· Private foundation
The Wade Family Foundation
Its FY2022 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
62% of The Wade Family Foundation’s FY2022 grant dollars went to University Of Notre Dame Du Lac, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year The Wade Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $421k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2022.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k5 grants · $18k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $128k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $275k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC | $125,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME | $100,000 |
| CORNELL | $50,000 |
| MUSEUM OF SCIENCE | $25,000 |
| BELMONT HILL SCHOOL ANNUAL | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| BRIGHAM & WOMEN'S HOSPITAL | $20,000 |
| ALZHIEMER ASSOC | $13,200 |
| FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY | $5,000 |
| HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| ST ROCK HAITI FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| BELMONT DAY SCHOOL | $2,150 |
| FENWICK IMPROVEMENT FUND | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–20, $90k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 28% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
21 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2021, 10 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2022, 54% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $300k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CSCATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC5× · 2017–2022 · $518k · revenue +67%
- ELEXCEPTIONAL LIVES INC2× · 2019–2020 · $65k · revenue +34%
Fairfield University2× · 2017–2021 · $55k · revenue +63%
Funded once
- GFGREENLIGHT FUND INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $40k · revenue +215%
- DMDECORDOVA MUSEUMone grant, 2019 · $10k
- BBBIG BROTHERSBIG SISTERS OF MAone grant, 2017 · $10k
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.
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.
Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…
Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
Organization's mission bentley university believes good business can impact more than the bottom line - it can change the world. bentley is a community of future business leaders who will deliver value in the marketplace and lasting…
Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…
Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…
Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…
See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.
Education and Research
How this is measured
14 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. 14 of the 32 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds University of Notre Dame du Lac ↗
- Who funds CATHOLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF SCIENCE ↗
- Who funds EXCEPTIONAL LIVES INC ↗
- Who funds Fairfield University ↗
- Who funds GREENLIGHT FUND INC ↗
- Who funds BEACON ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds BELMONT DAY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED SOUTH END SETTLEMENTS ↗
- Who funds Children's Hospital Corporation ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds St Rock Haiti Foundation LTD ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS ↗
- Who funds FENWICK IMPROVEMENT FUND INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · Eastern Bank Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Wade Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Wade Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
- The Trustees of Reservations: 2% of income from government
- Beacon Academy Inc: 1% of income from government
- Fairfield University: 1% of income from government
- Museum of Science: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Wade Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Wade Family 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.
Play a game based on Wade Family’s filings →