South Carolina · Nonprofit
WEGOJA FOUNDATION
WEGOJA FOUNDATION (South Carolina) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $933,042 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($750,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $376k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $933k
- Net assets
- $-53768
What Wegoja Foundation does
Mission
The Wegoja Foundation identifies, documents and promotes african american history in south carolina.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
With a grant from the sc arts commission, the Wegoja Foundation offered professional development webinars to public school teachers to help them discover ways to incorporate african american history, through art, in their classroom instruction. The program offered six webinars and field studies. Https://www.wegoja.org/initiatives/the-confluence.
$23,025 spent4% of program spendingMellon foundation: to build its capacity, establish an effective fundraising structure for sustainability, and to develop a preservation toolkit.
$92,158 spent18% of program spendingRosenwald schools study: the Wegoja Foundation is working with partners across the state to study sites upon which an extant rosenwald school sits, to examine the properties and structures' integrity and ownership. The goal is to determine what it will take to convert these historic structures into an official state park trail. The project honors philanthropist julius rosenwald, who donated funding for the development of formal school buildings in the rural south at the turn of the 20th century. Nearly 500 were built in south carolina. Rosenwald's support, along with the one-room, two-room schoolhouse blueprints designed by booker t. Washington's tuskegee institute, created the "best environment for learning" at the time. They also created what most historians call the most consequential advancement of education for african americans during the era of segregation. The national park service also has established a national rosenwald trail.
$53,918 spent10% of program spendingOral history: the Wegoja Foundation collaborates with partners across the state to record, preserve, and share the memories and interviews of descendants and local communities connected to historic sites and cultural landmarks.
$20,000 spent4% of program spendingVarious programs (all others)
$328,770 spent63% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $517,871.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $29k to $551k (+1785%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2022 50% · 2023 21% · 2024 84% · 2025 50%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of WEGOJA FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Dawn Dawson-House
Executive director
Board chair
Larry Watson
Board chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income rose $62k → $575k.
2 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of WEGOJA FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
WEGOJA FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 80% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 80% · 2021 46% · 2022 98% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
14% of WEGOJA FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
WEGOJA FOUNDATION draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside South Carolina, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
WEGOJA FOUNDATION's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Government funding WEGOJA FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $885k on record.
- Department of the Interior$747k
- Department of Agriculture$138k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like WEGOJA FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In South Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
65%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WEGOJA FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds WEGOJA FOUNDATION?
- WEGOJA FOUNDATION (South Carolina) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $933,042 to it, the largest being THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION ($750,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WEGOJA FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $933,042 in grants to WEGOJA FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WEGOJA FOUNDATION?
- THE ANDREW W MELLON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WEGOJA FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Carolina. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Wegoja →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 9 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing