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Trager Family Foundation Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

Trager Family Foundation Trust

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.

$253k
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$125k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

87% of Trager Family Foundation Trust’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Jewish Community Of Louisville Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 7 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Trager Family Foundation Trust named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $253k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

5
’22
4
’23
7
’24
7
’25

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
0189% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2022 to 2025.

Philanthropy$1.5MArts & Culture$144kEducation$130kCivil Rights$70kHealth$49kReligion$20kHuman Services$3kCommunity Improvement$3kOther$0
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k6 grants · $23k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $55k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $175k
$7,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$19M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION$124,674
LOUISVILLE BALLET$50,000
BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY$30,000
GILDA'S CLUB KENTUCKIANA$25,000
WELLSPRING$7,000
SWIM ACROSS AMERICA$5,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
SERENITY INC$2,500
JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE$2,500
JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION$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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY22–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%SERENITY INC: $3k → 14%SWIM ACROSS AMERICA: $5k → 10%MARCH OF DIMES: $5k → 7%HARRODS CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH: $5k → 4%COMMONWEALTH FUND FOR KET INC: $4k → 15%GILDA'S CLUB KENTUCKIANA: $25k → 15%SWIM ACROSS AMERICA: $5k → 10%GILDA'S CLUB KENTUCKIANA: $5k → 15%NCJW LOUISVILLE SECTION: $5k → 15%NCJW LOUISVILLE SECTION: $5k → 15%NCJW LOUISVILLE SECTION: $5k → 15%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE: $413k → 15%LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA: $50k → 15%LOUISVILLE BALLET: $50k → 15%KMAC MUSEUM: $13k → 15%MEGHAN'S MOUNTAIN: $5k → 15%KENTUCKY DANCE COUNCIL DBA LOUISVILLE BALLET: $10k → 15%SPEED ART MUSEUM: $18k → 15%JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $1k → 15%JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE: $902k → 15%JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION: $125k → 15%JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE: $75k → 15%UNITED JEWISH CAMPAIGN: $35k → 15%BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY: $30k → 15%BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY: $30k → 15%BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY: $29k → 15%BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY: $29k → 15%UNITED JEWISH CAMPAIGN: $25k → 15%KENESETH ISRAEL: $15k → 15%WHITNEYSTRONG: $10k → 15%JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE: $3k → 15%SIMMONS COLLEGE OF KENTUCKY: $10k → 15%WELLSPRING: $7k → 15%WELLSPRING: $7k → 15%THE GREATER LOUISVILLE PRIDE FOUNDATION: $3k → 15%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.

54%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$308k · 7 repeat orgs$264k to everyone else

7 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
6

Total granted

$308k
$54k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+9%
+24%

Still filing today

71%
83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 36% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $83k went to new ones.

50%100%’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’22’23’24’25
Arts & CulturePhilanthropyEducationHealthCommunity ImprovementHousing & 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

  • BU
    BELLARMINE UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED
    4× · 2022–2025 · $119k · revenue +1%
  • KD
    KENTUCKY DANCE COUNCIL INC DBA LOUISVILLE BALLET
    2× · 2022–2024 · $60k · revenue +51%
  • GC
    GILDA'S CLUB KENTUCKIANA INC
    2× · 2022–2024 · $30k · revenue +37%

Funded once

  • SA
    SPEED ART MUSEUMgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $18k · revenue +86%
  • KM
    KMAC MUSEUM
    one grant, 2023 · $13k · revenue -20%
  • WS
    WHITNEY STRONG INCgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +45%
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
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy Inc

To improve the quality of life for all kentuckians through research, education and advocacy on important policy issues facing the commonwealth.

Public Benefit
2
Commerce Lexington Inc

To represent our members, creating the environment and opportunity for economic prosperity and quality living in central kentucky.

—
3
Civiclex Incorporated

Civiclex strengthens civic health in lexington, kentucky, by helping our community understand and get involved in local issues, connect with their neighbors and make decisions in a better way.

Arts & Culture
4
Kentucky Bankers Association

To provide effective advocacy for the financial services industry both in kentucky and on a national level; to serve as a reliable and responsive source of information and education about areas of interest to the industry; and to provide a…

—
5
Greater Louisville Sports Commission Inc

To attract, create, and host quality sporting events in the louisville area that increase economic vitality, enhance the quality of life, promote healthy lifestyles, and brand louisville as a great place to live, work, and play.

Recreation & Sports
6
Kentucky Public Radio Inc

Lpm provides independent and courageous news, music and experiences that serve the needs and aspirations of our diverse communities.

Arts & Culture
7
Kentucky Medical Association

The kentucky medical association provides physician advocacy through governmental interaction, legal intervention, and public education, as well as providing physician education through periodic workshops/seminars, and an annual convention…

—
8
Kentucky Tennis Association Inc

To promote the development of tennis as a means of healthful recreation and physical fitness in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

—
9
University of Louisville Real Estate Foundation Inc

To acquire, maintain, improve, leverage, manage, lease, and convey real and personal property for the benefit of the university of louisville.

Philanthropy
10
American Dairy Association of Kentucky

Everything we do is market-focused and proactively promotes and protects the interests of the southeast dairy farm families.

—
11
Kansas City Ballet Association

To inspire and engage through the beauty, power and passion of dance

Arts & Culture
12
Louisville Collegiate School

Louisville collegiate school inspires academic excellence, extraordinary character and global citizenship.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc; the most unlike its peers is Kmac Museum. 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

17 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. 17 of the 23 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/17
Grantees still filing
12/17
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE INC: $979,721 · PhilanthropyJEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE INCTHE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE INC: $413,400 · PhilanthropyTHE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE INC+2 more: $11,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION: $124,674 · OtherJEWISH COMMUNIT…UNITED JEWISH CAMPAIGN: $59,925 · OtherUNITED JEWISH C…GILDA'S CLUB KENTUCKIANA INC: $30,000 · OtherGILDA'S CLUB KE…Individual grant recipient: $15,000 · OtherIndividual gran…KENESETH ISRAEL: $15,000 · OtherKENESETH ISRAELWELLSPRING INC: $14,000 · Other+3 more: $12,000 · OtherKENTUCKY DANCE COUNCIL INC DBA LOUISVILLE BALLET: $60,000 · Arts & CultureTHE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA INC: $50,000 · Arts & CultureSPEED ART MUSEUM: $17,500 · Arts & CultureKMAC MUSEUM: $12,500 · Arts & Culture+1 more: $4,000 · Arts & CultureBELLARMINE UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED: $118,800 · EducationSimmons College of Kentucky Inc: $10,200 · EducationWHITNEY STRONG INC: $10,000 · Housing & ShelterMARCH OF DIMES INC: $5,000 · HealthGREATER LOUISVILLE PRIDE FOUNDATION INC: $2,500 · Community Improvement
Philanthropy$1,404,121Other$270,599Arts & Culture$144,000Education$129,000Housing & Shelter$10,000Health$5,000Community Improvement$2,500

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 budgetJEWISH COMMUNITY OF LOUISVILLE INC: $979,721 over 3y, 5.4% of budgetTHE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF LOUISVILLE INC: $413,400 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetBELLARMINE UNIVERSITY INCORPORATED: $118,800 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetKENTUCKY DANCE COUNCIL INC DBA LOUISVILLE BALLET: $60,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetTHE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetGILDA'S CLUB KENTUCKIANA INC: $30,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetSPEED ART MUSEUM: $17,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWELLSPRING INC: $14,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKMAC MUSEUM: $12,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetSimmons College of Kentucky Inc: $10,200 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWHITNEY STRONG INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetSwim Across America Inc: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMARCH OF DIMES INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMONWEALTH FUND FOR KET INC: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSERENITY INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetJEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATION 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.

The Gheens Foundation…Sociable Weaver Found…The Community Foundat…Kindred Foundation IncRepublic Bank Foundat…The Brooke Brown Barz…Owsley Brown II Famil…Snowy Owl Foundation …LG&E and Ku Foundatio…The Community Foundat…The Community Foundat…Mightycause Charitabl…
The Gheens Foundation IncKY26.2× affinity10 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Gheens Foundation Inc · Sociable Weaver Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc · Kindred Foundation Inc · Republic Bank Foundation Inc · The Brooke Brown Barzun Philanthropic Foundation Inc · Owsley Brown II Family Foundation Inc · Snowy Owl Foundation Inc · LG&E and Ku Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Corporate Depository Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Depository Inc · Mightycause Charitable 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 Trager Family Foundation Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Trager Family Foundation Trust. 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
    4report 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 Trager Family Foundation Trust?

    Find your warmest path to Trager Family Foundation Trust 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 23 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Trager Family’s 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