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Rothwell Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Rothwell Foundation

Its FY2023 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$21k
Granted FY2022
5
Grants FY2022
3
States reached
$7k
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 2022.

Health$37kEducation$26kAnimals$25kArts & Culture$4kPublic Benefit$3kEnvironment$2kHousing & Shelter$1k
02FY2022 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,500
Median grant
3
States reached
$221k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY$7,000
BRIGHAM AND WOMENS HOSPITAL$7,000
WELLESLEY COLLEGE$2,500
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$2,500
JOHNS HOPKINS SAIS$2,000
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 (FY17–22) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 63% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%WELLESLEY COLLEGE: $3k → 7%REAGLE MUSIC THEATER: $2k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMENS HOSPITAL: $7k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $3k → 17%WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: $500 → 14%ST JUDE CHILDREN RESEARCH HOSPITAL: $2k → 17%HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: $1k → 22%ALZHEIMERS ASSOC: $1k → 14%EPILEPSY FOUNDATION: $3k → 11%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $2k → 19%COMPASSION AND CHOICES GIFT PROCESSING CENTER: $2k → 10%WELLESLEY COLLEGE: $2k → 7%YANKEE GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE: $5k → 8%BRINGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: $1k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $3k → 17%CIVIC NATION: $3k → 14%ST JUDE CHILDREN RESEARCH HOSPITAL: $1k → 17%JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $1k → 19%WELLESLEY COLLEGE: $1k → 7%BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY: $7k → 8%BRIGHAM AND WOMENS HOSPITAL: $1k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $2k → 17%JOHNS HOPKINS SAIS: $2k → 14%ST JUDE CHILDREN RESEARCH HOSPITAL: $1k → 17%WELLESLEY COLLEGE: $1k → 7%BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY: $4k → 8%BRINGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL DEVEL: $3k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $1k → 17%JOHNS HOPKINS SAIS: $2k → 14%WELLESLEY COLLEGE: $1k → 7%BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY: $3k → 8%MGH CENTER FOR CELIAC RESEARCH: $3k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $1k → 17%BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY: $3k → 8%MASSACHUSETS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $2k → 16%COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $1k → 17%BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY: $3k → 8%MASSACHUSETS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $2k → 16%MASSACHUSETS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $1k → 16%PLANNED PARENTHOOD LEAGUE OF MASS: $2k → 16%NEUROFIBROMATOSIS: $500 → 16%PLANNED PARENTHOOD LEAGUE OF MASS: $1k → 16%PLANNED PARENTHOOD LEAGUE OF MASS: $1k → 16%RALPH LOWELL SOCIETY WGBH: $1k → 16%WGBH ED FOUNDATION: $2k → 16%WGBH ED FOUNDATION: $2k → 16%WGBH ED FOUNDATION: $1k → 16%RALPH LOWELL SOCIETY WGBH: $1k → 16%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.

Which US states its grants reach

NH
IL
NY
MA
MD
TN
DC
GA
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.
$65k · 12 repeat orgs$22k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against +40% for those funded once.

12 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2022, 8 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
9

Total granted

$65k
$22k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+40%

Still filing today

42%
56%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22
EducationHealthAnimalsCivil RightsEnvironmentOther
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

  • BD
    BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY INC
    5× · 2017–2022 · $20k · revenue +98%
  • WC
    Wellesley College
    5× · 2017–2022 · $7k · revenue +63%
  • ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC
    3× · 2017–2019 · $4k · revenue +145%

Funded once

  • YG
    YANKEE GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $5k · revenue +61%
  • BA
    BRINGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL DEVEL
    one grant, 2017 · $3k
  • Civic Nationgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $3k · revenue +75%
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
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
2
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
3
The George Washington University

The mission of the george washington university (gw) is to educate individuals in liberal arts, languages, sciences, learned professions, and other courses and subjects of study, and to conduct scholarly research and publish the findings…

Education
4
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
5
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
6
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

Enhance the ability of actec members to provide the most efficient and highest quality services to their clients; develop qualified trust and estate counselors; improve and reform probate, trust and tax laws, procedures, and standards of…

Community Improvement
7
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
8
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
9
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
10
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech
11
American Academy of Neurology

The Academy's mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all.

Community Improvement
12
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York; the most unlike its peers is World Wildlife Fund Inc. 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 22 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
10/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $9,000 · OtherMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDMASSACHUSETS GENERAL HOSPITAL: $5,000 · OtherMASSACHUSETS GENERAL HOSPITALWGBH ED FOUNDATION: $4,750 · OtherWGBH ED FOUNDATIONPLANNED PARENTHOOD LEAGUE OF MASS: $3,750 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOOD LEAGUE OF MASSBRINGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL DEVEL: $3,000 · OtherBRINGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL DEVELJOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $3,000 · OtherJOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITYMGH CENTER FOR CELIAC RESEARCH: $2,500 · OtherMGH CENTER FOR CELIAC RESEARCHRALPH LOWELL SOCIETY WGBH: $2,000 · OtherRALPH LOWELL SOCIETY WGBHREAGLE MUSIC THEATER: $1,500 · OtherNEUROFIBROMATOSIS: $1,500 · Other+1 more: $1,000 · OtherBUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY INC: $19,750 · AnimalsBUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY INCYANKEE GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE INC: $5,000 · AnimalsYANKEE GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCU…THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $10,500 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNI…Wellesley College: $7,000 · EducationWellesley CollegeJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $3,500 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITYCivic Nation: $3,000 · EducationCivic NationST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $3,750 · HealthEPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $2,500 · HealthALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $1,000 · HealthCOMPASSION & CHOICES: $2,000 · Civil RightsWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC: $1,500 · Environment
Other$37,000Animals$24,750Education$24,000Health$7,250Civil Rights$2,000Environment$1,500

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 budgetBUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY INC: $19,750 over 5y, 2.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $10,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetWellesley College: $7,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetYANKEE GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $3,750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCivic Nation: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMPASSION & CHOICES: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC: $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $1,000 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.

  • Who funds BUDDY DOG HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
  • Who funds Wellesley College ↗
  • Who funds YANKEE GOLDEN RETRIEVER RESCUE INC ↗
  • Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
  • Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Civic Nation ↗
  • Who funds EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA ↗
  • Who funds COMPASSION & CHOICES ↗
  • Who funds WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2025
’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 →median 11%
  • Epilepsy Foundation of America: 23% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 11% of income from government
  • Wellesley College: 1% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
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 22 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 2022, released 2022. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2023) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2022, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Rothwell’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