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· Private foundation

The Wls Spencer Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.6M
Granted FY2025still arriving
21
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.

Arts & Culture$4.4MEducation$3.9MEnvironment$2.0MHealth$385kPhilanthropy$380kYouth Development$343kInternational$120kHuman Services$85kOther$0
02FY2025 · 21 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k8 grants · $171k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $956k
  • $250k+2 grants · $500k
$50,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$8.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION$250,000
MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART$250,000
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC$175,000
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION$170,526
MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC$125,000
MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART$100,000
KLCC PUBLIC RADIO FOUNDATION$75,000
CHARITABLE PARTNERSHIP FUND$60,000
LANE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT 4J$50,180
THE JOHN G SHEDD INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS$50,000
SOLOMON R GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION$50,000
LANE ARTS COUNCIL$50,000
MUSEUM ASSOCIATES$50,000
SMART READING$40,000
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM$31,186
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–22, $85k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF LANE COUNTY INC: $15k → 15%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF LANE COUNTY INC: $5k → 15%FII NATIONAL: $25k → 10%FII NATIONAL: $25k → 10%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF LANE COUNTY: $5k → 15%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF LANE COUNTY: $5k → 15%ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF LANE COUNTY: $5k → 15%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

VT
WA
IL
NY
MA
OR
PA
CA
CO
NM
KS
HI
GA

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 8% of The Wls Spencer Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

The Wls Spencer Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 8.8% directed abroad (not shown)

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$11M · 52 repeat orgs$919k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +41% since the first grant, against +13% for the ones you funded once.

52 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2025, 38 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

52
26

Total granted

$11M
$808k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+41%
+13%

Still filing today

88%
85%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $111k 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
EducationArts & CultureEnvironmentYouth DevelopmentCommunity ImprovementPhilanthropyOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +3%
  • UNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2025 · $912k · revenue +65%
  • TS
    THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION
    7× · 2019–2025 · $850k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • TA
    THE ASIA SOCIETY
    one grant, 2024 · $100k · revenue -4%
  • Rocky Mountain Institutegraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue +227%
  • NB
    NEWPORT BEACH JUNIOR LIFEGUARD FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2021 · $70k · revenue -98%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
2
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
3
Museum of Arts and Design

To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.

Arts & Culture
4
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

The museum of contemporary art san diego invites all audiences to experience our world, our region, and ourselves through the prism of contemporary art.

Arts & Culture
5
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
6
Mills College

Mills college is an independent liberal arts college for women and gender nonbinary students, with graduate programs for all genders. the college educates students to think critically and communicate responsibly and effectively, to accept…

—
7
New York School of Interior Design

New york school of interior design provides the most innovative, immersive, and transformative interior design education in the world, demonstrating the impact of professionally designed interiors on the health, happiness, and well-being…

Education
8
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
9
Rhode Island School of Design

The mission of rhode island school of design, through its college and museum,is to educate its students and the public in the creation and (see schedule o)appreciation of works of art and design, to discover and transmit knowledge and to…

Education
10
Augustana College

Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…

Education
11
Monterey Museum of Art

The monterey museum of art cultivates curiosity in the visual arts and engages community with the diversity of california art - past, present, and future.

Arts & Culture
12
University Cooperative School

We take a joyful, community-oriented approach to raising engaged citizens, deep learners, and brave adventurers with the skills, creativity, and heart needed to better the world.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Oregon Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Freshgrass Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyCommunity FoundationsPolicy Research and AdvocacyLocal History MuseumsCommunity Arts CentersEnvironmental Conservation …Health Access Advocacy and …Orchestra and Ensemble Perf…Food Banks and PantriesPregnancy Support ServicesElementary Literacy TutoringYouth Sports ProgramsFaith-Based Liberal Arts Co…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 31 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number22%1%<5yr14%6%5–10yr19%16%10–20yr16%33%20–35yr13%20%35–55yr16%24%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value22%1%<5yr14%13%5–10yr19%7%10–20yr16%42%20–35yr13%17%35–55yr16%20%55yr+

The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
1%1/76
the rest of the field
13%
240,395/1,819,489

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

05the grantee network

76 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 76 of the 82 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
18
Early backer (in before they grew)
72/76
Grantees still filing
51/76
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION INC — $1,557,580 · EducationMASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUND…UNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION — $912,369 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATIONTeach for America Inc — $800,000 · EducationTeach for America Inc826 Valencia — $260,000 · EducationSMART READING — $246,000 · Education+16 more — $1,125,539 · Education+16 moreFreshgrass Public Foundation — $712,500 · Arts & CultureFreshgrass Public Fo…SOLOMON R GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION — $275,005 · Arts & CultureSOLOMON R GUGGENHEIM…LANE ARTS COUNCIL — $250,000 · Arts & CultureLANE ARTS COUNCILTHE JOHN G SHEDD INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS — $167,000 · Arts & CultureTHE JOHN G SHEDD INS…CORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS — $125,000 · Arts & CultureCORPORATION OF THE F…MAUDE KERNS ART CENTER — $87,479 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM ASSOCIATES — $80,000 · Arts & Culture+13 more — $437,186 · Arts & Culture+13 moreFRESHGRASS FOUNDATION — $902,500 · OtherFRESHGRASS FOUNDATIONLANE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT 4J — $346,338 · OtherLANE COUNTY SCHOOL DIST…Hancock Shaker Village Inc — $105,000 · OtherRocky Mountain Institute — $100,000 · OtherBAY AREA SCORES — $270,000 · OtherBAY AREA SCORESPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SW OREGON — $100,000 · OtherTHE ASIA SOCIETY — $100,000 · Other+16 more — $493,840 · Other+16 moreTHE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION — $850,000 · EnvironmentTHE SURFR…Ten Strands — $130,000 · EnvironmentTen Stran…+4 more — $52,000 · EnvironmentKLCC PUBLIC RADIO FOUNDATION — $555,000 · Community ImprovementLEVER INC — $55,000 · Community ImprovementNORTHERN BERKSHIRE COMMUNITY COALITION INC — $25,000 · Community Improvement+1 more — $20,000 · Community ImprovementMORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC — $320,000 · PhilanthropyCHARITABLE PARTNERSHIP FUND — $60,000 · PhilanthropyEUGENE SOUTHTOWNE ROTARY FOUNDATION — $50,000 · Philanthropy+1 more — $10,000 · PhilanthropyPEER HEALTH EXCHANGE INC — $230,000 · Youth DevelopmentNEWPORT BEACH JUNIOR LIFEGUARD FOUNDATION — $70,000 · Youth DevelopmentPLAYWORKS EDUCATION ENERGIZED — $15,000 · Youth Development+1 more — $3,000 · Youth Development
Education$4,901,488Arts & Culture$2,134,170Other$2,417,678Environment$1,032,000Community Improvement$655,000Philanthropy$440,000Youth Development$318,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION INC — $1,557,580 over 9y, 1.4% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION — $912,369 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTHE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION — $850,000 over 7y, 1.7% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $800,000 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetFreshgrass Public Foundation — $712,500 over 3y, 23% of budgetKLCC PUBLIC RADIO FOUNDATION — $555,000 over 8y, 15% of budgetSOLOMON R GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION — $275,005 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBAY AREA SCORES — $270,000 over 7y, 2.8% of budget826 Valencia — $260,000 over 8y, 1.1% of budgetLANE ARTS COUNCIL — $250,000 over 6y, 12% of budgetSMART READING — $246,000 over 7y, 1.3% of budgetPEER HEALTH EXCHANGE INC — $230,000 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetTHE JOHN G SHEDD INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS — $167,000 over 8y, 0.2% of budgetCALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS — $150,539 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ARMAND HAMMER UNITED WORLD COLLEGE OF THE AMER — $150,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTen Strands — $130,000 over 3y, 2.5% of budgetCORPORATION OF THE FINE ARTS MUSEUMS — $125,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetNEWPORT HARBOR EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION C/O EMILY EVANS — $110,000 over 6y, 2.8% of budgetHancock Shaker Village Inc — $105,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO FRIENDS SCHOOL — $105,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetREADING PARTNERS — $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SW OREGON — $100,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetKIPP BAY AREA SCHOOLS — $100,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWilliams College — $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ASIA SOCIETY — $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEW LEADERS INC — $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetRocky Mountain Institute — $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMAUDE KERNS ART CENTER — $87,479 over 8y, 7.5% of budgetMUSEUM ASSOCIATES — $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNEWPORT BEACH JUNIOR LIFEGUARD FOUNDATION — $70,000 over 1y, 8.2% of budgetEUGENE CONTEMPORARY ART — $65,000 over 2y, 81% of budgetLEVER INC — $55,000 over 2y, 6.8% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJAPAN SOCIETY INC — $50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHUDSON RIVER MUSEUM OF WESTCHESTER — $50,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO — $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetONE PURPOSE SCHOOL INC — $50,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFII - NATIONAL — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEUGENE SOUTHTOWNE ROTARY FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 3y, 26% of budgetFOOD FOR LANE COUNTY — $50,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetWHITE BIRD CLINIC — $45,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTHE BREAKTHROUGH COLLABORATIVE — $45,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC — $40,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPARTNERS IN OAKLAND EDUCATION DBA VINCENT ACADEMY — $40,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY OF LANE COUNTY INC — $35,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY SUPPORTED SHELTERS — $35,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetPORTLAND ART MUSEUM — $34,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Oregon Community …The Ford Family Found…Chambers Family Found…Lane Community Health…Tykeson Family Charit…United Way of Lane Co…Reed Family Foundatio…James F & Marion L Mi…The San Francisco Fou…The Collins FoundationAlton F Baker Family …Food for Lane County
The Oregon Community FoundationOR31.6× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Oregon Community Foundation · The Ford Family Foundation · Chambers Family Foundation · Lane Community Health Council · Tykeson Family Charitable Trust · United Way of Lane County · Reed Family Foundation Inc · James F & Marion L Miller Foundation · The San Francisco Foundation · The Collins Foundation · Alton F Baker Family Foundation · Food for Lane County

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization The Wls Spencer Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 70%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 5%
  • White Bird Clinic — 29% of income from government
  • Boys and Girls Clubs of Emerald Valley — 15% of income from government
  • Lane Arts Council — 14% of income from government
  • Lever Inc — 10% of income from government
  • St Vincent De Paul Society of Lane County Inc — 7% of income from government
  • Food for Lane County — 5% of income from government
  • Oregon Contemporary Theatre — 5% of income from government
  • Smart Reading — 3% of income from government
  • Mount Pisgah Arboretum — 2% of income from government
  • Klcc Public Radio Foundation — 2% of income from government
  • Hancock Shaker Village Inc — 1% of income from government
  • Portland Art Museum — 1% of income from government
  • Community Supported Shelters — 0% of income from government
  • Williams College — 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
7get no government money at all
23report 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

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Wls Spencer Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Wls Spencer 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 82 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines