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Christopher D Wheeler Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Christopher D Wheeler 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.

$6k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$2k
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, FY2019 to 2025.

Housing & Shelter$13kHuman Services$10kFood & Nutrition$3kArts & Culture$2kHealth$1kYouth Development$1kReligion$1kCivil Rights$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$61k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CASCADIANOW$2,000
ROOTS YOUNG ADULT SHELTER$1,000
THE GOODNATION FOUNDATION$1,000
COCOON HOUSE$1,000
WESTSIDE NEIGHBORS SHELTER$1,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY20–22, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%HOPESOURCE: $3k → 11%Hopesource: $2k → 11%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.

59%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$20k · 3 repeat orgs$14k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +61% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

3 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
6

Total granted

$20k
$8k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+61%
0%

Still filing today

67%
83%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Housing & ShelterPhilanthropyHuman ServicesArts & CultureReligionAnimalsOther
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

  • SF
    Sound Foundations NW
    2× · 2023–2024 · $10k · revenue +25%
  • LC
    LGBT Community Center
    2× · 2019–2020 · $5k
  • H
    HOPESOURCE
    2× · 2020–2022 · $5k · revenue +61%

Funded once

  • F
    FISHgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $3k · revenue +25%
  • TF
    TREEHOUSE FOR KIDS
    one grant, 2021 · $1k
  • HF
    Hospice Friends
    one grant, 2021 · $1k · revenue -91%
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
Family Promise of Cowlitz County

To help families with children in our community who are situationally homeless achieve sustainable independence through a community based response by providing temporary housing, usually 60-90 days, along with case management.

Human Services
2
House Our Neighbors

House Our Neighbors envisions a future where all people can afford to live and thrive in vibrant, cohesive, and climate resilient communities. To achieve this, we develop, advocate, and mobilize for policy to realize social housing for the…

—
3
Re Sources

RE Sources mobilizes people of Northwest Washington to build just and thriving communities and to protect the land, water, and climate on which we all depend.

Environment
4
Westside Neighbor Network

An all volunteer cold weather emergency shelter, providing hot meals, overnight sleeping cots, shower, and laundry services to those in need in the west seattle/southwest corridor.

Human Services
5
Recovery Cafe Skagit

Provide a safe, healing, and restorative community that empowers long-term transformation through human connection for those recovering from the trauma of homelessness, addictions, and mental health challenges.

Education
6
Community Roots Collaborative

A non-profit developer of permanent, affordable, tiny homes for the unsettled residents of Clark County, Washington.

Housing & Shelter
7
Futurewise

Futurewise works throughout Washington state to encourage healthy, equitable and opportunity-rich communities, and to protect our most valuable farmlands, forests and water resources through wise land use policies and practices.

Environment
8
Skagit Habitat for Humanity

The organization partners with hard working people in need of affordable housing, by building and renovating houses in an effort to develop permanent, affordable homes for low income families within Skagit County. We also provide volunteer…

—
9
Snohomish Community Food Bank

To provide food and services in a caring and dignified manner to neighbors in need

—
10
We Heart Seattle

We Heart Seattle is an action-based, boots-on-the-ground movement that organizes trash cleanups in our public spaces and offers resources to those in need. Through our direct civic engagement we lead the way to a more compassionate and…

Community Improvement
11
GoodRoots Northwest

Providing equitable access to nutritious food, with dignity, to those in the community facing food insecurity.

Food & Nutrition
12
Kittitas County Friends of Animals

Rescue and adoption of animals, primarily dogs and cats, spay and neuter of rescues and microchip implants.

Animals
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hopesource; the most unlike its peers is White Center Pride Committee. 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

11 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. 11 of the 14 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
7/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Sound Foundations NW: $10,048 · Housing & ShelterSound Foundations NWCOCOON HOUSE: $1,000 · Housing & ShelterCOCOON HOUSEROOTS YOUNG ADULT SHELTER: $1,000 · Housing & ShelterROOTS YOUNG ADULT SHELTERLGBT Community Center: $5,300 · OtherLGBT Community CenterTREEHOUSE FOR KIDS: $1,300 · OtherTREEHOUSE FOR KIDSHospice Friends: $1,300 · OtherHospice FriendsWESTSIDE NEIGHBORS SHELTER: $1,000 · OtherWESTSIDE NEIGHBORS SHELTERHOPESOURCE: $5,145 · Human ServicesHOPESOURCEFISH: $3,005 · PhilanthropyFISHGoodnation Foundation Inc: $1,000 · PhilanthropyGoodnation Fo…CASCADIANOW: $2,000 · Arts & CultureSPARROW CLUBS USA: $1,300 · ReligionWHITE CENTER PRIDE COMMITTEE: $1,000 · Public BenefitARRF Animal Rescue: $500 · Animals
Housing & Shelter$12,048Other$8,900Human Services$5,145Philanthropy$4,005Arts & Culture$2,000Religion$1,300Public Benefit$1,000Animals$500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSound Foundations NW: $10,048 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetHOPESOURCE: $5,145 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFISH: $3,005 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHospice Friends: $1,300 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSPARROW CLUBS USA: $1,300 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCOCOON HOUSE: $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.

Puget Sound Energy Fo…Hein Legacy FoundationMcKinstry Charitable …Seattle FoundationAmerican Online Givin…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Puget Sound Energy FoundationDE17.5× affinity6 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Puget Sound Energy Foundation · Hein Legacy Foundation · McKinstry Charitable Foundation · Seattle Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 Christopher D Wheeler Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Christopher D Wheeler Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s 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
    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 14 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 2025, released 2025. 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