· Private foundation
Watson Billings Family Foundation Inc
Its FY2017 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
94% of Watson Billings Family Foundation Inc’s FY2017 grant dollars went to Community Foundation For Greater Buffalo Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2017 names 7 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k10 grants · $14k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $34k
- $250k+1 grant · $347k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Community Foundation for Gr Buffalo | $347,318 |
| Community Foundation for Gr Buffalo | $23,652 |
| Buffalo Prep | $10,000 |
| Westminster Economic Developmt Initiativ | $4,000 |
| Nichols School | $2,000 |
| Summit Middle Charter School | $2,000 |
| Masiphumelele | $2,000 |
| Dartmouth College | $1,000 |
| Smith College | $1,000 |
| The Waterford School | $1,000 |
| Columbus School for Girls | $600 |
| Buffalo Seminary | $500 |
| Seven Hills School | $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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–17) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of your 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.
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.
Bates is a college of the liberal arts and sciences, and is a coeducational, nonsectarian, residential college with special commitments to academic rigor, and to assuring in all of its efforts the dignity of each individual, and access to…
Suffield Academy is a coeducational independent secondary school serving a diverse student body of day and boarding students from across the United States and from many foreign counties. The school is grounded in a tradition of academic…
The peak school seeks to ignite a passion for learning, to develop students of diverse talents and backgrounds who think critically and act with integrity, and to graduate compassionate, confident, capable students who will embrace their…
A preschool through 12th grade, private, college preparatory school. the school's mission statement is "together, cultivating the best in each for the benefit of all."
South buffalo charter school provides elementary education to students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. we are a professional learning community. our focus on learning is driven by research, data and collaborative reflection to…
The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Williams College strives to achieve educational excellence by fostering a community of learning in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, devoted alumni and parents.
The school engages the student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and…
Darrow school is dedicated to serving students with diverse backgrounds and abilities, building on each student's talents and interests to inspire enduring confidence for success in college and life. this mission is accomplished through…
To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.
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…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Nichols School of Buffalo and the most unlike its peers is The Trustees of the Smith College. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 12 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 COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR GREATER BUFFALO INC ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO PREP INC ↗
- Who funds NICHOLS SCHOOL OF BUFFALO ↗
- Who funds SUMMIT MIDDLE CHARTER SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds Trustees of Dartmouth College ↗
- Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Columbus School for Girls ↗
- Who funds BUFFALO SEMINARY ↗
- Who funds THE SEVEN HILLS SCHOOL ↗
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: The Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation · The Baird Foundation · Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies Inc · Fidelity Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Endowment Foundation · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund
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 Watson Billings Family Foundation Inc 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.
- The Trustees of the Smith College — 1% of income from government
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 Watson Billings Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Watson Billings Family Foundation Inc 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.