Skip to content
Three Cords Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Three Cords Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$25k
Granted FY2025still arriving
2
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Education$5.4MEnvironment$1.0MHealth$246kReligion$100kHuman Services$10kPublic Benefit$1k
02FY2025 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$14,545
Median grant
2
States reached
$6k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
KIDS CONNECT CHARITABLE FUND$14,545
SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC$10,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY22–24, $1.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%FRIENDS OF LAKE LEELANAU: $340k → 7%FRIENDS OF LAKE LEELANAU: $330k → 7%FRIENDS OF LAKE LEELANAU: $330k → 7%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$6.4M · 5 repeat orgs$286k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
6

Total granted

$6.4M
$276k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-20%
+107%

Still filing today

80%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthHuman ServicesPhilanthropyHousing & ShelterOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TC
    TRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION
    4× · 2021–2024 · $5.2M · revenue -20%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF LAKE LEELANAU
    3× · 2022–2024 · $1.0M · revenue -82% · 32% of their budget
  • KC
    KIDS CONNECT CHARITABLE FUND
    4× · 2022–2025 · $136k · revenue -51%

Funded once

  • CL
    CHRISTIAN LIFE SCHOOL
    one grant, 2022 · $100k
  • WC
    Wabash College
    one grant, 2022 · $100k · revenue +18%
  • AI
    ASSISTANCE IN HEALTHCARE INC
    one grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue 0%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
American Academy of Physician Associates Inc

To ensure the professional growth, personal excellence, and recognition of physician associates, and to support efforts to enable them to improve the quality, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of patient-centered health care.

—
2
American College of Health Care Administrators

The american college of health care administrators (achca) is the catalyst for excellence in post-acute and aging services leadership.

Health
3
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

Enhance the ability of actec members to provide the most efficient and highest quality services to their clients; develop qualified trust and estate counselors; improve and reform probate, trust and tax laws, procedures, and standards of…

Community Improvement
4
International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology Inc

The organization provides peer reviewed scientific research and education in the field of biological dentistry.

Health
5
American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

American college of occupational and environmental medicine (acoem) provides leadership to promote optimal health and safety of workers, workplaces and environments by: educating health professionals and the public; stimulating research;…

Arts & Culture
6
National Association of College and University Attorneys

To advance the practice of higher education attorneys for the benefit of the institutions they serve.

—
7
Harvard Club of Washington Dc

To inform and enrich the intellectual lives of 20,000 alumni of harvard university in the washington, dc area and to assist harvard university with respect to applicants and undergraduates from the dc area.

Education
8
American Society of Clinical Oncology Inc

See schedule o:asco is a professional oncology society committed to conquering cancer through research, education, and promotion of the highest quality patient care.

Health
9
American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Aascu is a washington, d.c. based higher education association that represents the sector of over 500 regional public colleges, universities, and systems whose members share a learning and teaching centered culture, a commitment to…

Education
10
Asco Association

Asco association promotes the common business interests of its members by: (1) advocating for policies that improve the quality of cancer care; (2) maintaining the highest standards of oncology medical care through programs supporting…

Community Improvement
11
Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

Azaap is committed to improving the health of arizona children and supporting the pediatric professionals who care for them.

Health
12
American Association of Physicists in Medicine

Advancing medicine through excellence in the science, education and professional practice of medical physics. the mission is carried out through driving scientific and clinical innovation in medical physics to improve human health,…

Science & Tech
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Assistance in Healthcare Inc; the most unlike its peers is Kids Connect Charitable Fund. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 12 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
5/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

TRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION: $5,175,000 · EducationTRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION+1 more: $100,000 · EducationFRIENDS OF LAKE LEELANAU: $1,000,000 · Human ServicesFRIENDS OF LAKE …CHRISTIAN LIFE SCHOOL: $100,000 · OtherJOURNEY CHURCH OF THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD INC: $100,000 · OtherASSISTANCE IN HEALTHCARE INC: $50,000 · Other+2 more: $1,250 · OtherKIDS CONNECT CHARITABLE FUND: $135,504 · PhilanthropyAMERICAN ACADEMY OF OSTEOPATHY: $35,000 · HealthCRANIAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 · HealthSLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC: $10,000 · Housing & Shelter
Education$5,275,000Human Services$1,000,000Other$251,250Philanthropy$135,504Health$60,000Housing & Shelter$10,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION: $5,175,000 over 4y, 5.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF LAKE LEELANAU: $1,000,000 over 3y, 32% of budgetKIDS CONNECT CHARITABLE FUND: $135,504 over 4y, 9.1% of budgetWabash College: $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetASSISTANCE IN HEALTHCARE INC: $50,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetAMERICAN ACADEMY OF OSTEOPATHY: $35,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetCRANIAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION INC: $25,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetTURNING POINT USA INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

AbbVie FoundationFidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
AbbVie FoundationIL12.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: AbbVie Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Three Cords Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Three Cords Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Three Cords Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Three Cords 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 12 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Three Cords’ filings →

    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 endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home