Virginia · Private foundation
Commonwealth Foundations
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $8.3M
- Granted FY2024(still arriving)
- 83
- Grants FY2024
- 86
- Organizations funded FY2023
- 22%
- First-time grantees FY2023
- Median grant, FY2024
- $5,000
- Largest grant, FY2024
- $3,262,500
- Organizations funded a year
- 74 to 91
- FY2020 to FY2023
- States reached, FY2024
- 12
- Total assets, FY2024
- $219k
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2023, 22% of the organizations Commonwealth Foundations funded were first-time grantees, receiving 11% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $758k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024still arriving | 82 | $7.0M | 15% |
| FY2023 | 86 | $6.8M | 22% |
| FY2022 | 74 | $9.4M | 11% |
| FY2021 | 91 | $11M | 16% |
| FY2020 | 89 | $13M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Inc | $6,012,500 | 5 | 23% |
| The Faison Center Inc | $6,000,000 | 3 | 9% |
| Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering Foundation | $5,526,509 | 3 | 67% |
| Mary Baldwin University | $4,210,000 | 5 | 2% |
| Richmond First Tee | $3,717,800 | 5 | 45% |
| Anna Julia Cooper School | $2,875,000 | 5 | 14% |
| The Kenan-Flagler Business School Foundation | $2,297,000 | 5 | 1% |
| Up Rva | $1,788,760 | 5 | 33% |
| Washington and Lee University | $1,751,924 | 5 | 0% |
| Sheltering Arms Foundation | $1,440,000 | 4 | 19% |
Show all 110 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 33 recipients with no EIN on record ($4.9M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Commonwealth Foundations supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 6 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 104 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: The Community Foundation Inc · Herndon Foundation · The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · Robins Foundation · Richard S Reynolds Foundation · Carmax Foundation · Tesco Foundation · The Pauley Family Foundation · Townebank Foundation · Pga Tour Charities Inc · Shelton H Short Jr Trust
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Commonwealth Foundations?
Find your warmest path to Commonwealth Foundations 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.
About Commonwealth Foundations
- How much does Commonwealth Foundations give?
- Commonwealth Foundations reported 83 grants totaling $8,304,722 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 74 and 91 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.
- What does Commonwealth Foundations fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (54%), Health (16%), Environment (11%).
- Who are Commonwealth Foundations's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Inc ($6.0M), The Faison Center Inc ($6.0M), Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering Foundation ($5.5M).
- Does Commonwealth Foundations fund new organizations?
- In FY2023, 22% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Commonwealth Foundations accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Commonwealth Foundations?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Community Foundation Inc, Herndon Foundation, The Mary Morton Parsons Foundation.
- Where is Commonwealth Foundations based?
- Commonwealth Foundations is based in VA.
Play a game based on Commonwealth Foundations’ filings →