· Private foundation
The Whitehead Charitable Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k3 grants · $16k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $100k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $147k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE | $97,000 |
| RAISING EXPECTATIONS INC | $50,000 |
| MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | $37,500 |
| MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL | $25,000 |
| CLEAN AIR TASK FORCE | $14,100 |
| THE PLACE | $12,500 |
| EARTH JUSTICE | $10,600 |
| RAINFOREST TRUST | $7,000 |
| WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE | $7,000 |
| BICYLE COALITION OF GREATER PHILADELPHIA | $1,800 |
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 (FY25–25, $13k) land where the poverty rate runs at 4%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% 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.
13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $20k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WIWHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH9× · 2017–2025 · $750k · revenue +131%
- BCBERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC INC5× · 2017–2021 · $423k · revenue +18%
- RERAISING EXPECTATIONS INC6× · 2020–2025 · $235k · revenue +177%
Funded once
- MCMAB COMMUNITY SERVICES INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $75k · revenue +34%
- CCCOOLIDGE CORNER THEATERone grant, 2023 · $15k
- RTRAINFOREST TRUSTone grant, 2022 · $8k · revenue +4%
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.
Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)
Conservation law foundation, inc. (clf) protects new england's environment for the benefit of all people and future generations. we use the law, science, and markets to create solutions that preserve and restore our natural resources,…
To raise awareness about the potential to reduce environmental harm by shifting electricity use to particular times; to encourage the development and spread of common protocols for this practice.
Ci works to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.
The climate institute is organized for the purpose of educating the general public and policy makers as to the gravity of potential climate change, exploring the policy implications of the latest scientific findings on climate modelling…
To research and develop centrist policy ideas.
Ceres is a nonprofit advocacy organization working to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more just, and resilient world. through education and research, we make the business case for action on the most pressing sustainability…
Shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. we are a global network of professionals in every sector of real estate development and land use, from private enterprise to public service.
Shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies.
The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
The american geosciences institute (agi) was founded in 1948, under a directive of the national academy of sciences, as a network of associations representing geoscientists with a diverse array of skills and knowledge of our planet. the…
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 20 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 WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC INC ↗
- Who funds RAISING EXPECTATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds THE JOHN WHITEHEAD FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Massachusetts Institute of Technology ↗
- Who funds ACLU FOUNDATION OF GEORGIA INC ↗
- Who funds MAB COMMUNITY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds CLEAN AIR TASK FORCE INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds EARTHJUSTICE ↗
- Who funds WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds The Place of Forsyth County Inc ↗
- Who funds RAINFOREST TRUST ↗
- Who funds Bicycle Coalition Of Greater Philadelphia ↗
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: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Whitehead Charitable Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Whitehead Charitable Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Mab Community Services Inc: 69% of income from government
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 35% of income from government
- Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: 7% of income from government
- Berklee College of Music Inc: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Whitehead Charitable Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Whitehead 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.
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