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Plinth

· Private foundation

Urban School Foundation

Its FY2022 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$3k
Granted FY2022
1
Grants FY2022
1
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What you fund
0179% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172022.

Civil Rights$24kArts & Culture$16kEnvironment$6kCrime & Legal$3kEducation$2kCommunity Improvement$2kHealth$1kOther$0
02FY2022 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$3,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF$3,000
02The need
03

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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 97% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%FRONTLINE JOURNALISM FUND: $1k → 16%AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA: $250 → 14%PROPUBLICA: $3k → 17%AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF: $5k → 14%SANDY HOOK PROMISE FOUNDATION: $2k → 9%GREATER WESTTOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPM: $1k → 14%PROPUBLICA: $2k → 17%AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF: $5k → 14%GREATER WESTTOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPM: $500 → 14%PROPUBLICA: $2k → 17%PUBLIC CITIZEN: $1k → 14%WTTW CHICAGO: $2k → 14%PROPUBLICA: $1k → 17%AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF: $5k → 14%WTTW CHICAGO: $2k → 14%PUBLIC CITIZEN: $1k → 14%CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA: $4k → 14%AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF: $3k → 14%CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA: $2k → 14%PUBLIC CITIZEN: $1k → 14%CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA: $2k → 14%AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF: $3k → 14%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: $3k → 14%BRADY CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENC: $1k → 14%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENCE COUNCIL: $3k → 14%IMERMAN ANGELS: $1k → 14%FRIENDS OF SCHURZ NFP: $2k → 14%SCHURZ HIGH SCHOOL: $250 → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein 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 — 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.

81%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$58k · 7 repeat orgs$14k to everyone else

7 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2022, 6 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
9

Total granted

$58k
$14k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+74%
+88%

Still filing today

71%
44%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22
Arts & CultureCrime & LegalCivil RightsPublic BenefitEducationHealthOther

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

  • AU
    AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
    5× · 2018–2022 · $21k · revenue +74%
  • CP
    CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC
    3× · 2017–2021 · $8k · revenue +38%
  • PRO PUBLICA INC
    4× · 2018–2021 · $7k · revenue +141%

Funded once

  • NR
    NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
    one grant, 2019 · $3k
  • NR
    NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENCE COUNCIL
    one grant, 2021 · $3k
  • FO
    Friends of Schurz
    one grant, 2018 · $2k · revenue -64%

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.

1
Chicago Sun-Times Media Inc

Chicago sun-times serves the public interest by strengthening the well-being of our local communities and our democracy through independent local journalism.

2
Free Press

Free press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. we believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse…

Arts & Culture
3
Chicago Public Education Fund

The chicago public education fund (the fund) is a nonprofit organization that improves public schools in chicago by investing in the talented educators who lead them.

Education
4
Public Knowledge

Public knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. we work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest.

Public Benefit
5
Committee to Protect Journalists Inc

The committee to protect journalists promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal. cpj ensures the free flow of news and commentary by taking action wherever…

Civil Rights
6
Public Agenda Inc

Public agenda strengthens american democracy by connecting research to action enabling people and institutions to pursue changes that make a difference. we amplify the voices of americans and help communities discover and build on common…

7
Public Narrative

Public narrative teaches journalists and non-profit organizations to tell better stories in order to fulfill our missions to support a free and informed press, and to ensure that non-profit and neighborhood voices are heard, and are part…

Education
8
Partnership for Public Service Inc

Making our government work better is a daunting task, and we are a small organization seeking to transform a government that employs millions of civilians and manages trillions of dollars in taxpayer revenue needed to protect public…

Employment
9
Press Watch

To educate journalists and the public, and foster public debate, about improving political journalism to reflect public needs and hold the powerful accountable.

10
Institute for Public Accuracy

To teach and disseminate educational materials to the public.

Arts & Culture
11
City Report Inc

CITY REPORT, INC. serves the people of New York through independent journalism that answers their information needs and holds the powerful to account.

Arts & Culture
12
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Public Media Inc and the most unlike its peers is Imerman Angels. 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 one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 16 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
8/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Individual grant recipient — $14,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient — $4,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL — $3,000 · OtherNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCILNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENCE COUNCIL — $3,000 · OtherNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENCE COUNCILGREATER WEST TOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT — $1,500 · OtherGREATER WEST TOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PR…FRONTLINE JOURNALISM FUND — $1,000 · Other+2 more — $500 · OtherAMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE — $21,000 · Civil RightsAMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION O…CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC — $7,500 · Arts & CultureCHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA I…PRO PUBLICA INC — $7,000 · Arts & CulturePRO PUBLICA INCPUBLIC CITIZEN INC — $3,000 · Public BenefitSANDY HOOK PROMISE FOUNDATION — $2,000 · Crime & LegalBRADY CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE — $1,000 · Crime & LegalFriends of Schurz — $2,227 · EducationIMERMAN ANGELS — $1,000 · Health
Other$27,000Civil Rights$21,000Arts & Culture$14,500Public Benefit$3,000Crime & Legal$3,000Education$2,227Health$1,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetAMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE — $21,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC — $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPRO PUBLICA INC — $7,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPUBLIC CITIZEN INC — $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSANDY HOOK PROMISE FOUNDATION — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER WEST TOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT — $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetIMERMAN ANGELS — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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.

  • Who funds AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
  • Who funds CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC
  • Who funds PRO PUBLICA INC
  • Who funds PUBLIC CITIZEN INC
  • Who funds Friends of Schurz
  • Who funds SANDY HOOK PROMISE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds GREATER WEST TOWN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
  • Who funds BRADY CENTER TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
  • Who funds IMERMAN ANGELS

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Urban School Foundation 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • Sandy Hook Promise Foundation0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 16 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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