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Washington · Private foundation

The Behnke 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.

$333k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
11
Grants FY2025
11
Organizations funded FY2024
27%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$2,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$307,202
Organizations funded a year
10 to 15
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
5
Total assets, FY2025
$2.0M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 27% of the organizations The Behnke Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 1% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2k went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthArts & CultureAnimalsRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesPhilanthropyOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving11$333k9%
FY202411$349k27%
FY202314$116k36%
FY202214$114k29%
FY202110$184k20%
FY202011$166k36%
FY201911$163k18%
FY201815$133k33%
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.4MHealth$65kHousing & Shelter$59kEducation$27kAnimals$15kHuman Services$10kPhilanthropy$4kEnvironment$1kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
ID
IL
NY
MA
OR
NJ
CA
KY

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 26 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 12 recipients with no EIN on record ($45k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Behnke Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFortissimo: $1,429,730 over 9y, 1.5% of budgetWellspring Family Services: $58,509 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetSkidmore College: $22,250 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetFred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: $17,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetWoodland Park Zoological Society: $6,750 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetOverlake Hospital Foundation: $6,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetSeattle Children's Hospital: $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChildhaven: $5,114 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetKindering Center: $4,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetLisa McGraw Figure Skating Fdn: $3,500 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetFeral Care: $3,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetUniversity of San Diego: $2,750 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetLittle Bit Therapeutic Riding Center: $2,750 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSeattle Theatre Group: $2,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPacific Northwest Ballet Association: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetOverlake Medical Center & Clinics: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Seattle Aquarium Society: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHigher Ground USA Inc: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetThe Evergreen City Ballet: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHearing Speech and Deafness Center Dba Hearing Speech and Deaf Center: $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetYouthcare: $150 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFirefighters Support Foundation Inc: $95 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBirthday Dreams: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetErikas Lighthouse A Beacon of Hope for Adolescent Depression: $50 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetArtsfund: $25 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 25.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Puget Sound Energy FoundationDE21.5× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Puget Sound Energy Foundation · Seattle Foundation · The Norcliffe Foundation · Ash Family Foundation · Grousemont Foundation · Garneau Nicon Family Foundation · Moccasin Lake Foundation · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · United Way of King County · M J Murdock Charitable Trust · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc

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.

Compare The Behnke Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Behnke Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Behnke 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.

About The Behnke Foundation

How much does The Behnke Foundation give?
The Behnke Foundation reported 11 grants totaling $333,071 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 10 and 15 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Behnke Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (89%), Health (4%), Housing & Shelter (4%).
Who are The Behnke Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Fortissimo ($1.4M), Wellspring Family Services ($59k), Skidmore College ($22k).
Does The Behnke Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 27% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Behnke Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Behnke Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Puget Sound Energy Foundation, Seattle Foundation, The Norcliffe Foundation.
Where is The Behnke Foundation based?
The Behnke Foundation is based in WA.

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 38 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

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