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Wee Walker Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Wee Walker Foundation

Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$51k
Granted FY2020
11
Grants FY2020
3
States reached
$22k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

94% of Wee Walker Foundation’s FY2021 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2021 names 10 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2020, the last year Wee Walker Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $51k. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

5
’20
10
’21

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2021.

Philanthropy$724kHealth$49kReligion$16kRecreation & Sports$9kEducation$6kInternational$5kFood & Nutrition$500Community Improvement$250
02FY2020 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k9 grants · $19k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $32k
$1,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL$22,000
NAPLES UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST$10,000
NCH CENTER FOR PHILANTRHOPY$7,500
ELDERHOSTEL INC$5,000
NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH CLINIC$2,500
BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL$1,000
BOWDOIN COLLEGE$1,000
NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL$1,000
DEDHAM FOOD PANTRY$500
NATIVITY PREPARATORY SCHOOL$500
NEW HORIZONS OF SWFL$250
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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–21, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%MOORINGS PARK FOUNDATION: $500 → 10%PEOPLE FOR GUATEMALA: $5k → 10%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.

28%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$27k · 3 repeat orgs$69k to everyone else

3 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2020, 0 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call). Read against FY2020, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
15

Total granted

$27k
$69k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+38%
+44%

Still filing today

33%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 20% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $36k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21
Recreation & SportsHealthEducationHuman ServicesOther
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

  • NU
    NAPLES UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
    2× · 2020–2021 · $15k
  • NC
    NCH CENTER FOR PHILANTRHOPY
    2× · 2020–2021 · $10k
  • BC
    Bowdoin College
    2× · 2020–2021 · $2k · revenue +38%

Funded once

  • BI
    BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2020 · $23k
  • BI
    BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL - NEEDHAM INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $19k · revenue +44%
  • EI
    ELDERHOSTEL INCgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue +75%
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

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Dean College

Dean college is a private, residential new england college grounded in a culture and tradition that all students deserve the opportunity to discover and exceed their greatest aspirations. a personal and transformative community since 1865,…

Education
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
Trustees of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.

Education
4
Northeast College of Health Sciences

Northeast college of health sciences (the college) is committed to academic excellence, leadership, and professional best practices in the health sciences.

Education
5
Wentworth Institute of Technology Inc

Wentworth institute of technology is a nationally recognized private coeducational and residential university of higher education with a mission to empower, inspire and innovate through experiential learning with a core purpose of career…

Education
6
Northeastern University
Education
7
Nichols College

Nichols college strives to develop tomorrow's leaders through a dynamic, career-focused business education. the college transforms students into successful graduates who respond to challenges, are eager for responsibility, and assume…

Education
8
North Shore Health System Medical Faculty Group Practice

North shore health system medical faculty group practice (the corporation) functions as an extension of the northwell health hospitals by bringing medical care to community settings, providing care to medicare, medicaid, and other…

Health
9
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
10
President and Trustees of Bates College

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…

Education
11
Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a world-renowned center for biological discovery and training that is notably affiliated with more than 60 Nobel Prize winners. Research is conducted by full-time faculty as well as hundreds of the…

Science & Tech
12
The President and Trustees of Colby College

to provide a rigorous and transformative liberal arts education that prepares students to become thoughtful, engaged citizens.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Noble and Greenough School; the most unlike its peers is Dedham Food Pantry Charitable Trust. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

13 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. 13 of the 20 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
13/13
Grantees still filing
10/13
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $712,141 · Community ImprovementFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUNDBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL: $23,000 · OtherNAPLES UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: $15,300 · OtherNCH CENTER FOR PHILANTRHOPY: $10,000 · OtherNEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH CLINIC: $2,500 · Other+5 more: $3,500 · OtherBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL - NEEDHAM INC: $18,850 · HealthNEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH CLINIC INC: $2,500 · HealthJB'S KEYS TO DMD INC: $2,500 · HealthELDERHOSTEL INC: $5,000 · Recreation & SportsHALE EDUCATION INC: $3,000 · Recreation & SportsSAIL CAPE COD INC: $1,000 · Recreation & SportsPEOPLE FOR GUATEMALA INC: $5,000 · Human ServicesMOORINGS PARK FOUNDATION INC: $500 · Human ServicesNOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL: $2,500 · EducationBowdoin College: $2,000 · Education
Community Improvement$712,141Other$54,300Health$23,850Recreation & Sports$9,000Human Services$5,500Education$4,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetFIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND: $712,141 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS HOSPITAL - NEEDHAM INC: $18,850 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetELDERHOSTEL INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPEOPLE FOR GUATEMALA INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHALE EDUCATION INC: $3,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNOBLE AND GREENOUGH SCHOOL: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH CLINIC INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJB'S KEYS TO DMD INC: $2,500 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetBowdoin College: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCOLLIER COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSAIL CAPE COD INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetDedham Food Pantry Charitable Trust: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMOORINGS PARK FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 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.

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.

National Philanthropi…American Endowment Fo…Vanguard Charitable E…Morgan Stanley Global…The Bank of America C…Donor Advised Charita…American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
National Philanthropic TrustPA12.3× affinity8 shared granteesties to 8 of 8Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · American Online Giving Foundation 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 Wee Walker Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Wee Walker Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 100%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    10get 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 · 0–5%
    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 Wee Walker Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Wee Walker 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 20 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Wee Walker’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home