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The Wheeler Family Charitable Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Wheeler Family Charitable Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$90k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$90k
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.

Health$1.0MFood & Nutrition$930kHuman Services$237kHousing & Shelter$145kPublic Safety & Disaster$140kYouth Development$123kRecreation & Sports$105kArts & Culture$86kOther$0
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$90,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH$90,000
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 (FY17–24, $301k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CAMP PARC: $10k → 14%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY FOUNDATION: $40k → 14%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY FOUNDATION: $31k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $20k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $20k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $20k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $20k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $20k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $15k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $15k → 14%NEXT STEP CENTER: $15k → 14%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY FOUNDATION: $5k → 14%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.
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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.8M · 30 repeat orgs$87k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against +44% for those funded once.

30 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 29 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

30
16

Total granted

$2.8M
$87k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+44%
+44%

Still filing today

50%
25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
Human ServicesHealthArts & CulturePublic Safety & DisasterFood & NutritionEducationOther
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

  • TN
    THE NEXT STEP CENTER INC
    8× · 2017–2024 · $145k · revenue +37%
  • SV
    SOMERSET VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT
    8× · 2017–2024 · $134k · revenue +114%
  • SC
    SOMERSET COUNTY MOBILE FOOD BANK
    4× · 2017–2020 · $89k · revenue +144%

Funded once

  • PR
    PROSPECT RIDING CENTER INC
    one grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue -92%
  • BC
    BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC
    one grant, 2024 · $10k · revenue -3%
  • MV
    MACULA VISION RESEARCH FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $10k · revenue -100%
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
Somerset County Chamber of Commerce

The somerset county chamber of commerce is a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting the somerset county, pennsylvania region as a superior locale in which to live, work, vacation and conduct business.

—
2
Somerset County Federated Library System Inc

The system was formed to coordinate the efforts of three public libraries for collections and reference materials and provide library services for all three libraries in a cooperative fashion.

Education
3
Somerset County 4-H Association

To support the 4-h program (rutgers cooperative development - youth development program, somerset county, nj) in somerset county by providing a building for meeting space, sponsoring the annual 4-h fair, and providing other program support.

Youth Development
4
Somerset Trust
—
5
Somerset Country Club

Private country club located in mendota heights, mn. facilities include: golf, tennis, swimming pool and fine dining.

—
6
Somerset County Foundation for Higher Education

To support somerset county, pennsylvania residents in obtaining post- secondary education.

—
7
Mary S Biesecker Public Libary

The mission of the mary s. biesecker public library is to provide informational and recreational materials for the people of the community. provide books, programs, library services, and computer access to the public.

Education
8
The Somerset Club Charitable Trust
—
9
The Humane Society of Somerset County Inc

Preventing cruelty to animals, eliminate pet overpopulation and enhance the lives of animals as a service to the residents of somerset county. we responded to over 950 hotline calls.

Animals
10
Somerset County Economic Developmen Council

The organization was created for the economic development of somerset county, pennsylvania, with it's mission to promote industrial, commercial and retail growth in the county by recruiting and assisting new firms to locate in the county,…

—
11
Somerset County Fair Association

Promotion of agriculture and the awareness of farm life and farm activities.

—
12
Southampton County Historical Society
Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Outdoor Odyssey At Roaring Run Inc; the most unlike its peers is Blood Cancer United Inc. 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

22 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. 22 of the 47 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
20/22
Grantees still filing
16/22
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MEALS ON WHEELS: $450,000 · OtherMEALS ON WHEELSSOMERSET FOOD PANTRY: $390,000 · OtherSOMERSET FOOD PANTRYCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGH: $375,000 · OtherCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PITTSBURGHSOMERSET HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $219,000 · OtherSOMERSET HOSPITAL FOUNDATIONST JUDE RESEARCH HOSPITAL: $120,000 · OtherST JUDE RESEARCH HOSPITALSOMERSET IN TOUCH HOSPICE: $100,000 · OtherSALVATION ARMY: $92,700 · OtherALZHEIMER'S DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER (UPMC): $80,000 · Other+28 more: $400,900 · Other+28 moreTHE NEXT STEP CENTER INC: $145,000 · Human ServicesTHE NEXT ST…CAMP PARC: $80,000 · Human ServicesCAMP PARCChildrens Aid Society Foundation: $76,000 · Human ServicesChildrens A…SOMERSET VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT: $134,000 · Public Safety & Disaster+1 more: $2,500 · Public Safety & DisasterRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF PITTSBURGH AND MORGANTOWN INC: $85,000 · HealthBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $10,000 · HealthBIRTHRIGHT OF SOMERSET INC: $5,000 · HealthSOMERSET COUNTY MOBILE FOOD BANK: $89,000 · Food & NutritionUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $60,000 · EducationCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER JOHNSTOWN: $58,000 · Philanthropy
Other$2,227,600Human Services$301,000Public Safety & Disaster$136,500Health$100,000Food & Nutrition$89,000Education$60,000Philanthropy$58,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE NEXT STEP CENTER INC: $145,000 over 8y, 10% of budgetSOMERSET VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT: $134,000 over 8y, 8.6% of budgetSOMERSET COUNTY MOBILE FOOD BANK: $89,000 over 4y, 11% of budgetRONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF PITTSBURGH AND MORGANTOWN INC: $85,000 over 8y, 0.5% of budgetCAMP PARC: $80,000 over 8y, 9.0% of budgetChildrens Aid Society Foundation: $76,000 over 3y, 3.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH: $60,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER JOHNSTOWN: $58,000 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetOUTDOOR ODYSSEY AT ROARING RUN INC: $57,500 over 8y, 2.2% of budgetSOMERSET COUNTY 4-H DEV FUND INC: $45,000 over 7y, 20% of budgetLAUREL ARTS INC: $28,500 over 8y, 3.4% of budgetPROSPECT RIDING CENTER INC: $25,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetHISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY: $10,500 over 5y, 3.5% of budgetBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMACULA VISION RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetHUMANE SOCIETY OF SOMERSET COUNTY: $6,000 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetHISTORICAL & GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOMERSET COUNTY: $4,000 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetJOHNSTOWN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $3,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSIPESVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY: $2,500 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetMake-A-Wish Foundation of Greater PA and West Virginia Inc: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% 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.

  • Who funds THE NEXT STEP CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds SOMERSET VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT ↗
  • Who funds SOMERSET COUNTY MOBILE FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF PITTSBURGH AND MORGANTOWN INC ↗
  • Who funds CAMP PARC ↗
  • Who funds Childrens Aid Society Foundation ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ↗
  • Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER JOHNSTOWN ↗
  • Who funds OUTDOOR ODYSSEY AT ROARING RUN INC ↗
  • Who funds SOMERSET COUNTY 4-H DEV FUND INC ↗
  • Who funds LAUREL ARTS INC ↗
  • Who funds PROSPECT RIDING CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
  • Who funds MACULA VISION RESEARCH FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds HUMANE SOCIETY OF SOMERSET COUNTY ↗
  • Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF SOMERSET COUNTY INC ↗
  • Who funds BIRTHRIGHT OF SOMERSET INC ↗
  • Who funds HISTORICAL & GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOMERSET COUNTY ↗
  • Who funds JOHNSTOWN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ↗
  • Who funds SIPESVILLE VOLUNTEER FIRE COMPANY ↗

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.

Community Foundation …Randy and Barbara Dav…Riggs Family Foundati…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
Community Foundation of Greater JohnstownPA30× affinity12 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Greater Johnstown · Randy and Barbara Davies Family Foundation · Riggs Family Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Wheeler Family Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Wheeler Family Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
    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 Wheeler Family Charitable Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Wheeler Family Charitable 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 47 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 Wheeler Family’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