Skip to content
Foundation Dossiers

Washington, D.C. · Private foundation

The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation

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.

$3.9M
Granted FY2024(still arriving)
31
Grants FY2024
1
Organizations funded FY2023
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2024
$25,000
Largest grant, FY2024
$1,600,000
States reached, FY2024
5
Total assets, FY2024
$19M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2024.

Science & Tech$4.2MEducation$650kEnvironment$545kReligion$167kCommunity Improvement$100kHousing & Shelter$75kHuman Services$75kEmployment$50kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2023 to FY2024, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
National Geographic Society$4,150,00021%
Friends of Acadia$250,00012%
Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the D of C$166,6661n/a
Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve$125,00011%
Building Bridges Across the River Inc$50,00010%
Washington DC Police Foundation$50,00014%
Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc$25,00010%
Together We Bake$25,00012%
Anacostia Watershed Society Inc$25,00011%
House of Ruth$25,00010%
Show all 27 grantees
All grantees of The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
National Geographic Society$4,150,00021%
Friends of Acadia$250,00012%
Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the D of C$166,6661n/a
Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve$125,00011%
Building Bridges Across the River Inc$50,00010%
Washington DC Police Foundation$50,00014%
Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc$25,00010%
Together We Bake$25,00012%
Anacostia Watershed Society Inc$25,00011%
House of Ruth$25,00010%
Chesapeake Bay Foundation Inc$25,00010%
The Piedmont Environmental Council$25,00010%
My Sister's Place Inc$25,00010%
Neighborhood Design Center Inc$25,00011%
Martha's Table Inc$25,00010%
Youthbuild DC Public Charter School Inc$25,00011%
Rock Creek Conservancy Inc$25,00011%
Casey Trees$25,00010%
The DC Central Kitchen Inc$25,00010%
Anacostia Riverkeeper Inc$25,00013%
Community Forklift$25,00011%
Bright Beginnings Inc$25,00010%
N Street Village Inc$25,00010%
Community of Hope$25,00010%
Some Inc$25,00010%
The Conservation Fund a Nonprofit Corporation$20,00010%
Mount Desert Nursing Assoc$6,66710%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 1 recipient with no EIN on record ($600k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNational Geographic Society: $4,150,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetFriends of Acadia: $250,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetMount Desert Land and Garden Preserve: $125,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetBuilding Bridges Across the River Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetWashington DC Police Foundation: $50,000 over 1y, 4.3% of budgetMary's Center for Maternal and Child Care Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTogether We Bake: $25,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetAnacostia Watershed Society Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHouse of Ruth: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetChesapeake Bay Foundation Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Piedmont Environmental Council: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMy Sister's Place Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetNeighborhood Design Center Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetMartha's Table Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYouthbuild DC Public Charter School Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetRock Creek Conservancy Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCasey Trees: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetThe DC Central Kitchen Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetAnacostia Riverkeeper Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetCommunity Forklift: $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetBright Beginnings Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetN Street Village Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCommunity of Hope: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSome Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Conservation Fund a Nonprofit Corporation: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMount Desert Nursing Assoc: $6,667 over 1y, 0.3% 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 26.

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.

The Morris and Gwendo…Greater Washington Co…Chesapeake Bay TrustThe Keith Campbell Fo…National Fish and Wil…National Philanthropi…Vanguard Charitable E…American Endowment Fo…Morgan Stanley Global…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz FoundationDC19.7× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · Greater Washington Community Foundation · Chesapeake Bay Trust · The Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment Inc · National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Brendan & Helen Bechtel 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 Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation

How much does The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation give?
The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation reported 31 grants totaling $3,893,333 in its FY2024 IRS filing.
What does The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2023 to FY2024, its largest causes are Science & Tech (70%), Education (11%), Environment (9%).
Who are The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2023 to FY2024: National Geographic Society ($4.2M), Friends of Acadia ($250k), Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the D of C ($167k).
Does The Brendan & Helen Bechtel 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 Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Greater Washington Community Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Trust.
Where is The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation based?
The Brendan & Helen Bechtel Foundation is based in DC.

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 28 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Brendan & Helen Bechtel’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