· Private foundation
Wanda J Herndon Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE 5TH AVENUE THEATRE ASSOCIATION | $4,500 |
| LEGACY FOUNDATION INC | $2,500 |
| NORTHWEST AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM | $500 |
| YWCA OF KING COUNTY | $500 |
| COLLEGE SUCCESS FOUNDATION | $250 |
| DYNAMIC URBAN OPPORTUNITIES FOUNDATION | $250 |
| O'DEA HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION | $250 |
| LEGACY FOUNDATION INC | $250 |
| FRIENDSHIP MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH | $100 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–17, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +37% since the first grant, against +30% for the ones you funded once.
12 repeat relationships — 7 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $250 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- 5A5TH AVENUE THEATRE ASSOCIATION4× · 2021–2024 · $22k · revenue +16%
- TLTHE LEGACY FOUNDATION OF SEATTLE3× · 2020–2024 · $8k · revenue +36%
- NANORTHWEST AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM6× · 2017–2024 · $7k · revenue +102%
Funded once
SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATREone grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue -20%- SCSEATTLE CHAPTER ARCS FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $1k
- TTREEHOUSEgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $1k · revenue +172%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Seattle academy is a dynamic community that challenges students to question, imagine, and create in order to contribute to a changing world.
The Seattle Architecture Foundation connects people to the architecture, design, and history of Seattle. We believe the more you engage with design, the more you feel connected to your changing city. As a volunteer driven organization, we…
Through Jazz education that liberates and inspires, Seattle JazzED increase access in the music room, celebrates student expression, and builds lasting connection rooted in community.
The Seattle Athenaeum connects a dynamic literary community through a curated book collection, diverse programming, and opportunities for engaging conversations and transformative ideas.
Artist Trust supports the livelihoods of artists working in all disciplines to create a more vibrant and equitable Washington State.
Seattle arts and lectures cultivates transformative experiences through story and language with readers and writers of all generations.
Siff is a seattle-based 501(c)(3) arts nonprofit dedicated to the creation of vibrant experiences and spaces that champion film discovery and arts education.
Washington stem (wa stem) is a statewide, education nonprofit leveraging stem for social change, removing barriers to credential attainment, and creating pathways to long-term economic security for systemically underserved students.…
Our mission is to support excellence in education by advancing educational justice and racial equity for students in Seattle Public Schools.
At Seattle Amistad School, we foster community integrity through rigorous bilingual and bicultural education, developing our students' academic strengths and cultural sensibilities, while nurturing compassionate and engaged citizens.
The foundations impact pillars include wealth creation for low-income and marginalized communities, supporting small businesses, investing in our communities, and providing services for immigrant communities.
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 Seattle Repertory Theatre and the most unlike its peers is Maris Place. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
17 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. 17 of the 27 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds 5TH AVENUE THEATRE ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds THE LEGACY FOUNDATION OF SEATTLE ↗
- Who funds NORTHWEST AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds Atlantic Street Center ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATRE ↗
- Who funds CANCER LIFELINE ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds College Success Foundation ↗
- Who funds TREEHOUSE ↗
- Who funds YOUTHCARE ↗
- Who funds CHOSEN FEW ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds Maris Place ↗
- Who funds URBAN LEAGUE OF METROPOLITAN SEATTLE ↗
- Who funds O'DEA HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Washington Autism Alliance ↗
- Who funds SEATTLE ART MUSEUM ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Seattle Foundation · The Norcliffe Foundation · Puget Sound Energy Foundation · United Way of King County · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Wyman Youth Trust · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Moccasin Lake Foundation · Raikes Foundation · Credit Unions in the State of Washington · American Gift Fund · The US Charitable Gift Trust
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 Wanda J Herndon 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Wanda J Herndon Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Wanda J Herndon 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.