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Michigan · Private foundation

The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$185k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
29
Grants FY2025
23
Organizations funded FY2024
13%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$5,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$18,000
Organizations funded a year
20 to 23
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
4
Total assets, FY2025
$3.3M
Applications
Takes unsolicited applications
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 13% of the organizations The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest funded were first-time grantees, receiving 14% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $19k 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
EducationYouth DevelopmentPhilanthropyOther
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 arriving27$179k15%
FY202423$139k13%
FY202322$139k5%
FY202221$130k0%
FY202122$125k0%
FY202022$115k36%
FY201920$94k0%
FY201820$1.6M10%
98% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Environment$1.7MYouth Development$293kArts & Culture$258kEducation$166kReligion$96kFood & Nutrition$80kHealth$32kPhilanthropy$25kOther$0

Top grantees

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

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Kalamazoo Nature Center$1,630,000919%
Read and Write Kalamazoo$105,00085%
Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Southwest Michigan$96,00061%
Kalamazoo Public Library$85,0009n/a
South Michigan Food Bank$75,00090%
Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan$55,50090%
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts$46,00090%
Carnegie Center Council for the Art$42,000312%
St Joseph County United Way$25,00060%
University of Michigan$23,00091%
Show all 18 grantees
All grantees of The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Kalamazoo Nature Center$1,630,000919%
Read and Write Kalamazoo$105,00085%
Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Southwest Michigan$96,00061%
Kalamazoo Public Library$85,0009n/a
South Michigan Food Bank$75,00090%
Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan$55,50090%
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts$46,00090%
Carnegie Center Council for the Art$42,000312%
St Joseph County United Way$25,00060%
University of Michigan$23,00091%
Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation$15,00030%
Southwest Michigan Land Conservency Inc$12,00030%
Fernwood Inc$9,50090%
Sjogren's Foundation Inc$9,00090%
Bat Conservation International$9,00090%
Western Michigan University Foundation$6,00010%
Curious Kids Museum$5,00010%
Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes Inc$5,00010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 18 recipients with no EIN on record ($416k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetKalamazoo Nature Center: $1,630,000 over 9y, 19% of budgetRead and Write Kalamazoo: $105,000 over 8y, 4.6% of budgetBoys & Girls Clubs of Greater Southwest Michigan: $96,000 over 6y, 0.6% of budgetSouth Michigan Food Bank: $75,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetGirl Scouts Heart of Michigan: $55,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetKalamazoo Institute of Arts: $46,000 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetCarnegie Center Council for the Art: $42,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetSt Joseph County United Way: $25,000 over 6y, 0.5% of budgetUniversity of Michigan: $23,000 over 9y, 1.2% of budgetKalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation: $15,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetSouthwest Michigan Land Conservency Inc: $12,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetFernwood Inc: $9,500 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetSjogren's Foundation Inc: $9,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetBat Conservation International: $9,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetWestern Michigan University Foundation: $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCurious Kids Museum: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetKalamazoo Loaves & Fishes Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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 17.

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.

Kalamazoo Community FoundationMI23.9× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Kalamazoo Community Foundation · Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation · H P & Genevieve Connable Fund · Marvin and Rosalie Okun Foundation · Irving S Gilmore Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Preston S and Barbara J Parish Foundation · Dorothy U Dalton Foundation Inc · United Way of South Central Michigan · John E Fetzer Institute Inc · The Burdick-Thorne Foundation · Suzanne Upjohn Delano Parish 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.

Compare The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest with peer funders

About The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest

How much does The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest give?
The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest reported 29 grants totaling $185,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 20 and 23 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (64%), Youth Development (11%), Arts & Culture (9%).
Who are The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Kalamazoo Nature Center ($1.6M), Read and Write Kalamazoo ($105k), Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Southwest Michigan ($96k).
Does The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Kalamazoo Community Foundation, Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation, H P & Genevieve Connable Fund.
Where is The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest based?
The Lawrence and Sylvia Wong Foundation C/O James Vanderroest is based in MI.

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 37 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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