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McDonald-Wright Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

McDonald-Wright Foundation

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.

$23k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
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, FY2017 to 2024.

Civil Rights$84kArts & Culture$22kEducation$22kHuman Services$10kHealth$8kPhilanthropy$500Religion$150
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $13k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$6,600
Median grant
1
States reached
$269k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER OF DESERT$10,000
UCLA FOUNDATION$6,600
LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER$6,000
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 49% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 12%THE WARING INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION: $250 → 11%THE WILLIAMS INSTITUTE AT UCLA: $19k → 14%THE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER: $25k → 17%BRAVO COLORADO MUSIC FESTIVAL ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION: $14k → 7%THE WARING INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION: $50 → 11%UCLA FOUNDATION: $15k → 14%EDWARDS INTERFAITH CHAPEL: $150 → 7%THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER: $40k → 11%UCLA FOUNDATION: $7k → 14%VAIL JAZZ FOUNDATION: $200 → 7%LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER OF DESERT: $10k → 11%LOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER: $6k → 14%DESERT AIDS PROJECT (DAP HEALTH): $2k → 11%PALM SPRINGS OPERA GUILD OF THE DESERT: $1k → 11%PALM SPRINGS OPERA GUILD OF THE DESERT: $1k → 11%COACHELLA VALLEY REPERTORY: $5k → 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
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
Vanguard Concerts
—
2
San Bernardino Valley Concert Association
—
3
The American Museum of Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender History & Culture

Celebrate cultures of lgbtq+ people

—
4
Los Angeles International Dance Festival
—
5
The Las Vegas Philharmonic

The mission of the las vegas philharmonic is to perform music that enriches and educates, helping to build a vibrant, culturally rich community.

Arts & Culture
6
Central Valley Gender Health & Wellness
Civil Rights
7
Omomuki Foundation Inc
Philanthropy
8
Bravo Colorado At Beaver Creek-Vail Inc Dba Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival

Enriching people's lives through the power of music.*producing the finest performances by the greatest artists*fostering music education, and*promoting a life-long appreciation for the arts

Arts & Culture
9
Foundation for Modern Opera
—
10
The Beverly Theater Llc
Arts & Culture
11
Chicago Gay Mens Chorus

The Organization is an inclusive, community-based performing arts organization that creates musical experiences to entertain and enlighten, inspire change, and build community. Through colorful performances that blend traditional choral…

—
12
Caballeros-Palm Springs Gay Men's Chorus

The palm springs gay men's chorus was established and continues to be an organization of gay and gay supportive men dedicated through musical expression to entertain, inspire and educate members of the diverse community of the coachella…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Coachella Valley Repertory; the most unlike its peers is Bravo Colorado Music Festival Endowment Foundation. 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

9 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. 9 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
6/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER: $40,000 · OtherTHE LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTERTHE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER: $25,000 · OtherTHE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTERTHE WILLIAMS INSTITUTE AT UCLA: $19,000 · OtherTHE WILLIAMS INSTITUTE AT UCLABRAVO COLORADO MUSIC FESTIVAL ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION: $14,174 · OtherBRAVO COLORADO MUSIC FESTIVAL ENDOWMENT FOUNDATIONLOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER: $6,000 · OtherLOS ANGELES LGBT CENTERCOACHELLA VALLEY REPERTORY: $5,000 · Other+2 more: $450 · OtherUCLA FOUNDATION: $21,600 · EducationUCLA FOUNDATIONTHE LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER OF THE D: $10,000 · Civil RightsPalm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert: $2,440 · Arts & CultureTHE VAIL JAZZ FOUNDATION INC: $200 · Arts & CultureDAP Health Inc: $1,500 · HealthGAMMA MU FOUNDATION INC: $500 · Philanthropy
Other$109,624Education$21,600Civil Rights$10,000Arts & Culture$2,640Health$1,500Philanthropy$500

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 budgetUCLA FOUNDATION: $21,600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LGBTQ COMMUNITY CENTER OF THE D: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetLOS ANGELES LGBT CENTER: $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOACHELLA VALLEY REPERTORY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetPalm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert: $2,440 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetDAP Health Inc: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGAMMA MU FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.2% 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.

Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Vanguard Charitable Endowment ProgramPA8.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 McDonald-Wright Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from McDonald-Wright 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%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get 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 · 0–15%
    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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on McDonald-Wright’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