· Private foundation
Wonderful Life 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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k13 grants · $17k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $155k
- $50k–250k18 grants · $2.1M
- $250k+16 grants · $22M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME | $4,167,000 |
| SHIRLEY RYAN ABILITYLAB | $4,000,000 |
| CATHOLIC EXTENSION | $3,000,000 |
| WOFFORD COLLEGE | $2,000,000 |
| CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $1,160,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT | $1,000,000 |
| WOODLANDS ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART | $1,000,000 |
| WOODLANDS ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART | $1,000,000 |
| WOODLANDS ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART | $1,000,000 |
| WOODLANDS ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART | $1,000,000 |
| CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $1,000,000 |
| CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $1,000,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL | $400,000 |
| ST PATRICKS CATHEDRAL | $250,000 |
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES INC | $250,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY19–23, $375k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 29% of Wonderful Life Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +40% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.
44 repeat relationships: 23 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down; 8 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, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.7M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- RIRehabilitation Institute of Chicago6× · 2019–2024 · $17M · revenue +33%
WOFFORD COLLEGE6× · 2019–2024 · $7.0M · revenue +24%
Northwestern University5× · 2020–2024 · $5.2M · revenue +33%
Funded once
- FOFRIENDS OF UNIV OF NOTRE DAMEone grant, 2023 · $2.0M · revenue -66%
- JMJupiter Medical Center Foundation Incgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $200k · revenue +109%
- CCCATHOLIC CHURCH EXTENSION SOCIETYone grant, 2019 · $100k
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.
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.
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.
The mission of the university of chicago has been to sustain at the highest level of excellence, the communication of knowledge, the creation of knowledge and the fostering of a dynamic community of scholars and students.
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
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.
Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
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…
See Disclosure Above.
Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.
Saint xavier university, a catholic institution inspired by the heritage of the sisters of mercy, educates persons to search for truth, think critically, communicate effectively and serve wisely and compassionately in support of human…
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
How this is measured
40 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. 40 of the 77 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 Notre Dame du Lac ↗
- Who funds Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago ↗
- Who funds WOFFORD COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF UNIV OF NOTRE DAME ↗
- Who funds Ronald McDonald House Global ↗
- Who funds JAZZ AT ASPEN-SNOWMASS ↗
- Who funds Big Shoulders Fund ↗
- Who funds Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago ↗
- Who funds MARGARET HACKETT FAMILY CENTER NFP ↗
- Who funds Accelerate Institute ↗
- Who funds HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE INC ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF MARTIN COUNTY ↗
- Who funds Jupiter Medical Center Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds DANIEL MURPHY SCHOLARSHIP FUND ↗
- Who funds CLEARBROOK ↗
- Who funds ANDERSON RANCH ARTS CENTER ↗
- Who funds NAVY SEAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Bridging Bionics Foundation ↗
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.
Open a dossier: J Christopher and Anne N Reyes Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · Patrick G and Shirley W Ryan Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · The Ayco Charitable Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Wonderful Life Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Wonderful Life Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Kipp Miami Inc: 6% of income from government
- Boys & Girls Club of Martin County: 2% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Wonderful Life Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Wonderful Life 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.
Play a game based on Wonderful Life’s filings →