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MWS Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

MWS Foundation Inc

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.

$9k
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$4k
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, FY2020 to 2025.

Environment$9kHealth$6kScience & Tech$4kPublic Safety & Disaster$4kPhilanthropy$2kAnimals$2kEducation$1kArts & Culture$1kOther$0
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$171k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
River Partners$4,000
North Sonoma County Fire Foundation$1,000
Russian Riverkeeper$1,000
Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue$1,000
Palm Beach Day Academy$500
Geyserville Community Foundation$500
Free Quaker Society$500
Nightboat Books$250
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 (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 23% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%Free Quaker Society: $500 → 11%Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue: $1k → 8%Cancer Support Community: $3k → 9%Quarryhill Botanical Garden: $100 → 9%UC Berkeley Foundation: $4k → 10%River Partners: $4k → 15%Byrd Hoffman Foundation: $1k → 7%New York School of Interior Design: $500 → 17%Nightboat Books: $250 → 20%Palm Beach Day Academy: $500 → 11%Free Quaker Society: $200 → 11%Cancer Support Community: $2k → 9%Russian Riverkeeper: $1k → 9%River Partners: $2k → 15%Byrd Hoffman Foundation: $500 → 7%Free Quaker Society: $100 → 11%Cancer Support Community: $1k → 9%Russian Riverkeeper: $1k → 9%Byrd Hoffman Foundation: $500 → 7%Cancer Support Community: $500 → 9%Russian Riverkeeper: $1k → 9%North Sonoma County Fire Foundation: $1k → 9%Sinkyone Sanctuary: $1k → 9%North Sonoma County Fire Foundation: $1k → 9%Geyserville Volunteer Firefighters: $1k → 9%Geyserville Community Foundation: $500 → 9%Geyserville Volunteer Firefighters: $500 → 9%Geyserville Community Foundation: $250 → 9%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.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$22k · 7 repeat orgs$7k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +58% since the first grant, against +16% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
4

Total granted

$22k
$6k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+58%
+16%

Still filing today

57%
75%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentAnimalsEducationArts & CulturePublic Safety & DisasterOther
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

  • RP
    RIVER PARTNERS
    2× · 2024–2025 · $6k · revenue -28%
  • CS
    Cancer Support Community
    4× · 2020–2024 · $6k
  • NS
    NORTHERN SONOMA COUNTY FIRE FOUNDATION
    4× · 2022–2025 · $4k · revenue +58%

Funded once

  • UB
    UC Berkeley Foundation
    one grant, 2021 · $4k
  • SS
    Sinkyone Sanctuary
    one grant, 2024 · $1k
  • NY
    NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN
    one grant, 2020 · $500 · revenue +13%
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
Sonoma Mountain Institute
Environment
2
Sonoma Ecology Center

The Mission of Sonoma Ecology Center is to work with our community to enhance and sustain ecological health in the Sonoma valley.

Environment
3
Tuolumne River Preservation Trust dba Yosemite Rivers Alliance

At Yosemite Rivers Alliance, we unite conservation and community to protect and restore the three rivers that ?ow through the Yosemite Regionthe Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Merced.

—
4
Rainforest Rising

Large scale restoration of priority ecosystems and habitats.

Human Services
5
Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary
—
6
Bay Nature Institute dba Bay Nature Bay Nature Magazine

Bay Nature connects the people of the San Francisco Bay Area to our natural world and motivates people to solve problems with nature in mind. Our vision is that all people have a close relationship with theirnatural world.

Environment
7
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
—
8
Bamberger Ranch Preserve
Philanthropy
9
Bay Area Barns and Trails
Human Services
10
The Nature School

The nature school protects endangered aquatic species of california's central coast and restores riparian habitats. the nature school also provides education of science and environmental studies.

Environment
11
Sonoma Plein Air Foundation

Promotion of arts education

Arts & Culture
12
Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center Inc

CSERC protects water, wildlife, and wild places of the Northern Yosemite region.

Unclassified
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is River Partners; the most unlike its peers is Sonoma Botanical Garden. 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

10 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. 10 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
8/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Cancer Support Community: $6,000 · OtherCancer Support CommunityUC Berkeley Foundation: $4,000 · OtherUC Berkeley FoundationByrd Hoffman Foundation: $2,000 · OtherByrd Hoffman FoundationFree Quaker Society: $800 · OtherFree Quaker Society+1 more: $100 · OtherRIVER PARTNERS: $6,000 · EnvironmentRIVER PARTNERSRussian Riverkeeper: $3,000 · EnvironmentRussian RiverkeeperNORTHERN SONOMA COUNTY FIRE FOUNDATION: $3,500 · Public Safety & DisasterNORTHERN SONO…Sinkyone Sanctuary: $1,000 · AnimalsSONOMA COUNTY WILDLIFE RESCUE: $1,000 · AnimalsGEYSERVILLE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $750 · Arts & CultureNIGHTBOAT BOOKS INC: $250 · Arts & CulturePALM BEACH DAY ACADEMY INC: $500 · EducationNEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN: $500 · Education
Other$12,900Environment$9,000Public Safety & Disaster$3,500Animals$2,000Arts & Culture$1,000Education$1,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetRIVER PARTNERS: $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHERN SONOMA COUNTY FIRE FOUNDATION: $3,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetRussian Riverkeeper: $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetSinkyone Sanctuary: $1,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetGEYSERVILLE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $750 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetPALM BEACH DAY ACADEMY INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSonoma Botanical Garden: $100 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.

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.

Gs Donor Advised Phil…National Philanthropi…Morgan Stanley Global…Vanguard Charitable E…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management IncNY12.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 7 of 7Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation 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 MWS Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from MWS Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Palm Beach Day Academy Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on MWS’ 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