
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Find your warmest path to The Wj and Lillian Kemler Foundation Margaret Savage President 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.