How much does John R. Oishei Foundation give?

John R. Oishei Foundation reported 168 grants totaling $9,466,396 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 137 and 148 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2023.

What does John R. Oishei Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (31%), Health (18%), Arts & Culture (17%).

Who are John R. Oishei Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2019 to FY2024: Education Collaborative of Wny Inc ($9.0M), Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Society Inc ($5.9M), The Children's Hospital of Buffalo Foundation ($4.0M).

Does John R. Oishei Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does John R. Oishei Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as John R. Oishei Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc, The Western New York Foundation, The Peter and Elizabeth C Tower Foundation.

Where is John R. Oishei Foundation based?

John R. Oishei Foundation is based in Buffalo, NY.

John R. Oishei Foundation

John R. Oishei Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

Buffalo, NY · Private foundation

John R. Oishei Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$9.5M

Granted FY2024still arriving

168

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$930k

Largest

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 2024.

Education$23MHealth$14MArts & Culture$13MHuman Services$8.6MPhilanthropy$6.4MCommunity Improvement$3.6MHousing & Shelter$1.9MReligion$1.4MOther$0

02beneath the categories

What the grant descriptions say

Themes read from the grant descriptions, beneath the NTEE codes.

Each cell is that theme’s share of the year’s giving · ⚡ ringed cells mark a flagged jump.

03FY2024 · 168 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

Grant-size mix · FY2020–FY2024

FY20

12%

32%

55%

$14.6M

FY21

35%

57%

$17.0M

FY22

11%

51%

36%

$11.9M

FY23

10%

46%

43%

$11.2M

FY24

15%

31%

52%

$9.5M

Under $10k$10k–50k$50k–250k$250k+

In FY2020, 55% of its dollars went out in $250k+ checks; by FY2024, 52%. Each bar is that year’s mix, not its total.

$20,000

Median grant

States reached

$330M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OF WNY INC	$930,000
BUFFALO CENTER FOR ARTS & TECHNOLOGY (BCAT)	$500,000
EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OF WNY INC	$420,354
BUFFALO CENTER FOR ARTS & TECHNOLOGY (BCAT)	$400,000
EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OF WNY INC	$372,000
BUFFALO PREP	$350,000
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS OF NY INC	$303,000
BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY (DBA ALBRIGHT-KNOX ART GALLERY)	$300,000
CENTER FOR REGIONAL STRATEGIES	$300,000
SAY YES BUFFALO SCHOLARSHIP INC	$300,000
NY FUNDERS ALLIANCE (GRANTMAKERS FORUM OF NEW YORK INC)	$275,000
CANISIUS COLLEGE	$250,000
CAUSEWAVE COMMUNITY PARTNERS	$250,000
BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND	$234,500
BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND	$234,500

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 24%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 94% of its 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.

The hardship those neighborhoods carry, beyond income:

Adults without health insurance:reaches 20.8% in some neighborhoods (typically 5.6%)(CDC, modeled)
Food access:52 of 491 neighborhoods are USDA-designated food deserts(USDA, 2019)

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.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$62M · 189 repeat orgs$8.8M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +30% since the first grant, against +24% for those funded once.

189 repeat relationships: 120 still active in FY2024, 69 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

Of its 170 multi-year relationships, 73 repeat the same amount every year (36% of multi-year dollars), the pattern of a standing commitment.

It also reports $7.8M approved for future payment (Form 990-PF, Part XV): grants committed but not yet paid.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

189

111

Total granted

$62M

$7.9M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%

+24%

Still filing today

74%

77%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $860k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesArts & CultureHealthEducationCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyOther

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

EC
EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OF WNY INC
6× · 2019–2024 · $9.0M · revenue +30% · 94% of their budget
Founded in 1998 as BISSNET and rebranded as EdCo in 2015, the Education Collaborative of WNY has grown from a 17-school founding network into a durable consortium of 12 accredited institutions, distributing $1.2 million in scholarships and grants in its most recent filing year.
TC
THE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO FOUNDATION
4× · 2019–2022 · $4.0M · revenue +114%
TB
THE BISON CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC
6× · 2019–2024 · $3.0M · revenue +54%

Funded once

KALEIDA HEALTH FOUNDATIONgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $800k · revenue +35%
PI
PEOPLE INC
one grant, 2020 · $500k
BF
BUFFALO FINE ARTS ACADEMY (DBA BUFFALO AKG ART MUSEUM)
one grant, 2022 · $300k

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.

Grant terms aren’t stated in the filing; a standing commitment is inferred from a level payment pattern.

What its grantees report

Each stalk is one grantee, graded by how far its own reporting goes: an activity counted, a stated aim, or a change shown.

Of 50 organizations, 2 show a change. The rest report activities or aims.

Click an area to read it, and step through its organizations.

How this is measured

Read from 50 of the 105 organizations it funds across these 5 areas (the most heavily funded), in their own program-service reporting. Achievements are the organizations’ own.

case studies

Two relationships, up close

One grantee funded repeatedly and one funded once, each traced through its own filings.

EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE OF WNY INC

Conviction

A founding bet, still holding

Oishei's relationship with EdCo stretches back to the organization's very founding, originally established in 1998 as BISSNET in partnership with the Foundation itself. After five grants totaling $7,786,427 between 2020 and 2024, peaking at 109% of EdCo's budget in a single year, the consortium has grown its revenue at a 4% CAGR and continues to serve students and teachers across 12 member schools through scholarships, technology grants, software, and training.

6× · 2019–2024

Funded

$9.0M

Granted in total

94%

Peak share of budget

+30%

Their revenue since

Group Ministries Inc

Funded once · graduated

Small early bet, remarkable growth

A single $5,000 grant in 2020, representing up to 59% of Group Ministries' budget at the time, came to a Buffalo organization with three decades of quiet, street-level presence in a drug-affected neighborhood, and cumulative community contacts surpassing 150,000 people. In the years since, Group Ministries' revenue has risen 1,260% alongside an expanding program footprint that now spans pastoral care for HIV-positive patients, transitional housing for people leaving incarceration, detoxification support, and AIDS education across Western New York.

At first grant · 2020

$9k

their revenue

$5k= 59% of it

once

Latest filing · 2024

$116k×14

grown on its own, no further grants

from $9k — a small base, so the multiple says more about the starting year than the growth

2024 · what they did next

Provided temporary housing for incarcerated inmates leaving prison.

projects.propublica.org

How this is measured

Trajectories are each organization’s own subsequent IRS filings; milestones are from the public record, linked to source. Revenue is the organization’s whole income from every source. We date what happened after a grant and do not claim the grant caused it.

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.

Invest Buffalo Niagara Foundation Inc

Invest buffalo niagara foundation, inc. is a vehicle to solicit charitable contributions to develop programs, collaborate with, and provide funding to organizations that advance and encourage economic development in western new york.

Community Improvement

Legal Assistance of Western New York Inc

Lawny increases access to justice through excellent legal representation, advocacy and service.

Crime & Legal

Wyoming County Community Action Inc

To improve the quality of life for all residents of its primary service areas by focusing on meeting the needs of the low-income and disadvantaged population, and to promote the personal and family growth of its constituents as they move…

Community Improvement

Central New York Quest Inc

Central ny quest has been established to serve the needs of persons with intellectual, developmental and mental health disorders in the central new york region.

Human Services

Neighborhood Health Center of Wny Inc

We welcome all western new yorkers for high quality, patient-centered primary healthcare.

—

Accesscny Inc

Accesscny offers personcentered services that empower individuals of all ages and abilities to reach their full potential as part of our shared community. services are provided with dedication, compassion, innovation, and commitment. the…

Health

Cny Fair Housing Inc

We work to eliminate housing discrimination, promote open communities, and ensure equal access to housing opportunity for all people in central and northern new york.

—

Reentry Association of Wny Inc

RAWNY is dedicated to serving our community by supporting the men and women who have experienced incarceration, and the agencies that serve them, to ensure anyone reentering has access to needed resources and support.

Crime & Legal

Western Ny Coalition of Farmworker Serving Agencies Inc

To promote justice, dignity, and equity for migrants and farmworkers through advocacy, education, outreach, and direct services. We empower our communities to achieve self-sufficiency by fostering collaboration among partners.

Human Services

Center for Elder Law & Justice Inc

To improve the quality of life for elderly, disabled and low-income persons in the western new york area through the provision of free civil legal services. the primary goal is to use the legal system to assure that clients may live…

Crime & Legal

Buffalo Niagara River Land Trust Inc

To acquire, remediate, and steward lands along wny's waterfronts prioritizing public access.

Environment

Leadership Buffalo Inc

Founded in 1987, leadership buffalo, inc conducts programs designed to enhance development of long-term leadership in the greater buffalo, ny community. the organization develops and unites leaders of diverse backgrounds and perspectives…

Civil Rights

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Connections of Ny Inc; the most unlike its peers is Rooted in Love Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

252 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. 252 of the 321 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)

245/252

Grantees still filing

163/252

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$19,803,285Education$14,632,155Arts & Culture$11,178,748Health$10,747,700Philanthropy$10,267,925Human Services$6,198,866Community Improvement$2,274,635

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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.

126 internal · 45 shared anchors

How its grantees work together

Neighborhood Health Center of WNY partnered with Kaleida Health in a nearly 10-year-long collaboration to establish primary care services on Buffalo's West Side. It is one of 126 direct ties among 166 of its grantees, who also cluster around 45 shared regional anchors.

Inferred: ties are read by a model from news and organization websites, and each links to its source.

166

Grantees connected

126

Grantee↔grantee ties

Shared anchors (2+ grantees)

534

External links

Tap any organization to trace its collaborations; shared anchors pull toward the center

min. connectionstheme137 shown · 185 ties

grantee external partner named by both stated inferred

Tap any organization in the graph to trace its collaborations, or start with the strongest ties below.

Strongest grantee↔grantee ties

↔
corroborated Affiliation · Joint program
↔
corroborated Joint program
↔
corroborated Coalition · Joint program
↔
corroborated Joint program
↔
corroborated Joint program

Anchors several grantees share

14 grantees
12 grantees
7 grantees
7 grantees
6 grantees
4 grantees

Joint program 350Coalition 123Affiliation 123Funding 31Merger / affiliation 12Referral network 12Shared facility 8Fiscal sponsorship 4Collaboration 1

How this is measured

Ties are extracted by a model from news and organization websites, not from tax filings, so they are directional rather than exhaustive. Corroborated ties were named independently by both organizations.

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.

Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo IncNY268.8× affinity190 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo Inc · The Western New York Foundation · The Peter and Elizabeth C Tower Foundation · First Niagara Foundation · United Way of Buffalo and Erie County · Buffalo Bills Foundation Inc · Cullen Foundation · The Margaret L Wendt Foundation · Children's Foundation of Erie County Inc · East Hill Foundation · Health Foundation for Western & Central New York · Feedmore Western New York Inc

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 John R. Oishei Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John R. Oishei Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

104report 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.

Play a game based on John R. Oishei’s 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