· Private foundation
The Wadhams Family 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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $13k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $138k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $150k
- $250k+1 grant · $710k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN | $710,000 |
| ANN ARBOR ART CENTER | $50,000 |
| CHAD TOUGH CORNERSTONE CLUB | $50,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $50,000 |
| STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOC | $35,000 |
| ANN ARBOR A'S BASEBALL | $20,000 |
| ANN ARBOR PIONEER HS BOOSTER CLUB | $20,000 |
| SHELTER ASSOC WASHTENAW CTY | $17,500 |
| MICHIGAN LEAGUE CONSERVATION VOTERS | $15,000 |
| GARRETT'S SPACE | $15,000 |
| RAY & MARY KNIGHT FOUNDATION | $15,000 |
| FISHER HOUSE | $5,000 |
| PIONEER HIGH SCHOOL - HALL OF FAME | $5,000 |
| THERAPEUTIC RIDING | $2,500 |
| HURON RIVER WATER SHED COUNCIL | $500 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–21, $199k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +121% since the first grant, against +3% for the ones you funded once.
22 repeat relationships — 11 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
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 FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $55k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- UOUniversity of Michigan4× · 2017–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +202% · 94% of their budget
- AAAnn Arbor Art Association4× · 2020–2024 · $250k · revenue +122%
- TSTHE STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION INC5× · 2020–2024 · $108k · revenue +30%
Funded once
- UOU OF M ALUMNI ASSOCone grant, 2017 · $252k
- AAANN ARBOR A'S TRAVEL BASEBALLone grant, 2021 · $200k
AMERICAN UNIVERSITYone grant, 2021 · $200k · revenue +20%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Informing and educating the public and decision makers about environmental issues.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
The Association is an independent worldwide organization that nurtures lifelong relationships with and among current and future Michigan alumni. As a committed partner of the University the Association offers programs of relevance and…
Be and create stewards for the water environment of michigan. provide high quality education for michigan's water professionals. educate and inform policy makers and the general public. promote scientifically sound environmental practices…
To promote conditions favorable to job creation and business success in michigan.
To encourage and support its members as professionals responsible for the delivery of patient-focused care.
Assisting the community mental health boards of michigan in developing methods for mental health planning, care and treatment.
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
Inspire awareness, appreciation and passion for michigan's history and stories, culture and environment through the arts.
The mission of the michigan science center is to inspire curious minds of all ages to discover, explore and appreciate science, technology, engineering and math in a creative, dynamic learning environment.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ozone House Inc and the most unlike its peers is St Louis Center. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 41 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
26 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 26 of the 69 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds University of Michigan ↗
- Who funds Ann Arbor Art Association ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds THE STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds ST LOUIS CENTER ↗
- Who funds Arbor Hospice Inc ↗
- Who funds OZONE HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds HURON RIVER WATERSHED COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds ELE'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds GIRLS GROUP ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION ↗
- Who funds CHADTOUGH DEFEAT DIPG FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ANN ARBOR PIONEER BOOSTER CLUB ↗
- Who funds Packard Health Inc ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds GARRETT'S SPACE ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS INC ↗
- Who funds THE GENEROSITY PROJECT CORP ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation · James a and Faith Knight Foundation · United Way of Washtenaw County · Harry a and Margaret D Towsley Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · Herrick Foundation · Speckhard-Knight Charitable Foundation · THE MOSAIC FOUNDATION (Of R & P Heydon) · Thrift Shop Association of Ann Arbor · Edward F Redies Foundation Inc · The Buhr Foundation · Dte Energy Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Wadhams Family Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Wadhams Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Wadhams 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.