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Nasser and Rula Watar Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Nasser and Rula Watar 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.

$316k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$120k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

International$1.9MEducation$85kReligion$45kCommunity Improvement$25kPhilanthropy$5kArts & Culture$1k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $37k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $274k
$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MAKASSED FOUNDATION OF AMERICA$119,900
AMERICAN LEBANESE TRIPOLIAN ORGANIZATION INC$104,500
AMERICAN TASK FORCE ON LEBANON INC$50,000
ISLAMIC CENTER OF IRVINE INC$22,000
FEUSA INC$15,000
THE NOBLE ACADEMY$5,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY23–25, $25k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%FEUSA INC: $15k → 14%FEUSA INC: $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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 7 repeat orgs$88k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +54% since the first grant, against +24% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
3

Total granted

$1.9M
$11k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+54%
+24%

Still filing today

71%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $77k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
InternationalPhilanthropyEducationReligionHuman ServicesOther
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

  • MF
    MAKASSED FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
    4× · 2021–2025 · $1.2M · revenue +694%
  • AL
    American Lebanese Tripolian Organization Inc
    4× · 2022–2025 · $536k · revenue +158% · 34% of their budget
  • CU
    CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
    2× · 2018–2019 · $75k · revenue +46%

Funded once

  • G
    GVNGorggraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +38%
  • AU
    AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue +24%
  • LL
    Lebanese Ladies Cultural Society
    one grant, 2024 · $1k · revenue +8%
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
Lebanese for Lebanon Foundation

to educate, and to promote the advancement of human rights, minority rights, and basic democratic principles in Lebanon and the Middle East.

Education
2
Lebanese American University

Lebanese american university is committed to academic excellence, student-centeredness, civic engagement, the advancement of scholarship, the education of the whole person, and the formation of leaders in a diverse world.

Education
3
Arab Foundations Forum Usa

(See Schedule O)

Education
4
American Lebanese Policy Institute

The american lebanese policy institute (alpi) is a us-based nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to helping the less fortunate people in lebanon with basic needs and healthcare support by providing medicine, food, clothing,…

Public Benefit
5
Armenian General Benevolent Union

Ensuring the prosperity and well-being of all armenians.

—
6
American-Arab Media Foundation Inc
—
7
Friends of Nile University Inc

None

Philanthropy
8
American University of Armenia Corporation

Support of the educational and research activities of the american university of armenia (aua).

Education
9
The American University in Cairo

The university is a premier english- language institution of higher learning. the university is committed to teaching and research of the highest caliber, and offers exceptional liberal arts and professional education in a cross-cultural…

Education
10
The American University of Iraq Foundation Inc

To promote higher education in iraq based on the american liberal arts model.

Education
11
Amel Foundation Inc

Amel Foundation is most focused on addressing the dire situation caused by the war in Sudan and the need of Nine Million people who have been displaced as a result of the war, by providing them with food, shelter , water, and medical…

Human Services
12
Arab American Community Networ

it is to unity the immigrates and give them access to education that will help them get settled and progress

Human Services
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is American Task Force On Lebanon Inc; the most unlike its peers is Chapman University. 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

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 13 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/11
Grantees still filing
9/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MAKASSED FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $1,201,900 · InternationalMAKASSED FOUNDATION OF AMERICAAmerican Relief Fund Inc: $77,250 · InternationalAmerican Relief Fund IncAMERICAN TASK FORCE ON LEBANON INC: $50,000 · International+1 more: $1,000 · InternationalAmerican Lebanese Tripolian Organization Inc: $535,600 · PhilanthropyAmerican Lebanese Tripolian Or…+2 more: $10,160 · PhilanthropyCHAPMAN UNIVERSITY: $75,000 · EducationAMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: $5,000 · EducationFEUSA INC: $25,000 · Human ServicesISLAMIC SOCIETY OF ORANGE COUNTY: $15,000 · OtherISLAMIC CENTER OF GLENDALE: $8,000 · OtherISLAMIC CENTER OF IRVINE INC: $22,000 · Religion
International$1,330,150Philanthropy$545,760Education$80,000Human Services$25,000Other$23,000Religion$22,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMAKASSED FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $1,201,900 over 4y, 22% of budgetAmerican Lebanese Tripolian Organization Inc: $535,600 over 4y, 34% of budgetAmerican Relief Fund Inc: $77,250 over 3y, 4.3% of budgetCHAPMAN UNIVERSITY: $75,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFEUSA INC: $25,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetGVNGorg: $5,160 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetAMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLebanese Ladies Cultural Society: $1,000 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.

National Philanthropi…Paypal Charitable Giv…Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
National Philanthropic TrustPA8.4× affinity5 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 Nasser and Rula Watar Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Nasser and Rula Watar Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Nasser and Rula Watar Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Nasser and Rula Watar 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.

    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 13 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 Nasser and Rula Watar’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
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    The regranting layer
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    $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