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The Wls Spencer Foundation at a glance

· 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 it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
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 2025.

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

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

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
MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART$250,000
THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION$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
SOLOMON R GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION$50,000
THE JOHN G SHEDD INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS$50,000
MUSEUM ASSOCIATES$50,000
LANE ARTS COUNCIL$50,000
SMART READING$40,000
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM$31,186
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 (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 its 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
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

VT
WA
IL
NY
MA
OR
PA
CA
CO
NM
KS
HI
GA
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.
04

Where the work is directed

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

About 8% of The Wls Spencer Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

The Wls Spencer Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 8.8% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
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 funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

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

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +41% since the first grant, against +13% for those 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
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

  • MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +13%
  • UNIVERSITY OF OREGON FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2025 · $912k · revenue +65%
  • TS
    THE SURFRIDER FOUNDATION
    7× · 2019–2025 · $850k · revenue +27%

Funded once

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

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is University of Oregon Foundation; 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.
05the grantee network

76 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. 76 of the 82 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.

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

Where the money sits, by cause and 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 grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION INC: $1,557,580 over 9y, 1.7% 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 budgetSAN FRANCISCO FRIENDS SCHOOL: $105,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetHancock Shaker Village Inc: $105,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetWilliams College: $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetREADING PARTNERS: $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetRocky Mountain Institute: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetKIPP BAY AREA SCHOOLS: $100,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SW OREGON: $100,000 over 9y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ASIA SOCIETY: $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEW LEADERS INC: $100,000 over 2y, 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 budgetUniversity of Chicago: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHUDSON RIVER MUSEUM OF WESTCHESTER: $50,000 over 2y, 0.9% of budgetFII - NATIONAL: $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetJAPAN SOCIETY INC: $50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetFOOD FOR LANE COUNTY: $50,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetONE PURPOSE SCHOOL INC: $50,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetASIAN ART MUSEUM FOUNDATION OF SAN FRANCISCO: $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEUGENE SOUTHTOWNE ROTARY FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 3y, 26% 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
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.

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

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 Wls Spencer Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Wls Spencer Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 70%6%23%51%90%funder's 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
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 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 from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 82 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Wls Spencer’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