Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
OVERVIEW: The Wellspring Philanthropic Fund is a global grantmaker that supports a wide variety of causes, including racial equity, economic justice, support for women, children, the LGBTQ community, people living in poverty, refugees, and those with disabilities.
IP TAKE: For such a large grantmaker, Wellspring is an inaccessible funder that lacks transparency. Rather than directly name the scope of its programs and initiatives, the fund’s website remains sparse, instead naming themes and definitions rather than details about what it funds or its financials. Additionally, the fund refers to specific grantmaking programs in passing, but it does not detail what these are or how they operate. It prefers to conduct grantmaking through a culture of “consultative management.”
Grantseekers should also note that the fund is in the process of a years-long wind down. According to Wellspring’s President John Taylor, the social justice grantmaker intends to “complete all grantmaking by the end of 2028.” That said, Wellspring is often associated with the Sequoia Climate Foundation, and, perhaps after the fund closes its doors, its donor will put more money there.
For now, however, Wellspring does not accept unsolicited requests for funding and prefers a proactive grantmaking approach, likely due to the high number of requests for funding that it receives and a preference for remaining under the radar. Funding is very competitive, and with the impending wind down, the chances of a new grantseeker seeing support from this funder is increasingly unlikely.
PROFILE: Established in 2001, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund supports causes around the world. It seeks to support “the realization of human rights and social and economic justice for all people,” and its “work is rooted in respect for the dignity and worth of every human being.” Wellspring’s funding priorities touch upon a variety of causes and issues, including racial equity, economic justice, support for women, children, the LGBTQ community, people living in poverty, and those with disabilities. It also prioritizes “encouraging vibrant, responsive, participatory democracy” and supporting those impacted by armed conflict and mass atrocities. Wellspring’s grantmaking approach can be narrowed to three broad thematic areas: Racial Justice, Gender Justice, and Economic Justice.
Its grants fall into three broad categories: enabling conditions, which are longer-term investments “intended to strengthen the ability of the relevant ecosystem or movement to carry and sustain the work on a variety of fronts over time,” opportunistic or responsive, which allow “important work to scale up in particular places at key moments,” and curated/thematic, which add “value through narrow but sustained focus on selected key social change outcomes that accelerate progress toward the program’s mission and strengthen the enabling conditions for future work.”
Grants for Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights
Wellsprings cites Racial Justice as one of its “three cross-programmatic motifs” that it uses to coordinate initiatives across its various programs. This means that while its racial justice program does much of the heavy lifting in this funding area, many of its other programs touch on this issue in important ways, including in funding local and international organizations whose work is “directed at remedying race-based inequities, strengthening the voice and power of communities of color, countering structural racism within the respective ecosystem, or otherwise advancing racial justice or equity.”
Past racial justice grantees include the Color of Change Education Fund, Muslim Advocates, Community Change, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, $1.5 million to NEO Philanthropy, and $2.7 million to Borealis Philanthropy over the years. Wellspring has also given over $1 million each to NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Color Of Change Education Fund.
Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity
Like racial justice, Wellspring lists economic justice as one of its core tenets of operation. The fund’s Economic Justice program funds most of its grants in this area; however, many of its other programs touch upon issues in the economic justice space, including “reducing economic inequality and addressing systemic drivers in inequity in their respective ecosystems.” It supports organizations that address “interlocking systems and structures of oppression that perpetuate inequities and deprive people of basic opportunity, exacerbate inequality, or enable exploitation.”
Previous grantees include Arizona Community Foundation, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Bridges to Prosperity, Innovations for Poverty Action, and The Global Development Incubator. Wellspring has also supported the Centre for Democracy & Development in Nigeria and the African Population Health & Research Center in Kenya, and it has given over $4 million to Arapyaú Institute, a Brazilian nonprofit that focuses on natural, social and economic development in the country.
Grants for Women and Girls
Gender Justice is Wellspring’s third “cross-programmatic motif” and it focuses on “addressing the various ways in which gender is used to discriminate against people, to police their behavior and expression, and to limit and control their life possibilities.” Like the fund’s other two motifs, its primary gender-based grantmaking occurs within the Women’s Rights and Global Children’s Rights programs, as well as the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression program; however, it funds other programs in this space as well, specifically focusing on non-gender focused groups with programs that address gender-based inequalities or work to dismantle patriarchy in some way.
Previous grantees include the Gender and Development Network, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, and National Center for Lesbian Rights. Wellspring has also given $1.4 million to National Domestic Workers Alliance, $1.7 to National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health in New York, and $2.3 million to Mama Cash in the Netherlands. Other international groups that have seen support include Uganda Women’s Network, Central American Womens Fund, Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, and $1.7 million to Fondo Semillas in Mexico.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement
Wellspring supports organizations that encourage participatory democracy, particularly those that work to increase individual agency throughout the globe, which it considers essential to human dignity. Significantly, it defines “agency” as “the power of an individual to make and give effect to deeply personal choices affecting their own life (while respecting the rights of others), and to participate meaningfully in collective decisions affecting the community as a whole.”
Previous grantees include The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, Search for Common Ground, Center for Constitutional Rights, Pan African Lawyers Union, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, and over $2 million to Institute for Democratic Governance in Ghana.
Grants for Global Development
While global development is not one of Wellspring’s three motifs, some of the fund’s largest grants are in this area. American Jewish World Service, a group that advocates for justice in 19 countries in the developing world, received grants totaling $46.3 million over the years. Organizations either based in Africa or serving populations located across the continent receive a lot of attention from this funding priority. Twaweza East Africa, African Population Health & Research Center, Kenya Union of the Blind, and Impact and Innovations Development Centre Limited in Uganda have all seen support. Other global development grantees include Firelight Foundation, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Brookings Institution, Fundacion Fondo De Mujeres Del Sur in Argentina, and The Overseas Development Institute in the U.K.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness and Community Development
Wellspring’s community development grants are often international in nature, although many stay in the United States. Those with a global focus tend to prioritize Africa, including grants to Kenya Community Development Foundation, Alternative Information and Development Centre Trust in South Africa, and The Foundation for Civil Society Limited and Twaweza East Africa, both of which serve Tanzania. National grants have gone to Brookings Institution, Capital for Good USA, and over $3 million to New Venture Fund. Local community groups see a lot of attention through these programs as well and Community Change received $1.25 million and Grassroots Leadership in Texas saw $500,000. Other grants have gone to Lwala Community Alliance in Tennessee, CenterLink in Florida, Hawaii Peoples Fund, and Foundation for Flint in Michigan.
Grants for LGBTQ
The Fund’s grantmaking priorities broadly include efforts to expand “the voices, dignity and interests of the most marginalized communities,” one of which is LGBTQ people. Wellspring appears to conduct this work through an emphasis on LGBTQ advocacy and education, rather than direct services.
Transgender Law Center in California received grants totaling $1.8 million over the years. Wellspring gave $1.3 million to New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, $1.2 to National LGBTQ Task Force, and $1 million each to American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, OutRight Action International, and GSA Network. Other grantees include National Center for Lesbian Rights, Pride Foundation, Transgender Europe, Equality Foundation of Georgia, and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance.
Grants for Humanitarian Aid, Immigrants and Refugees
Wellspring’s humanitarian and disaster focused programs support organizations addressing a range of calamities, including environmental disasters caused by climate change, as well as population displacement created by war and human conflict. Previous grantees include Center for Civilians in Conflict, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Women’s International Peace Centre, and Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation received $750,000, Refugees International received $575,000 and $1 million went to International Crisis Group in D.C.
Grants for Security and Human Rights
On its website, Wellspring emphasizes that “human rights and dignity extend to all people – from those who historically have had power to those most frequently left marginalized at the edges of society.” While human rights and social justice are not offered as one of the central motifs that guide Wellspring’s grantmaking, they are listed as the core tenets of the fund’s mission statement.
Human rights grants include almost $50 million to American Jewish World Service over the years, over $20 million to Human Rights Watch, $7 million to Fund for Global Human Rights, and over $6 million to the Tides Foundation. Other human rights grantees include Videre Est Credere, Center for Civilians in Conflict, Global Initiative for Economic Social and Cultural Rights, Human Rights First, and Amnesty International. Social Justice Grantees include Equal Justice Works, Community Change, Pan African Lawyers Union, Centro de Estudios de Derecho Justicia y Sociedad, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Resource Equity, and American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
Important Grant Details:
Wellspring’s grants vary in size considerably. The most common grant amount is about $100,000, but they can reach into the tens of millions. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s tax filings for more information on its past grantmaking habits.
Wellspring awards grants throughout the United States and around the world. Its international grantmaking primarily centers around Africa.
Wellspring does not accept or respond to unsolicited proposals or requests for funding.
Grantseekers may reach out to the foundation through its contact page for further inquiries.
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