· Private foundation
Vaughan 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
100% of Vaughan Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 1 organization directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Vaughan Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 33 organizations, $2M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k17 grants · $550k
- $50k–250k23 grants · $1.7M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UMRC HERITAGE FOUND ANNUAL FUND | $200,000 |
| THE HEAT & WARMTH FUND | $150,000 |
| SHELTER ASSOCIATION OF WASHTENAW | $125,000 |
| ST JOSEPH MERCY HEALTH SYSTEM | $100,000 |
| WASHTENAW LITERACY | $80,000 |
| HORSES HAVEN | $70,000 |
| ANN ARBOR HANDS ON MUSEUM | $70,000 |
| MICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY | $70,000 |
| HUMANE SOCIETY OF HURON VALLEY | $70,000 |
| ANN ARBOR TEEN CENTER | $65,000 |
| PEACE NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER | $60,000 |
| MICHIGAN THEATRE FOUNDATI | $60,000 |
| FISHER HOUSE MICHIGAN | $60,000 |
| PACKARD HEALTH CENTER | $60,000 |
| LEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND | $60,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 56% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
49 repeat relationships: 41 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down; 1 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
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 60% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $20k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- SASHELTER ASSOCIATION OF WASHTENAW COUNTY8× · 2017–2024 · $910k · revenue +149%
- THTRINITY HEALTH - MICHIGAN8× · 2017–2024 · $800k · revenue +31%
- WLWASHTENAW LITERACY8× · 2017–2024 · $585k · revenue +56%
Funded once
- MFMICHIGAN FRIENDS CENTER INCone grant, 2017 · $2k
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.
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.
Humane society of southwestern michigan exists to provide shelter and care for sick, homeless and unwanted animals. in addition, the organization provides adoption services for the animals in its care.
To maintain and operate a hospital, ambulance and veterinary services for the care of animals. the maintenance and operation of kennels and suitable chambers for the humane destruction of wounded animals.
The mission of the michigan animal rescue league is to provide the highest quality of life to dogs and cats through rescue, medical care, socialization and behavioral support, short- and long-term sanctuary, adoption, and community…
Our mission is to promote the humane treatment and responsible care of animals in west michigan through education, example, placement and protection.
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…
Animal shelter - provide a safe haven for animals without homes.
Our mission is to provide an adoption-friendly animal shelter that will unify the community toward a common goal of responsible animal treatment and increased animal adoptions to design and incorporate new education and public programs…
Provide care for homeless/abused animals
To enhance the community by giving animals, and the people who love them, a second chance.
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
Auburn valley humane society enriches the lives of companion animals and people through animal sheltering, programs, services and community engagement
Animal care sanctuary's lifesaving mission as a no kill organization envisions a community that promotes turning compassion into action for companion animals by: 1.) adopting healthy pet companions into loving homes. 2.) promoting the…
How this is measured
35 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. 35 of the 52 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds ANN ARBOR AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE HEAT AND WARMTH FUND ↗
- Who funds SHELTER ASSOCIATION OF WASHTENAW COUNTY ↗
- Who funds TRINITY HEALTH - MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds WASHTENAW LITERACY ↗
- Who funds HORSES' HAVEN ↗
- Who funds Peace Neighborhood Center ↗
- Who funds FISHER HOUSE MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HUMANE SOCIETY OF HURON VALLEY ↗
- Who funds CHEBOYGAN COUNTY HUMANE SOC ↗
- Who funds CASCADES HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds Domestic Violence Project ↗
- Who funds FOOD GATHERERS ↗
- Who funds Therapeutic Riding Inc ↗
- Who funds GREAT LAKES RABBIT SANCTUARY INC ↗
- Who funds Paws With A Cause ↗
- Who funds DETROIT ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds BIRD CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC ↗
- Who funds ST LOUIS CENTER ↗
- Who funds ELE'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds LEADER DOGS FOR THE BLIND ↗
- Who funds GIRLS GROUP ↗
- Who funds Ann Arbor Summer Festival Inc ↗
- Who funds Neutral Zone ↗
- Who funds FAIR FOOD NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds LEGACY LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Duffy Foundation · Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation · United Way of Washtenaw County · DTE Energy Foundation · James a and Faith Knight Foundation · Harry a and Margaret D Towsley Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · The Martin Family Foundation · THE MOSAIC FOUNDATION (Of R & P Heydon) · United Way for Southeastern Michigan · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation · Robert E & Ann R Meredith Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Vaughan Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Vaughan Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Vaughan Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Vaughan 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.
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