· Private foundation
Milky Way Research Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER | $1,150,000 |
| WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH | $1,150,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES | $1,150,000 |
| BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY | $1,150,000 |
| MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL | $1,125,025 |
| HARVARD MEDICAL CENTER | $1,066,570 |
| BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY | $640,598 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY | $466,881 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
US giving: 86% of grant dollars ($60M). The need read here covers only this US portion; the 14% that went abroad ($9.8M) is mapped below.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 60% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Beyond the US: 14% of all-years giving ($9.8M)
3 countries, by the recipient’s country on the filing.
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 28% of Milky Way Research Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 16 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 64% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.2M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BCBaylor College of Medicine3× · 2022–2024 · $3.5M · revenue +19%
- TSThe Salk Institute for Biological Studies3× · 2022–2024 · $3.5M · revenue +12%
- WIWHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH3× · 2022–2025 · $3.5M · revenue +100%
Funded once
- ECEPIGENETIC CLOCK DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $1.0M · revenue -25% · 36% of their budget
- BIBABRAHAM INSTITUTEone grant, 2023 · $753k
- CHChildren's Hospital Corporationgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $167k · revenue +60%
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.
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.
Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.
For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…
We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.
The mission of the institute has remained constant since its founding in 1953. as its restated articles of incorporation state the primary purpose and objective of the howard hughes medical institute shall be the promotion of human…
Fred hutch cancer center ("fred hutch") unites innovative research and compassionate care to prevent and eliminate cancer and infectious disease. continued on schedule o
Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…
The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…
The hugo w. moser research institute at kennedy krieger, inc. (the "research institute") is an internationally recognized research facility finding answers to problems and injuries that affect a child's developing brain. researchers have…
As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…
Please see schedule o
University of minnesota physicians serves as the integrated group practice for the university of minnesota medical school full-time faculty to provide the highest quality healthcare to patients and their families.university of minnesota…
See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.
How this is measured
11 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. 11 of the 27 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Baylor College of Medicine ↗
- Who funds The Salk Institute for Biological Studies ↗
- Who funds WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
- Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds The Broad Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds HARVARD MEDICAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds EPIGENETIC CLOCK DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Children's Hospital Corporation ↗
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Milky Way Research Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Milky Way Research Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- The Broad Institute Inc: 19% of income from government
- Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
- Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: 7% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Milky Way Research Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Milky Way Research Foundation 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.
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