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· Private foundation

W S Wellons Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$5k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What it funds
0183% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Religion$60kHuman Services$56kEducation$13kEnvironment$5kArts & Culture$4kOther$0
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$1,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$350k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FALCON CHILDRENS HOME$2,500
METHODIST UNIVERSITY$1,000
CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDENS$1,000
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 (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 16%. 0% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 16%CHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES: $30k → 13%FALCON CHILDRENS HOME: $5k → 16%EMMANUEL COLLEGE: $5k → 16%CHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES: $30k → 13%FALCON CHILDRENS HOME: $5k → 16%EMMANUEL COLLEGE: $2k → 16%FISHERS OF MEN: $5k → 13%FALCON CHILDRENS HOME: $5k → 16%EMMANUEL COLLEGE: $1k → 16%CHRISTIAN LIFE: $5k → 13%FALCON CHILDRENS HOME: $3k → 16%FALCON CHILDRENS HOME: $3k → 16%METHODIST UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%METHODIST UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%METHODIST UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%METHODIST UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%FISHERS OF MEN: $15k → 16%METHODIST UNIVERSITY: $1k → 16%FISHERS OF MEN: $15k → 16%CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDENS: $1k → 16%CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDENS: $1k → 16%CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDENS: $1k → 16%CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDENS: $1k → 16%CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDENS: $1k → 16%AIRBORNE & SPECIAL OPERATIONS MUSEU: $3k → 16%AIRBORNE & SPECIAL OPERATIONS MUSEU: $1k → 16%NORTHWOOD TEMPLE: $5k → 16%NORTHWOOD TEMPLE: $5k → 16%NORTHWOOD TEMPLE: $5k → 16%NORTHWOOD TEMPLE: $5k → 16%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.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$157k · 8 repeat orgs$5k to everyone else

8 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
1

Total granted

$157k
$5k

Still filing today

63%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationReligionEnvironmentArts & 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

  • CL
    CHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES
    2× · 2022–2023 · $60k · revenue +261% · 100% of their budget
  • EU
    EMMANUEL UNIVERSITY INC
    3× · 2021–2023 · $8k · revenue +18%
  • MU
    METHODIST UNIVERSITY INC
    5× · 2020–2024 · $5k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $5k
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

5 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. 5 of the 9 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/5
Grantees still filing
5/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FISHERS OF MEN: $35,000 · OtherFISHERS OF MENFALCON CHILDRENS HOME OF THE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH INC: $20,500 · OtherFALCON CHILDRENS HOME OF THE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH…Individual grant recipient: $20,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientIndividual grant recipient: $5,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientCHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES: $60,000 · ReligionCHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIESEMMANUEL UNIVERSITY INC: $7,500 · EducationMETHODIST UNIVERSITY INC: $5,000 · EducationCAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDEN: $5,000 · EnvironmentAIRBORNE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $3,500 · Arts & Culture
Other$80,500Religion$60,000Education$12,500Environment$5,000Arts & Culture$3,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES: $60,000 over 2y, 100% of budgetEMMANUEL UNIVERSITY INC: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMETHODIST UNIVERSITY INC: $5,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDEN: $5,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetAIRBORNE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS MUSEUM FOUNDATION: $3,500 over 2y, 0.3% 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 CHRISTIAN LIFE MINISTRIES ↗
  • Who funds EMMANUEL UNIVERSITY INC ↗
  • Who funds METHODIST UNIVERSITY INC ↗
  • Who funds CAPE FEAR BOTANICAL GARDEN ↗
  • Who funds AIRBORNE AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS MUSEUM FOUNDATION ↗

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 Unknown Angel of Fayetteville IncNC13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Unknown Angel of Fayetteville Inc · Florence Rogers Charitable Trust · Cumberland Community Foundation 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 W S Wellons Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from W S Wellons Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%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 S Wellons Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to W S Wellons 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 9 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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