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Plinth

· Public charity

Western Organization of Resource Councils

To advance the vision of the democratic, sustainable, and just society through community action.

$797k
Granted FY2024still arriving
12
Grants FY2024still arriving
4
States reached
$460k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0163% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2020–2024.

Community Improvement$580kEnvironment$140kCivil Rights$50kEducation$35kHealth$30kPublic Benefit$26kOther$496k
02FY2024 · 12 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $6k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $161k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $155k
  • $250k+1 grant · $460k
$28,500
Median grant
4
States reached
$1.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
A BETTER BIG SKY$460,000
WESTERN NATIVE VOICE$105,000
WESTERN COLORADO ALLIANCE$50,000
DAKOTA RURAL ACTION$35,000
MONTANA CONSERVATION VOTERS$30,000
WILD MONTANA ACTION FUND$28,500
MONTANA FEDERATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOUNDATION$16,000
FORWARD MONTANA$15,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF MONTANA$15,000
MT RURAL VOTERS ACTION$11,000
BIG SKY FIFTY FIVE PLUS$10,000
DAKOTA RESOURCE COUNCIL$6,250
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Blue Green Alliance Fdn: $25k → 11%MONTANA FEDERATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOUNDATION: $16k → 9%FORWARD MONTANA: $15k → 9%WESTERN NATIVE VOICE: $105k → 9%Black Prog Action Coalition: $120k → 14%Appalachian Voices: $25k → 21%AK Progressive Donor Table: $70k → 22%DAKOTA RESOURCE COUNCIL: $6k → 10%DAKOTA RURAL ACTION: $35k → 13%PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF MONTANA: $15k → 9%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.

Which US states your grants reach

AK
MT
ND
MN
MI
SD
CO
KY
NC
DC

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 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
Montana Policy Action Inc

To promote public policy solutions that provide increased access to economic opportunities, greater individual freedoms and encourage greater participation in public matters by providing research and recommendation on public policy

Social Science
2
Northern Plains Resource Council

Northern Plains believes people working together can make a difference. Our mission is to organize Montanans to protect our water, land, air, and working landscapes; support a healthy, localized, and sustainable economy in farm and ranch…

Community Improvement
3
Colorado People's Action

Colorado people's action (cpa) is a member-driven, racial justice organization dedicated to winning long-lasting progressive public policies in colorado. cpa builds power by mobilizing voters, electing our own people to office, holding…

—
4
Montana Wilderness Association

Uniting and mobilizing communities to keep montana wild.

Environment
5
Nw Energy Coalition

The NW Energy Coalition is an alliance of over 100 environmental, civic, and human service organizations, utilities, and businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, plus many individual members. The NW Energy…

—
6
Alaskans for Better Elections Foundation
Civil Rights
7
Montana Association of Conservation Districts

To heighten the public's awareness of conservation districts and their activities as well as to promote soil and water conservation.

—
8
Working Montanans

Working Montanans' mission is to advocate for an economy that works for working people and other critical issues.

—
9
New Approach Montana

New Approach Montana is a registered Montana ballot question committee in support of two 2020 ballot initiatives for the legalization of marijuana for adults 21 and older.

—
10
Alaska Wilderness League Action

Alaska wilderness league action (awla) deploys citizen support to realize political change, legislative gains and accountability of congress and the administration to protect alaska's wild landscapes.

Environment
11
Alaska Wildlife Alliance

Support ecosystem-based wildlife management by increasing public awareness of wildlife issues, responding to information requests, advocating for science-based wildlife habitat management through proposal and comment submissions, and…

Environment
12
Montana Weed Control Association Inc

Strengthen and support noxious weed management

Environment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is A Better Big Sky and the most unlike its peers is Big Sky Fifty Five Plus. 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

18 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 18 of the 20 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
17/18
Grantees still filing
7/18
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

A BETTER BIG SKY — $460,000 · Community ImprovementA BETTER BIG SKYAlaska Progressive Donor Table — $70,000 · Community ImprovementAlaska Progressive Donor TableWESTERN COLORADO ALLIANCE — $50,000 · Community ImprovementWESTERN COLORADO ALLIANCEMT Rural Voters Action Fund — $233,300 · OtherMT Rural Voters Action FundBLACK PROGRESSIVE ACTION COALITION — $120,000 · OtherBLACK PROGRESSIVE ACTION COALITIONWESTERN NATIVE VOICE EDUCATION PROJECT — $105,000 · OtherWESTERN NATIVE VOICE EDUCATION PROJECTKENTUCKIANS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH INC — $25,000 · Other+1 more — $13,000 · OtherMONTANA CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND — $30,000 · EnvironmentMONTANA CON…WILD MONTANA ACTION FUND — $28,500 · EnvironmentWILD MONTAN…RENEW MISSOURI ACTION — $25,000 · EnvironmentRENEW MISSO…APPALACHIAN VOICES — $25,000 · EnvironmentAPPALACHIAN…BlueGreen Alliance Foundation — $25,000 · EnvironmentBlueGreen A…DAKOTA RESOURCE COUNCIL — $6,250 · EnvironmentNative Peoples Action Inc — $50,000 · Civil RightsDakota Rural Action — $35,000 · EducationIntermountain Planned Parenthood — $15,000 · HealthFORWARD MT FOUNDATION — $15,000 · HealthMONTANA FEDERATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOUNDATION — $16,000 · Public BenefitBIG SKY FIFTY FIVE PLUS — $10,000 · Public Benefit
Community Improvement$580,000Other$496,300Environment$139,750Civil Rights$50,000Education$35,000Health$30,000Public Benefit$26,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetA BETTER BIG SKY — $460,000 over 1y, 5.9% of budgetBLACK PROGRESSIVE ACTION COALITION — $120,000 over 1y, 37% of budgetWESTERN NATIVE VOICE EDUCATION PROJECT — $105,000 over 1y, 5.0% of budgetAlaska Progressive Donor Table — $70,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetWESTERN COLORADO ALLIANCE — $50,000 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetNative Peoples Action Inc — $50,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetDakota Rural Action — $35,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetMONTANA CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND — $30,000 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetWILD MONTANA ACTION FUND — $28,500 over 1y, 4.7% of budgetKENTUCKIANS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH INC — $25,000 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetAPPALACHIAN VOICES — $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetBlueGreen Alliance Foundation — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMONTANA FEDERATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOUNDATION — $16,000 over 1y, 76% of budgetIntermountain Planned Parenthood — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFORWARD MT FOUNDATION — $15,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetDAKOTA RESOURCE COUNCIL — $6,250 over 1y, 0.5% 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.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Western Organization …Sixteen Thirty FundAll Hands on Deck Net…Tides FoundationNew Venture FundAmerica VotesResources Legacy FundPatagoniaorgThe William & Flora H…Amalgamated Charitabl…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…
Western Organization of Resource Councils Education ProjectMT24.2× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Western Organization of Resource Councils Education Project · Sixteen Thirty Fund · All Hands on Deck Network Inc · Tides Foundation · New Venture Fund · America Votes · Resources Legacy Fund · Patagoniaorg · The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Western Organization of Resource Councils 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
’20’21’22’23’24
no gov · 00%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    typical government reliance, FY20–24

    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 20 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines