· Private foundation
The Wessel 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
65% of The Wessel Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Abilene Christian University, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year The Wessel Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $203k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
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 · FY2018
- Under $10k2 grants · $8k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $58k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $137k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RWANDA CHILDREN | $137,006 |
| ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY | $25,000 |
| CHILDRENS VISION INTERNATIONAL INC | $22,000 |
| TEEN LIFELINE INC | $11,000 |
| CHRISTS HAVEN FOR CHILDREN | $4,585 |
| COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT CENTER INC | $3,500 |
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, $90k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 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.
9 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2018, 4 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, 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 FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
- RCRwanda Children8× · 2017–2024 · $531k · revenue +107%
- LELiberty Educational Ministries Inc6× · 2019–2024 · $499k · revenue +39%
- FCFAITH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL INC5× · 2020–2024 · $100k · revenue +26%
Funded once
- GSGlobal Samaritan Resources Incgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $17k · revenue +30%
- OFOUR FATHER'S CHILDREN INCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $10k · revenue +69%
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.
The mission of Abilene Christian School, Inc. is to equip students to excel academically, serve meaningfully, and walk faithfully with God.
Covenant Christian School (CCS) is committed to the academic, spiritual, physical, and social growth of our children in a Christ-centered environment. Continued on Schedule O Covenant Christian School cultivates a distinctive generation…
To provide quality educational services to students in grades kindergarten through twelve, in a Christ-centered environment.
Childcare Worldwide (CW) transforms children's lives by exposing them to the gospel of Jesus Christ, providing for their physical needs, and sponsoring their education. We connect sponsors with children through Christ-based life centers.…
As part of the body of Christ, to see that every young person in every people group in every nation has the opportunity to make an informed decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ and become a part of the local church.
In dependence upon Almighty God, for His glory alone, and together with family and church, the mission of Providence Christian Academy is to provide exemplary education for the vulnerable in the light of God's Word for time and eternity.
To create transformative and globally connected learning experiences, preparing orphaned and vulnerable children for a lifetime of influence.
Crossing Cultures International, Inc. exists to glorify God by equipping Christ followers globally with comprehensive training for effective ministry.
The mission is to provide a biblically based classical college preparatory education that inspires a passion for excellence a heart of grace and the character of Christ.
We minister to orphans and widows in their distress by transitioning children from orphanages into loving families. We do this through Christ- centered care, training and social work.
Oconee Christian Academy exists to glorify God by nurturing students and equipping them to fulfill God's unique purpose for their lives.
Christianity Today is a global community inspired by evangelical conviction to advance the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God. Our mission is to elevate the storytellers and sages of the global church.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Faith Christian School Inc and the most unlike its peers is Global Samaritan Resources Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 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. 10 of the 12 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 ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Rwanda Children ↗
- Who funds Liberty Educational Ministries Inc ↗
- Who funds FAITH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S VISION INTERNATIONAL ↗
- Who funds TEEN LIFELINE INC ↗
- Who funds Christ's Haven for Children Inc ↗
- Who funds Global Samaritan Resources Inc ↗
- Who funds OUR FATHER'S CHILDREN INC ↗
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: Communities Foundation of Texas Inc · Community Foundation of North Texas (Tax · Textron Charitable Trust Dtd 122353 · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Charities Aid Foundation America · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 Wessel 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.