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The William B Wiener Jr Foundation at a glance

· Public charity

The William B Wiener Jr Foundation

Type I supporting organization to rockefeller family fund, inc.

$1.8M
Granted FY2019
44
Grants FY2019
17
States reached
$381k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

100% of The William B Wiener Jr Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Rockefeller Family Fund Inc, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year The William B Wiener Jr Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 43 organizations, $2M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

42
’18
43
’19
0
’20
0
’21
0
’22
0
’23
0
’24

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2024.

Philanthropy$71MCivil Rights$700kEnvironment$495kPublic Benefit$385kEducation$190kHealth$131kCrime & Legal$130kScience & Tech$100kOther$0
02FY2019 · 44 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2019

  • Under $10k1 grant · $6k
  • $10k–50k31 grants · $720k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $710k
  • $250k+1 grant · $381k
$30,000
Median grant
17
States reached
$4.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND$381,000
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER$70,000
PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION$70,000
AMERICAN ATHEIST$70,000
AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE$70,000
FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION$70,000
UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS$70,000
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation Inc$70,000
W J Brennan Center For Justice$70,000
Interfaith Alliance Foundation$50,000
ICIVICS INC$50,000
ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE$50,000
STRONG TOWNS$40,000
Just Detention International$40,000
INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY ECONOMICS & FINANCIAL ANALYSI$40,000
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 (FY18–19, $30k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%THE INNOCENCE PROJECT: $20k → 17%THE INNOCENCE PROJECT: $10k → 17%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.

Which US states its grants reach

AK
VT
MT
MN
WI
NY
MA
OH
NJ
CA
CO
VA
MD
AZ
TN
DC
LA
AL
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.

80%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.8M · 29 repeat orgs$451k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +74% since the first grant, against +56% for those funded once.

29 repeat relationships: 29 still active in FY2019, 0 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, 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

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

29
13

Total granted

$1.8M
$225k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+74%
+56%

Still filing today

100%
92%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2019, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $226k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19
EnvironmentCivil RightsEducationPublic BenefitReligionCrime & LegalOther
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

  • AU
    AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
    2× · 2018–2019 · $120k · revenue +74%
  • THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC
    2× · 2018–2019 · $100k · revenue +5%
  • AA
    AMERICAN ATHEISTS INC
    2× · 2018–2019 · $100k · revenue +7%

Funded once

  • TS
    The Sanders Institute
    one grant, 2018 · $35k · revenue -16%
  • EARTHJUSTICEgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $30k · revenue +114%
  • TT
    THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2018 · $20k
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
Open Markets Institute

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.

Education
2
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
3
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive enterprise institute (cei) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. we believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being…

—
4
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

—
5
National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners

Founded in 1889, the national association of regulatory utility commisioners (naruc) is a non-profit organization dedicated to representing the state public service commisions who regulate the utilities that provide essential services such…

—
6
Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International
7
Third Way

To research and develop centrist policy ideas.

Civil Rights
8
Center for International Environmental Law Inc

To investigate, research, write, publish, present conferences and teach with respect to global, regional, transboundary, and comparative environmental issues and to make the findings from such activities available to the general public; to…

International
9
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
10
American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona

The american civil liberties union of arizona is the state's premier guardian of liberty working through the arizona legislature and communities statewide to defend and preserve individual rights and freedoms guaranteed to all by the…

—
11
Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. Pew Research Center generates a foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue and…

Social Science
12
American Law Institute

The institute's mission, as set out in its certificate of incorporation, is to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to…

Crime & Legal
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is National Immigration Law Center; the most unlike its peers is New York University. 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

57 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. 57 of the 58 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
57/57
Grantees still filing
46/57
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC: $70,625,999 · PhilanthropyROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INCAMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: $120,000 · Civil RightsPEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION: $105,000 · Civil RightsAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $80,000 · Civil RightsFair Elections Center: $60,000 · Civil RightsALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE: $50,000 · Civil RightsTHE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER: $40,000 · Civil RightsThe Sanders Institute: $35,000 · Civil RightsAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION OF LOUISIANA: $20,000 · Civil RightsNATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER: $20,000 · Civil Rights+1 more: $10,000 · Civil RightsENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY PROJECT: $60,000 · EnvironmentINSTITUTE FOR ENERGY ECONOMICS AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS INC: $60,000 · EnvironmentSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $45,000 · EnvironmentTHE WILDERNESS SOCIETY: $45,000 · EnvironmentConservation Lands Foundation: $40,000 · EnvironmentEARTHJUSTICE: $30,000 · EnvironmentSUNRISE MOVEMENT EDUCATION FUND: $30,000 · EnvironmentGREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION: $15,000 · Environment+6 more: $60,000 · EnvironmentWILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC: $90,000 · EducationICIVICS INC: $60,000 · EducationTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $50,000 · EducationBRANDEIS UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationBENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION: $20,000 · EducationCOMPASSION & CHOICES ACTION NETWORK: $15,000 · EducationTHE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION: $10,000 · EducationNew York University: $10,000 · EducationAMERICAN ATHEISTS INC: $100,000 · ReligionFREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION INC: $80,000 · ReligionTHE INTERFAITH ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC: $80,000 · ReligionSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: $95,000 · Crime & LegalJUST DETENTION INTERNATIONAL: $60,000 · Crime & LegalCOURT WATCH NOLA: $40,000 · Crime & LegalCOMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUND: $65,000 · Public BenefitTHE NISKANEN CENTER INC: $60,000 · Public BenefitRepresentUs Education Fund: $35,000 · Public BenefitGovernment Accountability Project: $15,000 · Public BenefitPROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT INC: $15,000 · Public BenefitTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $100,000 · OtherPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $60,000 · OtherNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS IN WOMEN'S HEALTH: $30,000 · OtherSOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER: $20,000 · OtherTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: $20,000 · OtherEL PUENTE DE WILLIAMSBURG INC: $20,000 · OtherSTRONG TOWNS: $60,000 · OtherTHE INNOCENCE PROJECT INC: $30,000 · OtherCENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC: $20,000 · Other+5 more: $45,500 · Other
Philanthropy$70,625,999Civil Rights$540,000Environment$385,000Education$295,000Religion$260,000Crime & Legal$195,000Public Benefit$190,000Other$405,500

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 budgetROCKEFELLER FAMILY FUND INC: $70,625,999 over 7y, 88% of budgetAMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: $120,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetPEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY FOUNDATION: $105,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetTHE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS INC: $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetAMERICAN ATHEISTS INC: $100,000 over 2y, 8.4% of budgetSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: $95,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWILLIAM J BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE INC: $90,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetFREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION INC: $80,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetTHE INTERFAITH ALLIANCE FOUNDATION INC: $80,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION INC: $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMON CAUSE EDUCATION FUND: $65,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetICIVICS INC: $60,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY PROJECT: $60,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR ENERGY ECONOMICS AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS INC: $60,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetFair Elections Center: $60,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $60,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NISKANEN CENTER INC: $60,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetJUST DETENTION INTERNATIONAL: $60,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetSTRONG TOWNS: $60,000 over 2y, 5.7% of budgetTHE ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TULANE EDUCATIONAL FUND: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE: $50,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $45,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE WILDERNESS SOCIETY: $45,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBRANDEIS UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetConservation Lands Foundation: $40,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER: $40,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOURT WATCH NOLA: $40,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetThe Sanders Institute: $35,000 over 1y, 4.8% of budgetRepresentUs Education Fund: $35,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE INNOCENCE PROJECT INC: $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEARTHJUSTICE: $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NURSE PRACTITIONERS IN WOMEN'S HEALTH: $30,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetSUNRISE MOVEMENT EDUCATION FUND: $30,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetAMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION OF LOUISIANA: $20,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetBENNINGTON COLLEGE CORPORATION: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER: $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetEL PUENTE DE WILLIAMSBURG INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetGovernment Accountability Project: $15,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetPROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCOMPASSION & CHOICES ACTION NETWORK: $15,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetGREENPEACE FUND INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetALASKA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR LOCAL SELF RELIANCE: $10,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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.

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.

Rockefeller Family Fu…Evolve FoundationNew Venture FundTortuga Charitable Fo…The Ford FoundationTides FoundationPatagoniaorgAmalgamated Charitabl…Climate Imperative Fo…Rockefeller Philanthr…Park Foundation IncWellspring Philanthro…
Rockefeller Family Fund IncNY30.2× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Rockefeller Family Fund Inc · Evolve Foundation · New Venture Fund · Tortuga Charitable Foundation · The Ford Foundation · Tides Foundation · Patagoniaorg · Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc · Climate Imperative Foundation · Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Inc · Park Foundation Inc · Wellspring Philanthropic Fund Inc

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 William B Wiener Jr Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The William B Wiener Jr Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 50%6%23%51%90%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 9%
  • Icivics Inc: 13% of income from government
  • Brandeis University: 9% of income from government
  • Bennington College Corporation: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
5get no government money at all
2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 William B Wiener Jr Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The William B Wiener Jr 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 58 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2019, released 2019. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on William B Wiener Jr’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