Wildize Foundation

Wildize Foundation is a small, all-volunteer family foundation run by Ellen S. Weiss (President/Treasurer) and Andrew Hanson (Director), both currently drawing $0 in compensation — this is not a staffed program office with formal cycles, but a relationship-driven vehicle for two people directing funds into African wildlife conservation. There is no published LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; the foundation's own IRS filing states applications are restricted "only to African organizations & individuals" advancing sustainable wildlife, habitat, and indigenous-culture conservation, and its accepting_applications flag is on but with no application_form_url, grants_page_url, or deadline on record — meaning the real front door is a direct email to info@wildize.org, not a portal. First-time applicants should not treat this as a cold-application funder: known grantees like the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (Zimbabwe) and the Chobe Research Institute / Caracal Center (northern Botswana) are established, technically credentialed field operations with pre-existing relationships to the foundation's leadership, and documentary projects (Walking Thunder, Wild Daze) suggest media/storytelling partners are also in the mix. Unusually for a foundation with well under $300,000 in total assets in any recent filing year, Wildize funds across a wide spectrum — direct anti-poaching security operations, ecosystem/disease research, individual scholarships for sub-Saharan African students in wildlife-related graduate fields, and conservation documentary film — rather than a single narrow program. The foundation's own language, "Conservation IS about people," signals it wants proposals framed around community ownership and local accountability, not top-down protection schemes. Because the foundation operates as a pass-through (grants paid track closely with that year's incoming contributions rather than a stable endowment payout), timing and framing that acknowledges its capacity constraints — proposing right-sized, phased asks rather than large lump-sum requests — will read as more credible than a generic six-figure ask. Given the tiny board and lack of public infrastructure, expect a personal, multi-email or phone relationship to precede any funding decision rather than a single-shot written application.

Wildize's own Form 990 filings (available years: 2011-2015, 2020-2023; no data on file for 2016-2019, 2024-2026) show grants paid ranging from a low of $30,308 (FY2014) to a high of $265,712 (FY2013), with a median across the nine reported years of roughly $141,674 and a rough average of $138,000 per year. Total giving (which includes grants plus related program costs) has ranged from $79,983 (FY2014) to $463,246 (FY2011). Total assets have stayed small and volatile — $110,515 (FY2013) up to $303,401 (FY2020), sitting at just $164,782 as of the most recent filing (FY2023) — confirming this is a pass-through vehicle, not an endowed grantmaker: contributions received in a given year ($150,000 in FY2023, $250,000 in FY2021, $434,436 in FY2011) closely track that year's total giving, meaning available grant capacity depends almost entirely on what donors give the foundation that same year. Officer compensation has been $0 in every year since 2014 (it was $16,104 in FY2012-2013 and $4,831 in FY2011), reinforcing the all-volunteer, low-overhead structure — essentially all incoming dollars are earmarked to flow through to grantees, consistent with the foundation's own claim of directing 80-90% of contributions straight to grantees. No program-area or geographic breakdown is available in the database (the grantees table returned zero matched records, avg_amount and total_amount are null), so the only category-level detail comes from web research: named projects span anti-poaching/security (International Anti-Poaching Foundation, Zimbabwe), applied ecosystem-health research (Chobe Research Institute/Caracal Center, Botswana), documentary film/advocacy (Walking Thunder, Wild Daze), and individual scholarships for sub-Saharan African students in wildlife-related fields — with a newly emerging Sub-Saharan Lion Conservation Project spanning multiple partner sites as of the 2025 grantmaker refresh. Applicants should size requests against the observed $30K-$265K annual grants-paid range rather than assume six- or seven-figure capacity; a single ask above roughly $100,000 would represent a large share of a typical year's entire giving.

*Note: the platform's BMF-sourced asset_amount field for Wildize ($8,717,771) is far larger than the $110K-$303K asset range reported across its own Form 990 filings from 2011-2023 — this looks like a data inconsistency between IRS Business Master File and the foundation's actual filed financials, and this report treats the 990-derived figures as authoritative for financial analysis. On that basis, Wildize is a much smaller, faster-turnover funder than the similarly "Animals"-classified peers it was matched against by asset size — those peers appear to be operating sanctuaries/reserves with real multi-million-dollar asset bases, while Wildize is a lean pass-through grantmaker moving under $300K a year with no endowment cushion. None of the peer foundations have disclosed public application processes in this dataset, reinforcing that this peer set consists of small, relationship-driven or operating-focused entities rather than foundations with formal open-call RFPs.

There is no application form, portal, published deadline, or grants page on record for Wildize (application_form_url, grants_page_url, and application_deadline are all blank in the platform's database, and application_instructions is explicitly "none") — so the single most important tip is to initiate contact directly at info@wildize.org or (760) 209-5508 rather than searching for a form that does not exist. Confirm eligibility before reaching out: the foundation's own restriction language limits funding strictly to African organizations and individuals working on sustainable wildlife/habitat/indigenous-culture conservation — U.S.-based nonprofits, even those doing Africa-focused work from a domestic office, should clarify whether their in-country partner (not the U.S. entity) would be the actual grantee of record. Use the foundation's own framing in any pitch: their repeated language, "Conservation IS about people," and emphasis on projects being "culturally and ecologically appropriate" and community-driven, signals they want to see local ownership and accountability structures, not an externally-imposed protection plan. Because grants paid have ranged from $30,308 to $265,712 across the years on file (median roughly $141,674), pitch a specific, modestly-scoped request rather than an open-ended six-figure ask — proposals sized to a clear, standalone deliverable (a research phase, a scholarship cohort, an equipment/security tranche) are more fundable than multi-year general operating asks given the foundation's own pass-through funding model (its grant capacity depends on that year's incoming donations, not a stable endowment payout). Common mistakes to avoid: submitting a generic cold proposal with no prior contact (there's no portal to catch it), applying from outside Africa or with a program not centered on wildlife/habitat/indigenous culture, and asking for amounts that exceed roughly a third of the foundation's typical annual grants-paid total. Relationship-building matters more than paperwork here — reference or seek introduction through known grantee networks (International Anti-Poaching Foundation, Chobe Research Institute) where plausible, and consider engaging with their "Our Wild World Conservation" radio program as a lower-friction way to get visibility with the foundation's principals before a formal ask. Because the foundation is entirely volunteer-run with no paid staff, expect slower, more personal correspondence rather than a standardized review-committee timeline.