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The Whitney Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Whitney 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.

$24k
Granted FY2024still arriving
8
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$8k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$72kEducation$47kCrime & Legal$45kPublic Safety & Disaster$30kHealth$23kRecreation & Sports$6kReligion$6kCommunity Improvement$6kOther$0
02FY2024 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$3,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$595k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$8,000
Individual grant recipient$6,000
ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT$5,000
BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE$3,000
GRAHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION$500
ST PETER LUTHERAN CHURCH$500
ELMWOOD BUSINESS WOMEN$500
ELMWOOD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$200
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 95% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%ST PETERS LUTHERAN PRESCHOOL: $10k → 11%MEHLVILLE RETIRED EDUCATORS SCHOLARSHIP: $500 → 11%ST JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $500 → 17%RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS: $500 → 11%GRAHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION: $500 → 13%ST PETER LUTHERAN CHURCH: $500 → 14%SOUTH SIDE MISSION: $3k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $12k → 19%SOUTH SIDE MISSION: $1k → 14%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION: $10k → 19%ICON COLLECTIVE: $6k → 19%ELMWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $20k → 14%ELMWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $15k → 14%ELMWOOD EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%ELMWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $10k → 14%ELMWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT: $9k → 14%ELMWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT: $8k → 14%ELMWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT: $8k → 14%ELMWOOD THEATER: $8k → 14%ELMWOOD HISTORICAL GROUP: $8k → 14%ELMWOOD HISTORICAL GROUP: $6k → 14%ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD HISTORICAL GROUP: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%CITY OF ELMWOOD: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT: $5k → 14%ELMWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT: $4k → 14%ELMWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT: $4k → 14%BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE: $3k → 14%ELMWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: $3k → 14%BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE: $3k → 14%ELMWOOD K-9 UNIT OF POLICE DEPARTMENT: $3k → 14%BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE: $3k → 14%BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE: $3k → 14%BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE: $3k → 14%ELMWOOD K-9 UNIT OF POLICE DEPARTMENT: $3k → 14%BYE AMBULANCE SERVICE: $3k → 14%ELMWOOD K-9 UNIT OF POLICE DEPARTMENT: $2k → 14%ELMWOOD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1k → 14%VFW POST 4724: $750 → 14%HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: $3k → 14%ST MARK CATHOLIC CHURCH: $1k → 14%WHEELS O' TIME MUSEUM: $1k → 14%DUNLAP HIGH SCHOOL: $950 → 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.

79%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$188k · 12 repeat orgs$50k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against -7% for those funded once.

12 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

12
23

Total granted

$188k
$49k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
-7%

Still filing today

42%
26%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthArts & CultureEducationPhilanthropyOther
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

  • EF
    ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT INC
    6× · 2019–2024 · $30k · revenue +63%
  • University of Illinois Foundation
    2× · 2021–2022 · $22k · revenue +57%
  • BY
    B Y E AMBULANCE SERVICE INC
    6× · 2019–2024 · $18k · revenue +68%

Funded once

  • SP
    ST PETER LUTHERAN PRE-SCHOOL
    one grant, 2020 · $10k
  • EE
    ELMWOOD EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue -56%
  • ET
    ELMWOOD THEATER
    one grant, 2022 · $8k
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
Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation
Human Services
2
Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare Group

The elmhurst memorial healthcare group follows the mission of endeavor health (f/k/a ns-ee holdings). the mission of endeavor health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." central to this mission is a commitment to…

—
3
Edward Hospital

Edward Hospital follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
4
Illinois Community Health Foundation Inc
—
5
Illinois Center for Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation
Philanthropy
6
Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare

Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
7
Endeavor Health Clinical Operations

Endeavor Health Clinical Operations follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
8
Edward Foundation

Edward foundation follows the mission of endeavor health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

—
9
Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare

Elmhurst memorial healthcare follows the mission of endeavor health. the mission of endeavor health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." central to this mission is a commitment to providing clinical programs and services…

Health
10
University of Chicago Medical Center

Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…

Health
11
Emory University

Emory University's mission is to create, preserve, teach, and apply knowledge in the service of humanity. (See Schedule O for continuation)

Education
12
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Illinois Cancercare Foundation; the most unlike its peers is The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation 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

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 38 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)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/14
Grantees still filing
8/14
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE ELMWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $45,200 · OtherTHE ELMWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETYIndividual grant recipient: $37,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipientELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT INC: $30,000 · OtherELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT INCIndividual grant recipient: $18,500 · OtherIndividual grant recipientST PETER LUTHERAN PRE-SCHOOL: $10,000 · OtherST PETER LUTHERAN PRE-SCHOOLELMWOOD THEATER: $7,500 · OtherELMWOOD K-9 UNIT OF POLICE DEPARTMENT: $7,000 · Other+21 more: $29,450 · Other+21 moreUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $22,000 · EducationUniversity…B Y E AMBULANCE SERVICE INC: $17,800 · HealthB Y E AMB…ILLINOIS CANCERCARE FOUNDATION: $1,000 · HealthGRAHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INCORPORATED: $800 · Health+3 more: $900 · HealthELMWOOD EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $10,000 · PhilanthropyELMWOOD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $2,200 · PhilanthropyWHEELS O' TIME MUSEUM: $1,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$185,150Education$22,000Health$20,500Philanthropy$12,200Arts & Culture$1,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT INC: $30,000 over 6y, 3.1% of budgetUniversity of Illinois Foundation: $22,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetB Y E AMBULANCE SERVICE INC: $17,800 over 6y, 0.6% of budgetELMWOOD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $2,200 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetWHEELS O' TIME MUSEUM: $1,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetILLINOIS CANCERCARE FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGRAHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INCORPORATED: $800 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetEASTER SEALS INC: $800 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRonald McDonald House Charities of Central Illinois: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENT IL CNTR FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPARIED: $300 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetThe Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Inc: $100 over 1y, 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 ELMWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT INC ↗
  • Who funds University of Illinois Foundation ↗
  • Who funds B Y E AMBULANCE SERVICE INC ↗
  • Who funds ELMWOOD EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds ICON COLLECTIVE INC ↗
  • Who funds ELMWOOD COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds WHEELS O' TIME MUSEUM ↗
  • Who funds ILLINOIS CANCERCARE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds GRAHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds EASTER SEALS INC ↗
  • Who funds Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Illinois ↗
  • Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
  • Who funds CENT IL CNTR FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPARIED ↗
  • Who funds The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation 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.

Doug and Diane Oberhe…Peoria Area Community…Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Doug and Diane Oberhelman Family FoundationIL13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Doug and Diane Oberhelman Family Foundation · Peoria Area Community Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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 Whitney Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Whitney Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    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.

    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 38 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Whitney’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