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.

Commonwealth Foundations

Commonwealth Foundations at a glance Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· 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 FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$3.3M

Largest

01What it funds

0196% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Education$29MHealth$8.7MEnvironment$6.1MYouth Development$4.1MHousing & Shelter$1.3MRecreation & Sports$1.1MPhilanthropy$1.0MReligion$940kOther$0

02FY2024 · 83 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k46 grants · $138k
$10k–50k19 grants · $390k
$50k–250k11 grants · $910k
$250k+7 grants · $6.9M

$5,000

Median grant

States reached

$219k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
VCU SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING FOUNDATION	$3,262,500
VIRGINIA TECH FOUNDATION	$1,260,000
MARY BALDWIN UNIVERSITY	$850,000
ANNA JULIA COOPER EPISCOPAL SCHOOL	$575,000
CAV FUTURES FOUNDATION	$328,000
UP RVA	$312,300
WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY	$278,572
KENAN-FLAGLER BUSINESS SCHOOL FOUNDATION	$216,000
SPORTS BACKERS	$130,000
AMERICAN RED CROSS	$100,000
VIRGINIA ATHLETICS FOUNDATION	$96,000
ST MARY'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH	$67,500
MASSEY CANCER CENTER	$50,900
FOCUSED ULTRASOUND FOUNDATION	$50,000
HIGH STREET UNITED METHODIST CHURCH	$50,000

02The need

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 (FY20–24, $661k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 92% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$46M · 97 repeat orgs$1.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +51% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.

97 repeat relationships: 70 still active in FY2024, 27 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$46M

$1.1M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+51%

+14%

Still filing today

72%

68%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $234k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationArts & CultureHealthPhilanthropyHuman ServicesEnvironmentOther

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

LG
LEWIS GINTER BOTANICAL GARDEN INC
5× · 2020–2024 · $6.0M · revenue +28%
TF
THE FAISON CENTER INC
3× · 2020–2022 · $6.0M · revenue +6%
VC
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FOUNDATION
3× · 2020–2024 · $5.5M · revenue +35% · 67% of their budget

Funded once

T3
THE 30 DAY FUND INC
one grant, 2020 · $200k · revenue -100%
PT
PARENTING TRANSLATOR FOUNDATION
one grant, 2023 · $200k · revenue 0% · 61% of their budget
WG
WORLD GOLF FOUNDATION - THE FIRST TEE
one grant, 2020 · $100k

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.

University of Virginia Investment Management Company

The university of virginia investment management company (uvimco) is organized to invest funds on behalf of the rector and visitors of the university of virginia (the university or uva) and university-associated organizations (uaos).

Education

Virginia Commonwealth University Intellectual Property Foundation

The foundation determines the patentability and obtains patents on virginia commonwealth university (vcu) inventions and markets and licenses such inventions to commerical entities. the foundation's activities promote research efforts at…

Health

University of Virginia Foundation

To provide administrative services to university of virginia (university) entities, university associated organizations, or other entities involved in activities which support the university. to engage in matters pertaining to real…

Education

University of Virginia Law School Foundation

The university of virginia law school foundation's primary purpose is to receive, manage and expend funds for the benefit of the university of virginia school of law.

Education

Vcu Investment Management Company

To provide investment and investment management and related services to the rector and the board of visitors of virginia commonwealth university (vcu), and/or to the private and independent foundations and other entities affiliated with…

Education

Vcu Health Tappahannock Hospital

To deliver important healthcare services with exceptional quality and patient-centered care.

Health

Community Memorial Hospital

To provide excellence in the delivery of healthcare.

Health

William & Mary Foundation

The William & Mary Foundation advances the university's highest aspirations by securing private support, guiding a multi-asset investment portfolio, and offering strategic leadership. In this work, we propel the university toward national…

Education

Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation

The mission of vt-arc is to extend the impact of the virginia tech research and innovation enterprise, delivering superior analytic and technology solutions to government and non-government customers.

Science & Tech

Virginia Wesleyan University

Virginia wesleyan university is a fully accredited liberal arts, united-methodist related institution founded in 1961.

—

University of Virginia Patent Foundation

The uva licensing and ventures group is dedicated to growing and guiding university innovations while improving lives on grounds and around the world.

Education

Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce

Chamberrva is the trusted voice for modern business in the richmond virginia region. we are change agents, rallying to do the hard things that will create a more connected, prosperous, health and equitable community.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Cav Futures Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Southampton County Historical Society. 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

107 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. 107 of the 145 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

105/107

Grantees still filing

79/107

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$33,012,193Environment$6,088,500Other$6,721,661Youth Development$3,782,550Health$2,106,200Philanthropy$1,293,000Housing & Shelter$1,200,000

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.

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 Community Foundation IncVA81.9× affinity45 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

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

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 Commonwealth Foundations funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Commonwealth Foundations. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

6get no government money at all

26report 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.

05Through Plinth

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.

Play a game based on Commonwealth Foundations’ filings →

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