How much did Think Small grant in FY2024?

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 80% of Think Small’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.

02beneath the categories

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.

…and in their own words, year by year

2019

financial supportssupports childcarechildcare providersproviders scholarships

2020

scholarshipsdistrict pre-kindergartenfaithful beginningsdist pre-kindergartenstep stepstep montessorichild

2021

scholarshipchildcare learningmemories milestonesoldchildmarythinkers

2022

scholarshiplearning childcarefull potentialapplechoofunvalley

2023

scholarshiplittle starsmindshappytamaramarycreations child

2024

scholarshipsmichellelindaindependent districtmindslovechild

Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.

03FY2024 · 241 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k59 grants · $403k
$10k–50k105 grants · $2.5M
$50k–250k63 grants · $5.9M
$250k+14 grants · $17M

$24,750

Median grant

States reached

$11M

Total assets

Largest grants

NEW HORIZON CHILD CARE INC$7,550,121
KUEHG Corp$2,890,818
PARENTS IN COMMUNITY ACTION INC$1,336,220
COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIPS RAMSEY & WASHINGTON COUNTIES$1,088,701
LA CRECHE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERS$726,659
LAKESHORE LEARNING MATERIALS$655,679
CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF ST PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS$601,289
THE FAMILY PARTNERSHIP$516,857
YWCA OF MINNEAPOLIS$458,432
BABYS SPACE A PLACE TO GROW$350,383
PHYLLIS WHEATLEY COMMUNITY CENTER$334,661
KHCD II INC$313,738
OLUS CENTER LLC$299,719
TUTOR TIME LEARNING CENTER LLC$255,051
3 RS EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING CENTER$249,521

02The need

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 (FY18–24, $18.6M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11% — the area typically sits at 8%. 99% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — 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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.

$116M · 292 repeat orgs$2.1M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +34% since the first grant, against +2% for the ones you funded once.

292 repeat relationships — 194 still active in FY2024, 98 since wound down; 47 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

292

116

Total granted

$116M

$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%

+2%

Still filing today

22%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $590k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesEducationHousing & ShelterHealthCrime & LegalYouth 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

PI
PARENTS IN COMMUNITY ACTION INC
6× · 2019–2024 · $4.7M · revenue +30%
CA
COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIPS RAMSEY & WASHINGTON COUNTIES
6× · 2019–2024 · $3.3M · revenue +77%
LC
LA CRECHE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERS INC
7× · 2018–2024 · $2.8M · revenue +34% · 44% of their budget

Funded once

BW
BRIGHT WATER MONTESSORI
one grant, 2019 · $75k
KP
KALEIDOSCOPE PLACE
one grant, 2020 · $69k
UA
URBAN ARTS ACADEMY
one grant, 2019 · $62k · revenue -83%

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.

Level Up Academy

By tapping the intrinsic motivation and curiosity of every child, we deliver higher than usual growth.

Education

The Children's Preschool Inc

Early childhood education

—

St Paul's Day Care Center Inc

Child care center that provides quality care for families with infants and children.

—

St Paul's Child Development Center

St. Paul's Child Development Center is a preschool which strives to create child centered environments concerned with the development of the whole child - socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually.

Human Services

Children's Day Montessori

To provide a setting where children can begin to develop to their full potential.

Education

Everyday Blooms Montessori Inc

We believe that the first six years of a childs life are the most critical. We offer a high quality learning environment to a diverse community of children and families.

Education

Reba Early Learning Center

Childcare for preschool children

Human Services

Little Star School Montessori

Operation of a Montessori School

Education

Lexington Playcare Center Inc

Educational childcare for preschool and toddler children

Human Services

Kinderhaus Montessori

Kinderhaus montessori school provides high quality child care and preschool education for children 6 weeks to 8 years in age in a warm and caring environment that stimulates a child's creativity, curiosity, and sense of independence.

Education

Discovery Montessori

Child day care and preschool education

Education

Michigan Child Care Centers Inc

Providing day care for children ranging from two weeks to tweleve years of age

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Joyce Preschool and the most unlike its peers is Close to My Heart. 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.

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 43 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% 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 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund

1%5/455

the rest of the field

12%

2,090/16,739

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

85 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

75/85

Grantees still filing

61/85

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$94,255,849Human Services$18,729,516Education$3,945,789Housing & Shelter$593,088Youth Development$143,764Health$134,599Employment$93,145Crime & Legal$18,350

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.

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.

First Children's FinanceMN107× affinity128 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: First Children's Finance · The Sheltering Arms Foundation · Greater Twin Cities United Way · The Sauer Family Foundation · Minnesota State High School League Foundation · Medica Foundation · Catholic Schools Center of Excellence · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Minnesota Community Foundation · Catholic Community Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · The Walser 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 organisation Think Small 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

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: LA CRECHE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERS INC.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

high risk

~2 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 5 filed years.

Track record & reputation

low risk

5 years of Form 990 filings, still active.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 410958652 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on LA CRECHE EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTERS INC, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

FlagFinancial stability— Roughly 2 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 44% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Think Small?

Find your warmest path to Think Small through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

Think Small

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

85 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Think Small?

More from the funding graph

Think Small

What you funded, over time

Past the labels — and the year it shifted

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Who you back again

Backed again, and grew

Funded once

85 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Think Small?

More from the funding graph