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The William Kistler Charitable Fund at a glance

· Private foundation

The William Kistler Charitable Fund

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.

$134k
Granted FY2021
15
Grants FY2021
7
States reached
$25k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its 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, FY2020 to 2021.

Arts & Culture$43kEnvironment$36kHealth$25kAnimals$20kPhilanthropy$10kInternational$2kReligion$2k
02FY2021 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k8 grants · $21k
  • $10k–50k7 grants · $113k
$7,500
Median grant
7
States reached
$56
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC$25,000
PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF NEW YORK CITY INC$20,000
TIBET HOUSE INC$18,000
TIBETAN ARTS AND LITERATURE INITIATIVE$15,000
SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY$15,000
LYFORD CAY FOUNDATION INC$10,000
PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA$10,000
MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER$7,500
PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE$5,000
FRIENDS OF THE BAHAMAS HUMANE SOCIETY INC$2,000
PBS FOUNDATION$2,000
DILGO KHYENTSE FELLOWSHIP$1,500
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC$1,000
WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS INC$1,000
THE MERWIN CONSERVANCY INC$600
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 (FY20–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 86% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK NORTH AMERICA: $10k → 10%THE MERWIN CONSERVANCY INC: $600 → 9%NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $25k → 17%WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS INC: $1k → 20%TIBETAN ARTS AND LITERATURE INITIATIVE: $15k → 10%PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE: $5k → 14%FRIENDS OF THE BAHAMAS HUMANE SOCIETY INC: $2k → 11%SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $15k → 6%PBS FOUNDATION: $2k → 7%TIBET HOUSE INC: $18k → 17%GLOBAL ANIMAL RESCUE FUND: $3k → 17%DILGO KHYENTSE FELLOWSHIP: $2k → 17%MAYSLES DOCUMENTARY CENTER: $8k → 17%PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF NEW YORK CITY INC: $20k → 17%AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC: $1k → 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.
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 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
Wildaid Inc

Wildaid's mission is to inspire change and empower the world to protect wildlife and vital habitats from critical threats.

Animals
2
Partnership for Policy Integrity

Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) uses data-driven advocacy and litigation to fight for forests, communities and the climate.

Environment
3
International Rivers Network

International Rivers protects rivers and defends the rights of communities that depend on them.

Environment
4
Bank Climate Advocates

Bank Climate Advocates (BCA) combats climate change and its adverse effects primarily by using legal advocacy and action to align public financial institutions' investment policies and practices with the 1.5 degrees C warming limitation…

Environment
5
Grist Magazine Inc

Grist is an independent, non profit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change.

Environment
6
Princeton University Press

Our fundamental mission is to bring scholarly ideas to the world. we publish books that connect authors and readers across spheres of knowledge to advance and enrich the human conversation. we embrace the highest standards in our…

Arts & Culture
7
Rainforest Trust

Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.

International
8
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
9
World Resources Institute

Wri is committed to creating change that improves people's lives and ensures the natural world can thrive. (see schedule o)wri's bold vision requires a formula for success we call "count it. change it. scale it.":- count it: our work is…

International
10
Wild Earth Allies Inc

Our mission is to protect vital areas of our natural world for the benefit of wildlife, habitats, and people by inspiring collaborative action. Our vision is a world where wildlife and people flourish in healthy ecosystems that sustain us…

Environment
11
Fsc I&P

Fsc i&p promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. this mission aligns with the forest stewardship council (fsc), its network of offices, and other organizations.…

Philanthropy
12
Amazon Watch Inc

To protect the rainforest and advance the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with Indigenous communities in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability, and the preservation of the Amazon Basin's…

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Pbs Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Tibetan Arts & Literature Initiative. 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 16 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/14
Grantees still filing
8/14
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $25,000 · EnvironmentNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COU…Pesticide Action Network North America: $10,000 · EnvironmentPesticide Action Network Nort…+1 more: $600 · EnvironmentTIBET HOUSE US INC: $18,000 · Arts & CultureTIBET HOUSE US INCMAYSLES INSTITUTE INC: $7,500 · Arts & CultureMAYSLES INSTITUTE INCPBS FOUNDATION: $2,000 · Arts & CulturePBS FOUNDATIONPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK INC: $20,000 · HealthPLANNED PARENTHOOD O…Physicians Committee for Responsible Med: $5,000 · HealthPhysicians Committee…SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $15,000 · AnimalsSEA SHEPHERD C…Friends of the Bahamas Humane Society Inc: $2,000 · AnimalsFriends of the…Tibetan Arts & Literature Initiative: $15,000 · EducationTibetan Arts…LYFORD CAY FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 · PhilanthropyGLOBAL ANIMAL RESCUE FUND: $3,000 · OtherDILGO KHYENTSE FELLOWSHIP: $1,500 · OtherAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC: $1,000 · InternationalWords Without Borders Inc: $1,000 · International
Environment$35,600Arts & Culture$27,500Health$25,000Animals$17,000Education$15,000Philanthropy$10,000Other$4,500International$2,000

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 budgetNATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF GREATER NEW YORK INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTIBET HOUSE US INC: $18,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetSEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLYFORD CAY FOUNDATION INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPesticide Action Network North America: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMAYSLES INSTITUTE INC: $7,500 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetPhysicians Committee for Responsible Med: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPBS FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OF THE USA INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWords Without Borders Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMERWIN CONSERVANCY INC: $600 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

National Philanthropi…Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
National Philanthropic TrustPA8.3× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 William Kistler Charitable Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The William Kistler Charitable Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    2get 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
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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 16 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 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2021, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on William Kistler’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