Anne Wojcicki Foundation

The Anne Wojcicki Foundation operates as a strictly invitation-only grantmaker — its 990-PF filings state unambiguously that it 'only makes contributions to pre-selected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds.' This is the single most important fact shaping any engagement strategy. There is no RFP, no online portal, no formal LOI process, and no program officer reviewing cold submissions. Every grant in the foundation's history originated from Anne Wojcicki's personal network or proactive decision-making.

Anne Wojcicki (President & Chair, $0 compensation) brings a distinctly Silicon Valley, science-forward worldview to the foundation's giving. As co-founder of 23andMe and a Yale-trained biology graduate, she prizes data-driven, scalable, and innovative approaches to entrenched social problems. The foundation's largest cumulative commitment — $15M to New Venture Fund for Project Daybreak (gun violence prevention) — reflects a preference for bold, systems-level interventions rather than incremental service delivery. Similarly, the nearly $10M invested in the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation, which Wojcicki co-founded with Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Art Levinson, and Yuri Milner, signals a commitment to catalyzing scientific discovery at the highest level.

The grantee list reveals overwhelmingly multi-year relationships. Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula (5 grants, $4.26M), Second Harvest of Silicon Valley (6 grants, $2.1M), Yale University (6 grants, $4.8M), and College Track (6 grants, $1.5M) exemplify the pattern: once a relationship is established, renewal is consistent and sometimes escalating. This means the access barrier is the critical challenge — not proposal quality.

First-time access pathways are limited but identifiable: warm introductions from current grantees, visibility in Breakthrough Prize and biomedical research circles, engagement with Bay Area philanthropic networks where Wojcicki is active, and organizational leadership with credibility in science or technology sectors. National organizations succeeding in the portfolio (Barack Obama Foundation, Ashoka, Civic Nation, Planned Parenthood) demonstrate that geographic proximity is not essential for civic and social justice work — but the case for national impact must be compelling.

Note that 2025-2026 represents an unusual inflection point. Susan Wojcicki's death in August 2024, Anne's departure from 23andMe following its bankruptcy, and her nonprofit TTAM Research Institute's $305M acquisition of the company's assets collectively signal a significant personal and professional transition — one that typically reshapes philanthropic priorities. Organizations in genomic medicine, lung cancer research, and civic technology should take note.

The Anne Wojcicki Foundation has maintained consistent annual grantmaking of $19.5M to $25.3M per year from FY2019 through FY2024, with total assets fluctuating between $417.5M (FY2022 low) and $621.9M (FY2021 high) depending on market conditions. Current assets stand at $593.3M (FY2024). The foundation was seeded with a $275M contribution in FY2015 and has grown its asset base through investment returns. FY2024 saw $21.7M in grants paid — a decline from the $24.75M (FY2023) and $25.3M (FY2020) peaks, possibly reflecting market conditions or a deliberate recalibration.

Grant sizing spans an exceptionally wide range. The database-reported median is $200,000 with an average of $425,633 across 47 sampled grants, but individual transactions run from $2,500 to $2.5M per check. Multi-year cumulative totals dramatically exceed those single-year figures: New Venture Fund received $15M across 3 grants, Breakthrough Prize foundation received $9.97M across 4 grants, Yale University $4.8M across 6 grants, and Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula $4.26M across 5 grants. General operating support is the dominant grant type, indicating the foundation trusts its grantees with unrestricted funds and does not micromanage programmatic use.

Program area breakdown by total dollars across top 50 grantees: - Science and Medical Research: ~30% (Breakthrough Prize, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Foundation for NIH lung cancer research at $2.02M, Stanford $2M Shoshana Levy Fellowship, Vanderbilt $1.84M EGFR/HER2 research, UC Berkeley Innovative Genomics) - Bay Area Community and Social Services: ~22% (Boys & Girls Club Peninsula, Second Harvest, Larkin Street Youth Services, LifeMoves, Tipping Point Community, Abode Services) - Civic, Democracy, and Social Justice: ~20% (New Venture Fund/Project Daybreak $15M, Civic Nation $3M, Obama Foundation $4M, Planned Parenthood $2.25M, Trevor Project $900K, Code2040 $1.6M combined) - Education and Youth: ~15% (Nueva School $3.23M, College Track $1.5M, UC Berkeley SEED Scholars $1.5M, Curiodyssey $1.5M) - Global Health and Policy: ~8% (Tony Blair Foundation $5.5M combined, Vital Voices $375K) - Racial Equity and Economic Justice: ~5% (Black Economic Alliance Foundation $400K, Harvard Hutchins Center $400K)

Geographically, California commands 64% of grant count (176 of 277 total), followed by New York (20), DC (18), Connecticut and Massachusetts (10 each). No other state exceeds 9 grants. The Tony Blair Foundation represents the primary international grantee at scale.

The Anne Wojcicki Foundation's $593M asset base places it among a tier of substantial family foundations in the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category. The five peer foundations identified by asset proximity offer instructive contrasts:

Among this peer group, the Anne Wojcicki Foundation stands out for its unusually broad thematic range — spanning hard biomedical science, civic democracy, Bay Area community services, and global health — rather than concentrating narrowly on one domain. Catena focuses tightly on landscape conservation in the American West; the DeLuca Foundation on education and arts with a Catholic orientation; the Albertson Foundation on Idaho workforce and education; and the Nicholas Foundation on crime victim rights. The Public Welfare Foundation is the only peer that accepts limited open applications (primarily for criminal justice and labor rights work), making it somewhat more accessible to prospective grantees. All six foundations share founder-led governance with no officer compensation, invitation-only or by-referral access norms, and similar giving-to-asset ratios of approximately 3-5% annually.

The most consequential recent development is the death of Susan Wojcicki — the foundation's Treasurer & Secretary — on August 9, 2024, at age 56 from lung cancer. Susan was Anne's older sister and YouTube's co-founder. Her passing removes a key leadership voice from the foundation and may prompt restructuring of governance. It also almost certainly explains the foundation's $2,019,750 grant to Foundation for the National Institutes of Health for lung cancer research in never-smokers using spatial genomics and AI — a grant that now reads as a tribute to Susan's life and a lasting research commitment.

In March 2025, Anne Wojcicki resigned as CEO of 23andMe as the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, ending her role at the consumer genomics company she co-founded. Three months later, in June 2025, her nonprofit TTAM Research Institute acquired substantially all 23andMe assets for $305 million, transitioning the genomics platform into the nonprofit sector. This represents a significant reorientation that may increasingly align Anne Wojcicki's personal mission — democratizing access to genetic health information — with the foundation's grantmaking strategy.

On the grantmaking side, the largest recent programmatic commitment is $15 million to New Venture Fund for Project Daybreak across 3 grants. Project Daybreak is a coordinated strategy to reduce gun violence, representing a major new philanthropic bet on civic safety and the largest single programmatic investment in the foundation's disclosed history. FY2024 grants paid totaled $21.7M, down from $24.75M in FY2023, continuing a modest pullback from 2019-2020 levels. Officer compensation remains $0 for both President and (now vacant) Treasurer positions.

The most important strategic reality: the Anne Wojcicki Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications. The IRS 990-PF filing language leaves no ambiguity — application instructions are listed as 'none' and the foundation 'only makes contributions to pre-selected charitable organizations.' Cold outreach to the Los Altos office (171 Main Street, Suite 259, Los Altos, CA 94022, phone: 408-499-4805) will not produce grants and may close doors permanently if perceived as inappropriate.

Given this, the strategic playbook requires patient network cultivation over 12-24 months:

Map the grantee network first. The foundation's 277-grant history defines a community of trust. Current anchor grantees — Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, The Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences, Curiodyssey, The Nueva School, Tipping Point Community, Larkin Street Youth Services — are the best introduction points. Organizations in adjacent work should proactively cultivate board or leadership relationships with these institutions and pursue warm introductions to Anne Wojcicki's circle through them.

Lead with your science and innovation angle. The foundation's giving pattern strongly rewards organizations that frame their work in terms of data, scale, and systems change — not just service delivery. If your organization has a research partnership, uses technology for program delivery, or produces evidence-based outcomes data, foreground that. The $1.84M Vanderbilt grant for EGFR/HER2 cancer research and the $2.02M NIH lung cancer grant show willingness to fund rigorous scientific investigation, not just program operations.

Breakthrough Prize adjacency is a high-value signal. Anne Wojcicki co-founded the Breakthrough Prize with Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and others. Organizations affiliated with Breakthrough Prize institutions — Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCSF, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Vanderbilt — or researchers who interact with that ecosystem have measurably higher representation in the grantee portfolio.

Capitalize on the 2025-2026 transition window. Anne Wojcicki is in the midst of her most significant personal and professional transition in a decade. Organizations positioned at the intersection of genomics, lung cancer research, Bay Area community resilience, and civic democracy may find unusual receptivity as she reshapes priorities under TTAM Research Institute.

Avoid misalignment signals. The portfolio shows no support for environmental conservation, traditional arts programming, international development (outside UK global health policy), or religious organizations. These absence patterns are clear.