· Public charity
Wander Project
Empowering individuals to transform outdoor adventures into platforms that raise awareness for charitable causes
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 5 grants below total $72,088 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $205,594 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $133,506 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k2 grants · $13k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $59k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| BIGGER THAN THE TRAIL | $28,850 |
| CHALLENGED ATHLETES FOUNDATION | $17,931 |
| LIVELIHOODS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE | $12,514 |
| NAVAJO YES | $7,277 |
| GROWING THE GRASSROOTS | $5,516 |
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 (FY23–24, $36k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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 +81% since the first grant, against +7% for the ones you funded once.
9 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down; 2 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, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $18k 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
- YEYOUTH EMPOWERMENT SERVICES FOR DINE BIKEYAH INC5× · 2020–2024 · $108k · revenue +117%
- YFYOSEMITE FOUNDATION3× · 2020–2022 · $72k · revenue +32%
- GSGRAND STAIRCASE - ESCALANTE PARTNERS INC3× · 2020–2022 · $57k · revenue +20%
Funded once
- BBBridging Bionics Foundationgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $34k · revenue +52%
- ZNZION NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2022 · $15k · revenue +18%
- MRMOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL SOCIETYone grant, 2021 · $15k · revenue -15%
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.
Washington's national park fund is the official philanthropic partner of washington state's three largest national parks. our mission is to raise funds to preserve and enhance the natural beauty, cultural heritage, and recreational…
We empower runners to protect public lands, engage in climate action, and expand access to nature for all. Runners are motivated to be involved in their local communities to protect cherished landscapes and expand access to nature.…
We bring science, policy, and proven solutions directly to communities working to restore the integrity and natural connectivity of the landscapes in which they live. (see schedule o)
As the official philanthropic and collaborative partner of the grand canyon national park, grand canyon conservancy's mission is to inspire generations of park champions to cherish and support the natural and cultural wonder of the grand…
Wwf's mission is to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on earth. (continued on schedule o)
Wildlands Network works to reconnect, restore and rewild North America so that life-in all its diversity-can thrive.
The pacific crest trail association's mission is to advocate for the pacific crest trail as an inspirational outdoor experience, to connect people to the pct, and to conserve the trail.
Dlia will develop a model for research in biodiversity and will use the knowledge to develop and disseminate information to encourage the discovery, understanding, preservation, and enjoyment of natural resources.
The foundation works with diverse groups representing many interests to acquire and restore critical wildlife habitat and protecting species
To protect, restore, and expand the National Conservation Lands through education,advocacy, and partnerships.
The mission of the access fund is to lead and inspire the climbing community toward sustainable access and conservation of the climbing environment.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Yosemite Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Youth Empowerment Services for Dine Bikeyah Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 29 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
21 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. 21 of the 24 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 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT SERVICES FOR DINE BIKEYAH INC ↗
- Who funds YOSEMITE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GRAND STAIRCASE - ESCALANTE PARTNERS INC ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC LANDS ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds CHALLENGED ATHLETES INC ↗
- Who funds Bridging Bionics Foundation ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds GLACIER NATIONAL PARK CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ZION NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds LIVELIHOODS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK ↗
- Who funds themarshalleffect ↗
- Who funds THIS TIME TOMORROW INC ↗
- Who funds NATIVE LEGACY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF SC INC ↗
- Who funds Friends of Saguaro National Park ↗
- Who funds THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds POUDRE WILDERNESS VOLUNTEERS ↗
- Who funds UNIFORM FUNDING FOUNDATION ↗
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: National Park Foundation · Texas Instruments Foundation · Patagoniaorg · Network for Good · American Endowment Foundation · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
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 Wander Project 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 Wander Project?
Find your warmest path to Wander Project 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.