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Towering Pines Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Towering Pines 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.

$256k
Granted FY2025still arriving
21
Grants FY2025still arriving
9
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Community Improvement$500kHealth$296kHuman Services$169kPublic Benefit$89kEducation$86kCivil Rights$45kEnvironment$35kArts & Culture$23kOther$0
02FY2025 · 21 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k17 grants · $55k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $30k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $171k
$3,000
Median grant
9
States reached
$1.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CENTER FOR URBAN RENEWAL$100,000
CARING HOUSE$71,000
THE EMILY K CENTER$20,000
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN$10,000
LEADERSHIP EDGE INC$8,500
THE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE$8,000
THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE$7,500
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION$5,000
DURHAM TECH FOUNDATION$5,000
DURHAM ACADEMY$3,000
SAMARITAN HEALTH CENTER INC$3,000
DURHAM ARTS COUNCIL$3,000
FRIENDS OF THE ASHBROOK CENTER$2,500
CENTER FOR CHILD FAMILY HEALTH$2,500
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY$1,000
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 (FY17–25, $21k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 76% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%THE FOUNDATION OF HOPE: $8k → 11%YMCA OF THE TRIANGLE AREA INC: $5k → 8%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $2k → 14%STEPUP DURHAM: $1k → 11%STEPUP DURHAM: $1k → 11%STEPUP DURHAM: $1k → 11%STEPUP DURHAM: $1k → 11%STEPUP DURHAM: $1k → 11%LEADERSHIP EDGE INC: $1k → 11%LEADERSHIP EDGE INC: $500 → 11%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.

Which US states its grants reach

NH
MT
MI
NY
OH
PA
CA
VA
AZ
TN
NC
DC
AL
GA
TX
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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.1M · 25 repeat orgs$86k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against +51% for those funded once.

25 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

25
17

Total granted

$1.1M
$62k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+51%

Still filing today

80%
47%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $24k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHealthHuman ServicesPublic BenefitArts & CultureRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • CARING HOUSE INC
    6× · 2019–2025 · $206k · revenue +175%
  • Leadership Edge Incorporated
    6× · 2019–2025 · $77k · revenue +63%
  • UO
    University of Michigan
    7× · 2019–2025 · $70k · revenue +140%

Funded once

  • DT
    DURHAM TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE
    one grant, 2019 · $25k
  • YA
    Young America's Foundation
    one grant, 2021 · $8k · revenue +5%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2024 · $5k
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
Dallas International University

As a christian university, we provide education and research opportunities preparing global leaders to partner with local communities.

Education
2
Drake University

See schedule o.drake's mission is to provide an exceptional learning environment that prepares students for meaningful personal lives, professional accomplishments, and responsible global citizenship. the drake experience is distinguished…

Education
3
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
4
Greensboro College

Greensboro College provides a liberal arts education grounded in the traditions of the United Methodist Church and fosters the intellectual, social, and spiritual development of all students while supporting their individual needs.

Education
5
Duke University

To provide a superior liberal education, to prepare future members of learned professions, to advance the frontiers of knowledge, and to help those who suffer, cure disease, and promote health

Education
6
Dunwoody College of Technology

Dunwoody college changes lives by building opportunities for graduates to have successful careers, to develop into leaders and entrepreneurs, and to engage in "the better performance of life's duties." quote is from the last will and…

Education
7
Davidson College

Undergraduate liberal arts education

Education
8
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
9
Trinity University

Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.

Education
10
Greenville College

Greenville college d/b/a greenville university empowers students for lives of character and service through a transforming christ-centered education in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.

Education
11
DePauw University

Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…

Education
12
Fielding Graduate University

We provide exemplary interdisciplinary programs for a community of scholar-practitioners within a distributed learning model grounded in student-driven inquiry and leading to enhanced knowledge.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Durham Success Summit Inc. 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

36 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 36 of the 50 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
35/36
Grantees still filing
29/36
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CENTER FOR URBAN RENEWAL: $500,000 · OtherCENTER FOR URBAN RENEWALTHE EMILY K CENTER: $84,000 · OtherTHE EMILY K CENTERUniversity of Michigan: $70,000 · OtherUniversity of Michigan+23 more: $129,098 · Other+23 moreCARING HOUSE INC: $205,500 · HealthCARING HOUSE INCSAMARITAN HEALTH CENTER INC: $8,000 · Health+3 more: $5,000 · HealthLeadership Edge Incorporated: $76,500 · Human ServicesFOUNDATION OF HOPE INC: $7,500 · Human ServicesSTEPUP DURHAM: $5,000 · Human ServicesThe Young Men's Christian Association of the Triangle Area Inc (4598): $5,000 · Human Services+1 more: $1,500 · Human ServicesLeadership Institute: $70,500 · Public BenefitTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $5,000 · Public BenefitMACKINAC CENTER: $4,500 · Public BenefitDURHAM SUCCESS SUMMIT INC: $4,000 · Public BenefitDURHAM ACADEMY INC: $17,000 · EducationSavannah College of Art and DesignInc: $8,000 · EducationGEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $7,500 · EducationSouthern Methodist University: $7,000 · EducationTHE HILL CENTER INC: $4,000 · EducationHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $2,000 · Education+2 more: $2,000 · EducationALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM: $35,500 · Civil RightsYELLOWSTONE FOREVER: $35,000 · Environment
Other$783,098Health$218,500Human Services$95,500Public Benefit$84,000Education$47,500Civil Rights$35,500Environment$35,000

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 budgetCARING HOUSE INC: $205,500 over 6y, 2.1% of budgetLeadership Edge Incorporated: $76,500 over 6y, 6.6% of budgetLeadership Institute: $70,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetUniversity of Michigan: $70,000 over 7y, 3.8% of budgetALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM: $35,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetYELLOWSTONE FOREVER: $35,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetCLARE BOOTHE LUCE CENTER FOR CONSERVATIVE WOMEN: $19,500 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetDURHAM ACADEMY INC: $17,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetSavannah College of Art and DesignInc: $8,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetREADERS 2 LEADERS: $8,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetSAMARITAN HEALTH CENTER INC: $8,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetGEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetYoung America's Foundation: $7,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRIANGLE RESIDENTIAL OPTIONS FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSERS INC: $7,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCenter for Child and Family Health Inc: $7,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern Methodist University: $7,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetDAVID HOROWITZ FREEDOM CENTER: $6,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPartners for Youth Opportunity: $6,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetSTEPUP DURHAM: $5,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetThe Young Men's Christian Association of the Triangle Area Inc (4598): $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMACKINAC CENTER: $4,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HILL CENTER INC: $4,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetORANGE COUNTY RAPE CRISIS CENTER: $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE DURHAM ARTS COUNCIL INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDURHAM CRISIS RESPONSE CENTER: $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetLUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE FOR AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCAMP PASQUANEY: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetDURHAM LITERACY CENTER INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNAMI National: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCHAMPIONS FOR LITERACY: $1,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetDYSAUTONOMIA INTERNATIONAL INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Triangle Community Fo…Duke University Healt…Duke UniversityUnited Way of the Gre…Fox Family Foundation…Durham Merchants Asso…The Forest At Duke IncFm Kirby Foundation I…Barnes Family Foundat…Bertsch Family Charit…North Carolina Commun…Duke Energy Foundation
Triangle Community Foundation IncNC29.1× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Triangle Community Foundation Inc · Duke University Health System Inc · Duke University · United Way of the Greater Triangle Inc · Fox Family Foundation Inc · Durham Merchants Association Charitable Foundation · The Forest At Duke Inc · Fm Kirby Foundation Inc · Barnes Family Foundation · Bertsch Family Charitable Foundation Inc · North Carolina Community Foundation · Duke Energy 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 Towering Pines Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Towering Pines Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%funder's 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
    12report 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
    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 Towering Pines Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Towering Pines 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 50 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 Towering Pines’ 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