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Bellwether Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Bellwether Charitable Foundation

Its FY2026 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$125k
Granted FY2026still arriving
2
Grants FY2026still arriving
2
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Education$281kYouth Development$274kEnvironment$20kRecreation & Sports$12kArts & Culture$9kReligion$3kHealth$2k
02FY2026 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2026

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $100k
$100,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Harbor Day School$100,000
Duke University$25,000
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 (FY18–26) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Boys and Girls Club of Kootenai County: $1k → 10%Harbor Day School: $100k → 10%UC Berkeley Foundation: $5k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters: $15k → 14%The Frick Collection: $9k → 17%SeaWatch Inc: $3k → 12%Harbor Day School: $100k → 10%UC Berkeley Foundation: $5k → 10%SeaWatch Inc: $2k → 12%Harbor Day School: $100k → 10%UC Berkeley Foundation: $5k → 10%Harbor Day School: $25k → 10%UC Berkeley Foundation: $3k → 10%Harbor Day School: $25k → 10%Ocean Institute: $3k → 10%Dana Outrigger Canoe Club: $2k → 10%Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation: $2k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $60k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $50k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $38k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $25k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $25k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $23k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $23k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $10k → 10%Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County: $5k → 10%Miracles for Kids: $10k → 10%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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$681k · 5 repeat orgs$45k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +54% since the first grant, against +3% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2026, 3 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
8

Total granted

$681k
$45k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+54%
+3%

Still filing today

80%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2026, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
EducationRecreation & SportsEnvironmentReligionYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • HD
    Harbor Day School
    5× · 2018–2026 · $350k · revenue +127%
  • BB
    BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF ORANGE COUNTY AND THE INLAND EMPIRE INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $258k · revenue +54%
  • DUKE UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2023–2026 · $51k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • BB
    Big Brothers Big Sisters
    one grant, 2018 · $15k
  • MIRACLES FOR KIDS INCgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +140%
  • TF
    The Frick Collection
    one grant, 2025 · $9k · revenue 0%
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
Harbor School

Inspiring young scholars to contribute their wisdom, compassion, and personal best in the classroom, the community and the world.

Education
2
President and Trustees of Bates College

Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…

Education
3
Palm Beach Day Academy Inc

The foundation of the palm beach day academy's program is the education of our students in an academically challenging and compassion rich environment that guides each child toward personal excellence of mind, body and character.

Education
4
Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science Inc

The purpose of the school is to promote, advance and sponsor charitable and educational activities.

Education
5
The Philadelphia School

The philadelphia school educates children for a future that is impossible to know but not impossible to shape. learn here. go anywhere.

—
6
The Harbor School Corporation

The harbor school embraces the uniqueness of each young child and teaches students to celebrate this in themselves and in each other. our holistic approach nurtures confident, kind, and capable learners.

Education
7
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
8
Hillbrook School

Hillbrook provides an extraordinary educational experience that fosters a love of learning in our students and helps them to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to achieve their highest individual potential in school and in life.…

Education
9
Brown School

Running a private school.

—
10
Sea Crest School Inc

Sea crest school is dedicated to providing the best in innovative education to inspire and empower our learners to engage curiosity, express creativity, act with compassion and lead with courage.

Education
11
Curesearch for Children's Cancer

Curesearch's mission is to fund & support targeted & innovative cancer research with measurable results, & to be the authoritative source of information & resources for all those affected by children's cancer. see schedule o for…

Health
12
Oxford University School

Providing educational services to children in grades pre-k through 7th grade

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ocean Institute; the most unlike its peers is Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County Idaho 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

10 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. 10 of the 13 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)
10/10
Grantees still filing
6/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Harbor Day School: $350,000 · EducationHarbor Day SchoolDUKE UNIVERSITY: $51,000 · EducationDUKE UNIVERSITY+1 more: $2,500 · EducationBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF ORANGE COUNTY AND THE INLAND EMPIRE INC: $257,900 · OtherBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF ORANGE COUNTY AND T…UC Berkeley Foundation: $17,500 · OtherUC Berkeley FoundationBig Brothers Big Sisters: $15,000 · Other+3 more: $13,200 · OtherMIRACLES FOR KIDS INC: $10,000 · Recreation & SportsSEA WATCH INC: $5,000 · EnvironmentOCEAN INSTITUTE: $3,000 · ReligionBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF KOOTENAI COUNTY IDAHO INC: $1,000 · Youth Development
Education$403,500Other$303,600Recreation & Sports$10,000Environment$5,000Religion$3,000Youth Development$1,000

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 budgetHarbor Day School: $350,000 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF ORANGE COUNTY AND THE INLAND EMPIRE INC: $257,900 over 6y, 0.6% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $51,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMIRACLES FOR KIDS INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetThe Frick Collection: $9,200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSEA WATCH INC: $5,000 over 2y, 8.5% of budgetOCEAN INSTITUTE: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Trustees of Princeton University: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPEDIATRIC CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF KOOTENAI COUNTY IDAHO INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% 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 Blackbaud Giving …National Philanthropi…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
The Blackbaud Giving FundSC11.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Blackbaud Giving Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile 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 Bellwether Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Bellwether Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%1%3%6%10%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • The Trustees of Princeton University: 11% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get 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
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
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.

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 13 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 2026, released 2026. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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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