How much does The Blue Waters Foundation give?

The Blue Waters Foundation reported 16 grants totaling $1,936,156 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 5 and 12 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Blue Waters Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (57%), Environment (20%), Arts & Culture (18%).

Who are The Blue Waters Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: St Marys Catholic Church & School ($803k), Chesapeake Conservancy Inc ($439k), St Anne's School of Annapolis Inc ($388k).

Does The Blue Waters Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 20% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Blue Waters 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.

Where is The Blue Waters Foundation based?

The Blue Waters Foundation is based in MD.

The Blue Waters Foundation

The Blue Waters Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

The Blue Waters Foundation

Q: Which funders back the same organizations as The Blue Waters Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Community Foundation of Anne Arundel Co, T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving Inc, The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc.

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$1.9M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$406k

Largest

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 2024.

Education$2.0MEnvironment$683kArts & Culture$636kRecreation & Sports$118kAnimals$40kHuman Services$2kReligion$2k

02FY2024 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k2 grants · $15k
$10k–50k3 grants · $65k
$50k–250k8 grants · $839k
$250k+3 grants · $1.0M

$100,711

Median grant

States reached

$21M

Total assets

Anchored by a single position: about 98% of reported assets are held in Berkshire Hathaway A.

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
ST MARY'S SCHOOL	$405,648
THE SALISBURY FOUNDATION	$306,916
ST ANNE'S SCHOOL OF ANNAPOLIS	$304,896
HISTORIC ANNAPOLIS	$149,862
BLUES FOUNDATION	$122,284
JAZZ FOUNDATION	$104,533
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY WATERSHEDS STEWARDS ACADEMY	$100,899
ST MARY'S ROYAL BLUE CLUB	$100,711
ARUNDEL RIVER FEDERATION	$100,689
CHESAPEAKE CONSERVANCY	$99,694
MARYLAND HALL FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS	$60,010
SPCA OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY	$30,000
FROM THE HEART PRODUCTIONS	$25,000
BALTIMORE BLUES SOCIETY	$10,000
DC BLUES SOCIETY	$8,000

02The need

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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 18% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

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.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 21% of The Blue Waters Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 88% of the giving stays in MD; by stated purpose, 69%.

The Blue Waters Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address · 2.9% directed abroad (not shown)

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.9M · 13 repeat orgs$506k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +52% since the first grant, against +45% for those funded once.

13 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.9M

$18k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+52%

+45%

Still filing today

85%

25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $488k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureEnvironmentEducationAnimalsHealthYouth DevelopmentOther

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

CC
CHESAPEAKE CONSERVANCY INC
5× · 2020–2024 · $439k · revenue +78%
SA
ST ANNE'S SCHOOL OF ANNAPOLIS INC
5× · 2017–2024 · $388k · revenue +115%
TB
The Blues Foundation Inc
8× · 2017–2024 · $243k · revenue +49%

Funded once

SP
SEVERNA PARK HIGH SCHOOL
one grant, 2023 · $12k
VL
VANDEGRIFT LACROSSE CLUB BOOSTERS
one grant, 2023 · $3k
LI
LIGHTHOUSE INCgraduated
one grant, 2017 · $2k · revenue +45%

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.

Blue Water Baltimore

To restore the quality of baltimore's rivers, streams and harbor to foster a healthy environment, a strong economy, and thriving communities.

Environment

Chesapeake Audubon Society

The chesapeake audubon society works in the maryland region to promote the stewardship of natural ecosystems through conservation, restoration, education, and advocacy.

Environment

Greater Baybrook Alliance Inc

Greater Baybrook Alliance GBA is a non-profit community development organization whose mission is to act as a catalyst and conduit for equitable development and reinvestment in the Brooklyn, Brooklyn Park, Curtis Bay neighborhoods and…

Community Improvement

North Baltimore Aquatic Club Inc

The north baltimore aquatic club leads the nation in competitive swimming. our diligently designed, professionally coached and internationally renowned program encourages the development of character and self-discipline. these qualities,…

Recreation & Sports

Delaware Museum of Nature and Science Inc

The museum is an educational corporation formed to ignite a life-long passion for exploring, discovering, and valuing nature and science.

—

Chesapeake Rivers Association

Protect and Restore the Chesapeake Bay particularly the Severn River

Environment

Cape Ann Museum Inc

To foster an appreciation of the quality and diversity of life on cape ann, past and present; to further the knowledge and enjoyment of cape ann history and art; to collect and preserve significant information and artifacts; and to…

Arts & Culture

Anacostia Riverkeeper Inc

To protect and restore the Anacostia River for all those who live work and play in the watershed and to advocate for a clean healthy river for all its communities.

Environment

The Association for the Preservation of the Potomac

To preserve and protect the Presidential yacht Potomac for use as a classroom and museum dedicated to imparting to present and future generations the continuing impact of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Era. All programming initiatives at…

Arts & Culture

Mobile Baykeeper Inc

Provide citizens a means to protect the beauty, health and heritage of the Mobile Bay Watershed, Alabamas waterways and coastal communities.

Environment

Historical Society Harford Cou

Preserve the history of Harford County, Maryland

—

Annapolis Maritime Museum Inc

The annapolis maritime museum educates youth and adults about the annapolis areas rich maritime heritage and the ecology of the chesapeake bay through programs, exhibits, and community events. continued on schedule o

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Historic Annapolis Inc; the most unlike its peers is Peninsula Athletic League Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

16 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. 16 of the 23 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

16/16

Grantees still filing

13/16

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,925,812Environment$683,221Arts & Culture$510,464Education$180,911Youth Development$100,711Animals$39,500Recreation & Sports$2,300Health$1,500

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.

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.

Community Foundation of Anne Arundel CoMD21.9× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Anne Arundel Co · T Rowe Price Program for Charitable Giving Inc · The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Network for Good · National Philanthropic Trust · 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 The Blue Waters Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Blue Waters Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

5get no government money at all

4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%

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.

Play a game based on Blue Waters’ 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