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Wf Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Wf Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$345k
Granted FY2025still arriving
33
Grants FY2025still arriving
10
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$485kEducation$423kArts & Culture$309kPhilanthropy$98kCrime & Legal$89kAnimals$61kHuman Services$51kReligion$38kOther$0
02FY2025 · 33 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k16 grants · $61k
  • $10k–50k16 grants · $234k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
$10,000
Median grant
10
States reached
$6.7M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UCSF FOUNDATION$50,000
MEADOW CLUB FOUNDATION$40,000
MUSC FOUNDATION$25,000
LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF CHICAGO FOUNDATION$25,000
FOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION$20,000
DENISON UNIVERSITY$12,000
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY$12,000
THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$10,000
CHARLESTON LITERARY FESTIVAL$10,000
PARASOL TAHOE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION$10,000
626 LANDMARK FOUNDATION$10,000
MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION$10,000
PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON$10,000
PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION$10,000
ADOPT A FAMILY OF MARIN$10,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $22k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 55% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 11%BOYS TOWN: $50 → 12%MAKE A WISH GREATER BAY AREA: $5k → 10%WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: $50 → 14%BOYS TOWN: $50 → 12%WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: $50 → 14%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1k → 14%RAPHAEL HOUSE OF SAN FRANCISCO: $3k → 10%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $1k → 14%RAPHAEL HOUSE OF SAN FRANCISCO: $3k → 10%METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES: $5k → 14%METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES: $5k → 14%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.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
NY
NV
IA
OH
CA
NE
VA
MD
NM
TN
NC
SC
DC
OK
GA
TX
FL
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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 100% of Wf Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 38% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 0%.

Wf Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.5M · 46 repeat orgs$173k to everyone else

46 repeat relationships: 24 still active in FY2025, 22 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

46
25

Total granted

$1.5M
$104k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%
+37%

Still filing today

70%
44%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $69k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthEducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesPhilanthropyAnimalsOther
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

  • Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
    6× · 2018–2023 · $118k · revenue +44%
  • 6L
    626 LANDMARK FOUNDATION
    7× · 2019–2025 · $105k · revenue +179%
  • SU
    STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $100k · revenue +13%

Funded once

  • RL
    ROBERT LURIE COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER OF NU
    one grant, 2023 · $20k
  • ND
    NC DISASTER RELIEF FUND
    one grant, 2024 · $15k
  • GV
    GEORGETOWN VISITATION
    one grant, 2023 · $10k
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
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
2
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
3
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
4
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

Stanford university is one of a select group of american universities that have achieved eminence in both undergraduate and graduate education and research - cont'd sch o.

Education
5
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Leadership in the prevention, treatment, and cure of cancer through excellence, vision and cost effectiveness in patient care, outreach programs, research, and education.

Health
6
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
7
University of Chicago Medical Center

Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…

Health
8
Sutter Bay Hospitals

MISSION STATEMENT: MISSION: CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS FIRST AND OUR PEOPLE ALWAYS. VISION: TO BE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE, INTEGRATED AND CONNECTED HEALTH SYSTEM FOR GETTING AND STAYING WELL. VALUES: EXCELLENCE - We deliver high-quality,…

Health
9
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc

The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…

Health
10
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The children's hospital of philadelphia, the oldest hospital in the united states dedicated exclusively to pediatrics, strives to be the world leader in the advancement of health care for children by integrating excellent patient care,…

Health
11
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred hutch cancer center ("fred hutch") unites innovative research and compassionate care to prevent and eliminate cancer and infectious disease. continued on schedule o

Health
12
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

For more than 125 years, the mission of the johns hopkins hospital has been to lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and to train tomorrow's great physicians, nurses and scientists. above all, we aim to provide the…

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Make-a-Wish Foundation of Greater Bay Area; the most unlike its peers is The Kern Project. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

52 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. 52 of the 81 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)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
51/52
Grantees still filing
35/52
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $225,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FR…STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION: $100,000 · EducationSTATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDA…FOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION: $70,000 · EducationFOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATIONTahoe Community Foundation: $25,000 · EducationTahoe Community Foundation+5 more: $35,000 · Education+5 moreUNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOR ADVANCEMENT: $50,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOR ADVANCEMEN…CHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $40,000 · OtherCHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONCATHOLIC CHARITIES INC: $31,000 · OtherCATHOLIC CHARITIES INCADOPT A FAMILY OF MARIN: $27,500 · OtherADOPT A FAMILY OF MARINThe Springboard Foundation: $25,000 · OtherThe Preservation Society of Charleston Inc: $25,000 · OtherMUSC FOUNDATION: $25,000 · OtherVISITATION ANNUAL FUND: $20,000 · OtherROBERT LURIE COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER OF NU: $20,000 · OtherNorthwestern University: $23,000 · Other+37 more: $199,105 · Other+37 more626 LANDMARK FOUNDATION: $105,000 · Arts & Culture626 LANDMARK FOUNDAT…Chicago Symphony Orchestra: $90,000 · Arts & CultureChicago Symphony Orc…THE BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR FAMILY LITERACY INC: $71,500 · Arts & CultureTHE BARBARA BUSH FOU…Charleston Literary Festival Inc: $20,000 · Arts & CultureCharleston Literary …+2 more: $7,000 · Arts & CultureAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago: $117,500 · HealthAnn & Robert H…Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation: $55,000 · HealthAnn & Robert H…THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH: $20,000 · HealthTHE MICHAEL J …+9 more: $20,342 · Health+9 moreMEADOW CLUB FOUNDATION: $70,000 · PhilanthropyPROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Philanthropy+1 more: $2,000 · PhilanthropyLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $53,000 · AnimalsSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $5,000 · AnimalsTHE KERN PROJECT: $2,500 · AnimalsPacific Legal Foundation: $58,500 · Crime & Legal
Education$455,000Other$485,605Arts & Culture$293,500Health$212,842Philanthropy$82,000Animals$60,500Crime & Legal$58,500

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 budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION: $225,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago: $117,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budget626 LANDMARK FOUNDATION: $105,000 over 7y, 12% of budgetSTATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Symphony Orchestra: $90,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR FAMILY LITERACY INC: $71,500 over 4y, 1.4% of budgetMEADOW CLUB FOUNDATION: $70,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetFOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION: $70,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPacific Legal Foundation: $58,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation: $55,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: $53,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetADOPT A FAMILY OF MARIN: $27,500 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetTahoe Community Foundation: $25,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetThe Springboard Foundation: $25,000 over 3y, 1.9% of budgetThe Preservation Society of Charleston Inc: $25,000 over 3y, 0.4% of budgetNorthwestern University: $23,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCharleston Literary Festival Inc: $20,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetSAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK: $12,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCharleston Library Society: $12,500 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetDENISON UNIVERSITY: $12,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern Methodist University: $12,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMetropolitan Family Services: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $7,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetRush University Medical Center: $6,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEndeavor Health Clinical Operations: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetYouth in Arts: $5,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLost Tree Village Charitable Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF GREATER BAY AREA: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetRAPHAEL HOUSE OF SAN FRANCISCO INC: $5,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBLOOD CANCER UNITED INC: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE KERN PROJECT: $2,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJupiter Medical Center Inc: $2,012 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPOINTS OF LIGHT FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLARKSPUR COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetUNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION: $450 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD VISION INC: $312 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $230 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetEASTER SEALS INC: $225 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetWOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC: $100 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFather Flanagan's Boys' Home: $100 over 2y, 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.

  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago ↗
  • Who funds 626 LANDMARK FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
  • Who funds THE BARBARA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR FAMILY LITERACY INC ↗
  • Who funds MEADOW CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds FOLDS OF HONOR FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Pacific Legal Foundation ↗
  • Who funds Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation ↗
  • Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
  • Who funds ADOPT A FAMILY OF MARIN ↗
  • Who funds Tahoe Community Foundation ↗
  • Who funds The Springboard Foundation ↗
  • Who funds The Preservation Society of Charleston Inc ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds THE MICHAEL J FOX FOUNDATION FOR PARKINSON'S RESEARCH ↗
  • Who funds Charleston Literary Festival Inc ↗
  • Who funds SAN FRANCISCO FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds Charleston Library Society ↗
  • Who funds DENISON UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Southern Methodist University ↗
  • Who funds PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds Metropolitan Family Services ↗
  • Who funds DUKE UNIVERSITY ↗

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 Chicago Community…Marin Community Found…Almeida Family Founda…Hillenbrand Family Fo…Bessent-Freeman Famil…The Clyde and Summer …Guffey Family Foundat…Kirby Family Foundati…South Carolina Humani…Gaylord and Dorothy D…Coastal Community Fou…The Ayco Charitable F…
The Chicago Community TrustIL16.2× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Marin Community Foundation · Almeida Family Foundation · Hillenbrand Family Foundation · Bessent-Freeman Family Foundation Inc · The Clyde and Summer Anderson Foundation · Guffey Family Foundation · Kirby Family Foundation Inc · South Carolina Humanities Council Inc · Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation · Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina Inc · The Ayco Charitable 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 Wf Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Wf Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Jupiter Medical Center Inc: 2% of income from government
  • Wounded Warrior Project Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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.

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 81 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Wf’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