How much does Triford Foundation give?

Triford Foundation reported 69 grants totaling $340,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 57 and 67 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Triford Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (24%), Religion (19%), Education (13%).

Who are Triford Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Harbor Hall Foundation ($187k), First Descents ($144k), Litchfield Montessori School Inc ($113k).

Does Triford Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Triford Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as Triford Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation, Frey Foundation, Oleson Foundation.

Where is Triford Foundation based?

Triford Foundation is based in MI.

Triford Foundation

Triford Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Triford 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.

$340k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$68k

Largest

01What it funds

0197% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Health$611kReligion$474kEducation$320kRecreation & Sports$200kArts & Culture$141kEnvironment$126kAnimals$108kPhilanthropy$104kOther$0

02FY2025 · 69 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k59 grants · $154k
$10k–50k9 grants · $118k
$50k–250k1 grant · $68k

$2,500

Median grant

States reached

$2.6M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
NATIONAL CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION	$68,000
MALAMA KULA	$20,170
HARBOR HALL FOUNDATION	$19,500
FIRST DESCENTS	$15,000
RUMSEY HALL SCHOOL	$11,580
PETOSKEY-HARBOR SPRINGS AREA	$11,500
BELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY	$10,500
LITCHFIELD MONTESSORI SCHOOL	$10,000
HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY	$10,000
VAIL HEALTH FOUNDATION	$10,000
HARBOR SPRINGS AREA HISTORICAL SOCI	$8,000
MANNA FOOD PROJECT	$7,000
MCLAREN N MICH HOSPITAL	$6,500
ANN'S NEST	$6,500
MUNSON HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION	$6,000

02The need

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 9%. 45% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

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

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.3M · 97 repeat orgs$132k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +49% since the first grant, against +10% for those funded once.

97 repeat relationships: 57 still active in FY2025, 40 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.3M

$78k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+49%

+10%

Still filing today

58%

56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $54k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationAnimalsHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsHealthArts & CultureOther

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

HH
HARBOR HALL FOUNDATION
9× · 2017–2025 · $187k · revenue +207%
FD
FIRST DESCENTS
9× · 2017–2025 · $144k · revenue +159%
LM
Litchfield Montessori School Inc
9× · 2017–2025 · $113k · revenue +94%

Funded once

MN
MCLAREN NORTHERN MICHIGAN FOUNDATION
one grant, 2017 · $30k · revenue -21%
GL
Great Lakes Christian Foundation
one grant, 2017 · $8k · revenue +10%
TB
THE BROCH FOUND OF BRAIN CANCER RES
one grant, 2019 · $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.

The Northern Michigan University Foundation

The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.

Education

Native Plant Trust Inc

The organization's mission is to conserve and promote new england's native plants to ensure healthy, biologically diverse landscapes.

Environment

Land Conservancy of West Michigan

Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…

Environment

Michigan Science Center

The mission of the michigan science center is to inspire curious minds of all ages to discover, explore and appreciate science, technology, engineering and math in a creative, dynamic learning environment.

Education

Eastern National

Eastern national promotes the public's understanding and support of america's national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products and services.

Recreation & Sports

Naples Zoo Inc

Naples zoo is accredited by the american zoo & aquarium association (aza) and has numerous animal exhibits placed on its 45-acre site. (continued on schedule o)each exhibit is unique and designed to simulate typical conditions for the…

Animals

Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education

North Shore Health System Medical Faculty Group Practice

North shore health system medical faculty group practice (the corporation) functions as an extension of the northwell health hospitals by bringing medical care to community settings, providing care to medicare, medicaid, and other…

Health

Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

—

The Little Forks Conservancy Inc

To permanently protect and improve natural environments in Mid-Michigan by leading and inspiring actions that conserve vital habitats and waterways for the benefit of our entire community.

Environment

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

To sustain, restore, and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.

Animals

Minnesota Land Trust

The minnesota land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Lucky Paw Foundation 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

86 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. 86 of the 136 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

81/86

Grantees still filing

62/86

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,408,750Education$273,680Recreation & Sports$246,500Community Improvement$217,770Health$136,450Arts & Culture$120,450Environment$111,400

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

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.

Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community FoundationMI46.1× affinity20 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation · Frey Foundation · Oleson Foundation · The Offield Family Foundation · Charlevoix County Community Foundation · Mps Foundation · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation · Baiardi Family Foundation Inc · Affordable Housing Management Foundation · The Kent Foundation · Henry E & Consuelo S Wenger Foundation Inc · Consumers 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 Triford Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Triford Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

7get no government money at all

11report 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 Triford Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Triford 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.

Play a game based on Triford’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