Skip to content
Marion G Wells Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Marion G Wells Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$450k
Granted FY2024still arriving
4
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$300k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0181% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Public Benefit$1.2MEducation$300kHuman Services$75kHealth$15kOther$0
02FY2024 · 4 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $125k
  • $250k+1 grant · $300k
$75,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$2.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC$300,000
SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES FLORIDA$75,000
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION$50,000
Individual grant recipient$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 (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%JUDICAL WATCH INC: $20k → 14%AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: $5k → 13%SOS VILLAGE: $75k → 13%JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE: $25k → 19%MACKINAC CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY: $10k → 9%AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: $5k → 14%JUDICAL WATCH INC: $10k → 14%AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: $5k → 13%SOS VILLAGE: $75k → 13%JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE: $15k → 19%CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC: $300k → 14%SOS VILLAGE: $75k → 13%JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE: $15k → 19%CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC: $225k → 14%SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES FLORIDA: $75k → 13%JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE: $15k → 19%CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC: $225k → 14%SOS VILLAGE: $50k → 13%JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE: $15k → 19%CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC: $225k → 14%SOS VILLAGE: $25k → 13%CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC: $45k → 14%CONSERVATIVE PARTNERSHIP INSTITUTE INC: $25k → 14%HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $15k → 14%HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%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.
$1.8M · 7 repeat orgs$115k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +78% since the first grant, against +64% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
2

Total granted

$1.8M
$15k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+78%
+64%

Still filing today

71%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $100k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’20’21’22’23’24
Public BenefitEducationHealthOther
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

  • Conservative Partnership Institute
    6× · 2018–2024 · $1.0M · revenue +548%
  • THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC
    6× · 2018–2024 · $300k · revenue +62%
  • TJ
    THE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC
    5× · 2018–2023 · $85k · revenue +104%

Funded once

  • MC
    MACKINAC CENTERgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +64%
  • AL
    AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION
    one grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue +14%
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
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
2
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
3
American Law Institute

The institute's mission, as set out in its certificate of incorporation, is to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to…

Crime & Legal
4
Federation for American Immigration Reform

The federation for american immigration reform's (fair) mission is to educate the public about the economic, sociological, environmental, demographic and other effects of mass immigration to the united states.

International
5
Florida Policy Institute Inc

Fpi's mission is to advance state policies and budgets that improve the economic mobility and quality of life for all floridians. our vision is that of a state where every floridian has an equal opportunity to thrive (continued on schedule…

Public Benefit
6
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive enterprise institute (cei) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. we believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being…

—
7
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research Inc

The manhattan institute is a community of scholars, journalists, activists, and civic leaders dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in america and its great cities.

Public Benefit
8
National Civil Justice Institute

The objectives and goals of the institute shall be to receive and administer funds for the purpose of providing and supporting educational programs for lawyers, legal academics, and members of the judiciary, conferences and publications…

—
9
Foreign Policy Research Institute

The foreign policy research institute (frpi) is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the united states. we educate…

International
10
Partnership for Public Service Inc

Making our government work better is a daunting task, and we are a small organization seeking to transform a government that employs millions of civilians and manages trillions of dollars in taxpayer revenue needed to protect public…

Employment
11
R Street Institute

The r street institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public-policy research organization ("think tank"). our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government. (continued on…

Education
12
Florida Taxwatch Research Institute Inc

To provide citizens with independent research on government fiscal policy and to promote the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Heritage Foundation; the most unlike its peers is American Lung Association. 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

8 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. 8 of the 11 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)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
7/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Conservative Partnership Institute: $1,045,000 · EducationConservative Partnership InstituteTHE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INCIndividual grant recipient: $300,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC: $85,000 · OtherTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE F…SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES FLORIDAINC: $75,000 · OtherSOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES FLORI…Individual grant recipient: $25,000 · Other+1 more: $10,000 · OtherJUDICIAL WATCH INC: $30,000 · Public BenefitTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $25,000 · Public BenefitMACKINAC CENTER: $10,000 · Public BenefitAMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: $5,000 · Health
Education$1,345,000Other$495,000Public Benefit$65,000Health$5,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetConservative Partnership Institute: $1,045,000 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOUNDATION INC: $300,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES INC: $85,000 over 5y, 1.0% of budgetSOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGES FLORIDAINC: $75,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetJUDICIAL WATCH INC: $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: $5,000 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Marion G Wells Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Marion G Wells Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
    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 11 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Marion G Wells’ 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