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The Dean Witter Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Dean Witter Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$428k
Granted FY2025still arriving
18
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$45k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$12MEducation$1.5MEnvironment$1.2MFood & Nutrition$340kScience & Tech$293kYouth Development$280kArts & Culture$240kHealth$190kOther$0
02FY2025 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$25,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$7.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATUREBRIDGE$45,000
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONCOLLEGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT$30,000
ISLANDWOOD$30,000
NORTHWEST FILM FORUM$30,000
BELLEVUE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION$30,000
SEALIFE RESPONSE REHABILITATION & RESEARCH$30,000
EAT HAPPY NOW$30,000
THE THACHER SCHOOL$30,000
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON CLEAN ENERGY INSTITUTE$25,000
WILDLANDS CONSERVANCY$25,000
PRACTICAL FARMERS OF IOWA$25,000
FRED HUTCH CANCER CENTER$25,000
WILDLANDS CONSERVANCY$15,000
HIVE$15,000
INSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY$12,500
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 (FY17–25, $60k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 83% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%SONGCATCHERS: $15k → 9%SONGCATCHERS: $10k → 9%GIRLS INCORPORATED OF ALAMEDA COUNTY: $25k → 10%THE ONE EIGHTY FOUNDATION: $10k → 9%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
WA
NY
MA
OR
IA
CA
CO
VA
FL
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.

50%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.3M · 31 repeat orgs$2.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +77% since the first grant, against +52% for those funded once.

31 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 20 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

31
84

Total granted

$2.3M
$2.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+77%
+52%

Still filing today

81%
61%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $125k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EnvironmentEducationHuman ServicesHealthFood & NutritionYouth 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

  • TP
    The Peninsula College Fund
    4× · 2017–2022 · $203k · revenue +89%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF KEXP
    5× · 2019–2024 · $115k · revenue +77%
  • TT
    The Thacher School Inc
    3× · 2023–2025 · $110k · revenue +169%

Funded once

  • LL
    Life Learning Academygraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $50k · revenue +37%
  • SR
    SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $50k · revenue +84%
  • CH
    CREDO HIGH SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $50k · revenue +69%
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
Sonoma Mountain Institute
Environment
2
Sustainable Conservation

Sustainable Conservation advances the collaborative stewardship of Californias land, air, and water for the benefit of nature and people. For over three decades, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different…

Environment
3
Headwaters Science Institute

We are educators, scientists, and community members with a mission to foster curiosity through science. We engage students' natural curiosity, guiding them to design and perform experiments that answer their own questions through the…

Science & Tech
4
California Institute for Biodiversity

Create and publish educational materials, conduct professional development, promote awareness, and sponsor research on the spectacular biological diversity of the State of CA.

Education
5
Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships

Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships (SWEP) promotes environmental stewardship by connecting students to their community and local environment through comprehensive watershed education and service learning projects.

Environment
6
10000 Years Institute

10,000 Years Institute evaluates the ecological effects of human activities on natural environments, and promotes the maintenance and restoration of ecological integrity through the integration of reliable scientific information, sound…

Unclassified
7
Bay Nature Institute dba Bay Nature Bay Nature Magazine

Bay Nature connects the people of the San Francisco Bay Area to our natural world and motivates people to solve problems with nature in mind. Our vision is that all people have a close relationship with theirnatural world.

Environment
8
Resource Renewal Institute

The resource renewal institute facilitates the creation, development and implementation of practical strategies to solve the entire complex environmental problem by addressing it comprehensively.

Environment
9
Terra Marin School

Our mission is to spark wonder and intellectual curiosity in each child. We achieve this through a purposeful blend of:Engaging academics custom-tailored to each child's abilities, strengths and interests;An unparalleled social-emotional…

Education
10
EarthGen Fka Wa Green Schools

EarthGens mission is to guide and support youth, educators, and school communities to become leaders for a healthy environment.

Environment
11
Nature Collective

Nature collective's mission is to drive a passion for nature for all. we think inclusively and diversely when serving those devoid of nature those who remember nature and want to connect back to it and those who have an affinity with…

Environment
12
Pacific Education Institute

Pei supports educators by specializing in professional learning and fieldstem implementation.

Philanthropy
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Pepperwood Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Marine Applied Research and Exploration. 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

90 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. 90 of the 123 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.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
32
Early backer (in before they grew)
83/90
Grantees still filing
68/90
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Individual grant recipient: $95,000 · OtherSEALIFE RESPONSE REHABILITATION & RESEARCH: $85,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONCOLLEGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT: $80,000 · OtherAP Giannini Middle School PTA: $75,000 · Other+59 more: $1,552,237 · Other+59 moreThe Peninsula College Fund: $203,000 · EducationThe Peninsula College Fu…BELLEVUE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $188,000 · EducationBELLEVUE SCHOOLS FOUNDAT…The Thacher School Inc: $110,000 · EducationThe Thacher School IncREACH UNIVERSITY: $80,000 · EducationREACH UNIVERSITYCommunity Resources for Science: $60,000 · EducationCommunity Resources for …Life Learning Academy: $50,000 · EducationSANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $50,000 · EducationCREDO HIGH SCHOOL: $50,000 · EducationWell Beyond Academics Inc: $48,500 · EducationWILDERNESS ARTS AND LITERACY COLLABORATIVE: $40,000 · Education+8 more: $124,500 · Education+8 moreNATUREBRIDGE: $175,000 · EnvironmentNATUREBRIDGEThe Wildlands Conservancy: $90,000 · EnvironmentThe Wildlands Conserva…THE SAN JUAN PRESERVATION TRUST: $75,000 · EnvironmentTHE SAN JUAN PRESERVAT…ISLANDWOOD: $60,000 · EnvironmentISLANDWOODCOASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL: $50,000 · EnvironmentCOASTAL WATERSHED COUN…Canopy: $50,000 · EnvironmentCanopyVENTANA WILDERNESS ALLIANCE: $50,000 · EnvironmentVENTANA WILDERNESS ALL…RESOURCE CENTRAL: $50,000 · EnvironmentRESOURCE CENTRALPEPPERWOOD FOUNDATION: $40,000 · Environment+14 more: $288,000 · Environment+14 moreFRIENDS OF KEXP: $115,000 · Youth DevelopmentMENTORING URBAN STUDENTS & TEENS: $70,000 · Youth DevelopmentYOUNG WOMEN EMPOWERED: $60,000 · Youth DevelopmentFoodWhat Incorporated: $50,000 · Youth DevelopmentNORTHCOAST REGIONAL LAND TRUST: $80,000 · Food & NutritionEat Happy Now: $55,000 · Food & NutritionREDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK: $50,000 · Food & NutritionTRI-VALLEY CONSERVANCY: $25,000 · Food & NutritionSECOND HARVEST OF SILICON VALLEY: $10,000 · Food & NutritionTHE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT: $81,800 · Human ServicesGIRLS INCORPORATED OF ALAMEDA COUNTY: $50,000 · Human ServicesSONGCATCHERS INC: $35,000 · Human ServicesAIM HIGH: $25,000 · Human ServicesONE EIGHTY FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Human ServicesNorthwest Association for Biomedical Research: $70,000 · HealthFred Hutchinson Cancer Center: $25,000 · HealthTHE HOPE HEART INSTITUTE: $25,000 · HealthSEMPER FI & AMERICA'S FUND: $20,000 · HealthEDGEWOOD CENTER FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: $20,000 · Health
Other$1,887,237Education$1,004,000Environment$928,000Youth Development$295,000Food & Nutrition$220,000Human Services$201,800Health$160,000

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 budgetThe Peninsula College Fund: $203,000 over 4y, 9.8% of budgetBELLEVUE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $188,000 over 6y, 3.3% of budgetNATUREBRIDGE: $175,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetFRIENDS OF KEXP: $115,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetThe Thacher School Inc: $110,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetThe Wildlands Conservancy: $90,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetTHE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT: $81,800 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetREACH UNIVERSITY: $80,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetNORTHCOAST REGIONAL LAND TRUST: $80,000 over 3y, 5.7% of budgetTHE SAN JUAN PRESERVATION TRUST: $75,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetAP Giannini Middle School PTA: $75,000 over 2y, 21% of budgetNorthwest Association for Biomedical Research: $70,000 over 4y, 5.7% of budgetMENTORING URBAN STUDENTS & TEENS: $70,000 over 2y, 24% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: $62,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetYOUNG WOMEN EMPOWERED: $60,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetISLANDWOOD: $60,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetEat Happy Now: $55,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetPIE RANCH: $55,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetLife Learning Academy: $50,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetSANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCREDO HIGH SCHOOL: $50,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetMARINE APPLIED RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION: $50,000 over 1y, 6.7% of budgetFoodWhat Incorporated: $50,000 over 1y, 7.1% of budgetCOASTAL WATERSHED COUNCIL: $50,000 over 1y, 8.4% of budgetGIRLS INCORPORATED OF ALAMEDA COUNTY: $50,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetWATERSIDE WORKSHOPS: $50,000 over 1y, 7.0% of budgetCanopy: $50,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetFRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetREDWOOD EMPIRE FOOD BANK: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetVENTANA WILDERNESS ALLIANCE: $50,000 over 1y, 8.8% of budgetRESOURCE CENTRAL: $50,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetWell Beyond Academics Inc: $48,500 over 2y, 31% of budgetPelican Media: $40,000 over 1y, 33% of budgetWILDERNESS ARTS AND LITERACY COLLABORATIVE: $40,000 over 1y, 39% of budgetPEPPERWOOD FOUNDATION: $40,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetNEW HOPE PENINSULA MINISTRIES: $35,000 over 1y, 32% of budgetLandPaths: $30,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetPASSAGEWAYS INSTITUTE INC dba PASSAGEWORKS INSTITUTE: $30,000 over 1y, 9.6% of budgetEnvironmental Traveling Companions: $30,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetNORTHWEST FILM FORUM: $30,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetSmith River Alliance Inc: $28,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetEarth Island Institute Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetPlanting Justice: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetTHE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSPARK: $25,000 over 1y, 8.1% of budgetEducation Outside: $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetFred Hutchinson Cancer Center: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTRI-VALLEY CONSERVANCY: $25,000 over 1y, 1.1% 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.

Clif Family FoundationMiranda Lux FoundationThe Joseph and Vera L…Marin Community Found…The San Francisco Fou…Mary a Crocker TrustBothin FoundationSilicon Valley Commun…Jewish Community Fede…Save the Redwoods Lea…PatagoniaorgThe David and Lucile …
Clif Family FoundationCA40× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Clif Family Foundation · Miranda Lux Foundation · The Joseph and Vera Long Foundation · Marin Community Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · Mary a Crocker Trust · Bothin Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula Marin & Sonoma · Save the Redwoods League · Patagoniaorg · The David and Lucile Packard 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 Dean Witter Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Dean Witter 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%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 35%
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
32report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 The Dean Witter Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Dean Witter 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 123 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 Dean Witter’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