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· Private foundation

W R Meadows Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$34k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it funds
0193% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Education$145kReligion$106kArts & Culture$24kHealth$14kFood & Nutrition$8kOther$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k6 grants · $24k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$5,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$893k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
JUDSON UNIVERSITY$10,000
ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH$5,000
LAKE FOREST COLLEGE$5,000
ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH$5,000
ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL$3,500
ST MARY'S CHURCH$3,000
MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER$2,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 27% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER: $2k → 17%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%ACHIEVEMENT REWARDS FOR COLLEGE SCIENTISTS: $2k → 14%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $10k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $10k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%ELGIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $12k → 14%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%LAKE FOREST COLLEGE: $5k → 8%ELGIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $12k → 14%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $8k → 14%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $3k → 14%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $3k → 14%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $3k → 14%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $3k → 14%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $3k → 14%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%ST MARY'S CHURCH: $3k → 14%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%JUDSON UNIVERSITY: $10k → 8%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ELGIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $2k → 8%ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $5k → 8%BURLINGTON FOOD PANTRY: $5k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $5k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $5k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $4k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $4k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $4k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $4k → 8%ST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $4k → 8%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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$297k · 13 repeat orgs$7k to everyone else

13 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
3

Total granted

$297k
$7k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-4%
+2%

Still filing today

31%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationArts & CultureOther
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

  • JU
    JUDSON UNIVERSITY A BAPTIST INSTITUTION
    7× · 2019–2025 · $70k · revenue +28%
  • SP
    ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
    7× · 2019–2025 · $40k
  • SJ
    ST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH
    7× · 2019–2025 · $40k

Funded once

  • BF
    BURLINGTON FOOD PANTRY
    one grant, 2020 · $5k
  • EC
    ELGIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2019 · $2k · revenue +2%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF JUDSON BOOK
    one grant, 2019 · $110
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
04the grantee network

6 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. 6 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)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/6
Grantees still filing
3/6
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: $40,000 · OtherST PATRICK'S CATHOLIC CHURCHST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $40,000 · OtherST JOHN NEUMANN CATHOLIC CHURCHST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOL: $26,800 · OtherST CHARLES BORROMEO SCHOOLST MARY'S CHURCH: $26,000 · OtherST MARY'S CHURCHMEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTER: $14,000 · OtherMEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER CENTERACHIEVEMENT REWARDS FOR COLLEGE SCIENTISTS: $10,000 · OtherACHIEVEMENT REWARDS FOR COLLEGE SCIENTISTSIndividual grant recipient: $6,000 · Other+4 more: $9,110 · OtherJUDSON UNIVERSITY A BAPTIST INSTITUTION: $70,000 · EducationJUDSON UNIVERSITY A BAPTIST INSTITUTIONLake Forest College: $35,000 · EducationLake Forest College+2 more: $3,225 · EducationELGIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION: $24,000 · Arts & Culture
Other$171,910Education$108,225Arts & Culture$24,000

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 budgetJUDSON UNIVERSITY A BAPTIST INSTITUTION: $70,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetLake Forest College: $35,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetELGIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION: $24,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetFIDELITER CHARITIES: $3,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetELGIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $2,300 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetELGIN ACADEMY: $925 over 2y, 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 JUDSON UNIVERSITY A BAPTIST INSTITUTION ↗
  • Who funds Lake Forest College ↗
  • Who funds ELGIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds FIDELITER CHARITIES ↗
  • Who funds ELGIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds ELGIN ACADEMY ↗

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.

Efs FoundationAZ15.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Efs Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · 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 W R Meadows Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from W R Meadows 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%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get 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 · 0–20%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to W R Meadows Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to W R Meadows 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 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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