Funding search · EIN 237456468 · Vancouver, WA

M J Murdock Charitable Trust

A private foundation (files IRS Form 990-PF). Most private foundations do not take unsolicited applications; the route in is usually a program officer.

2,400
grants reported
$283.0M
total given
2022–2024
filing years
$70,000
median grant

Based on grants this organization reported to the IRS for tax years 20222024. This is what they filed, not a complete record of their giving, and recent years may be incomplete because filings lag.

What they fund

staffdevelopmentfacilitybuildingexpansiondirectorphasecapacity

Funder website ↗Full IRS filings ↗How this is builtReport an error

Funding pattern

What this funder pays for, at what size, and how to position adjacent work. Read from their filings, with every number checked against the record.

Where the money goes

  • Facility construction, renovation and expansion for nonprofits
  • Scientific research instrumentation at Northwest colleges and universities
  • Rural hospital and community health center buildings and imaging equipment
  • Youth-serving organizations: YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, Christian ministries
  • Arts and cultural facilities: theaters, museums, public broadcasting
  • Native and immigrant community centers in AK, OR, WA

Typical grant

Median is $70,000, with the middle half between $33,000 and $143,000, so most awards are modest. The big checks, $400,000 to $1 million, go almost entirely to bricks and mortar: new construction, renovation, or a single large capital purchase like an MRI or a mass spectrometer. Smaller grants tend to fund program support and equipment, and organizations do come back over years for successive capital projects.

Their words

Phrases from their own grant descriptions, worth speaking back to them.

  • FACILITY CONSTRUCTION
  • FACILITY RENOVATION
  • NEW CONSTRUCTION
  • PROGRAM EXPANSION
  • NEW EQUIPMENT

Positioning adjacent work

  • Ask for a named instrument, not salaries: LC-MS, microscopes, sequencers, and imaging systems are what they buy.
  • Size an instrument request between $350,000 and $550,000, the range they repeatedly fund at Northwest universities.
  • Tie research capacity to undergraduate or regional benefit; they fund small private colleges alongside flagship universities.
  • If your work needs lab space, frame it as facility renovation, their single most common grant purpose.

Worth knowing: Giving is tightly bound to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska; WA and OR take about two thirds of grants, and the rare out-of-region awards go to national organizations with Northwest ties or Christian-affiliated groups. This is a capital and equipment funder first, so program and operating requests are the exception rather than the pattern.

Top recipients

Repeat recipients are the strongest signal of whether a funder has an open door or quietly re-funds the same organizations.

  • Young Life12 grants · $3.2M
  • Trust Matching Gifts2 grants · $2.5M
  • University of Washington9 grants · $2.2M
  • Whitworth University6 grants · $2.1M
  • George Fox University5 grants · $1.9M
  • Washington State University Foundation15 grants · $1.9M
  • Oregon Health and Science University Foundation10 grants · $1.7M
  • Oregon State University8 grants · $1.6M
  • M J Murdock Charitable Trust1 grant · $1.5M
  • Carroll College8 grants · $1.5M

Giving over time

$86.3M
2022
$80.1M
2023
$116.6M
2024

Grant history

The 100 largest of 2,400 grants.

  • $2.0M

    Young Life · Colorado Springs, CO · 2023

    Wfr muddy road project

  • $1.5M

    M J Murdock Charitable Trust · Vancouver, WA · 2024

    Matching gifts

  • $1.5M

    Whitworth University · Spokane, WA · 2022

    New facility

  • $1.5M

    Trust Matching Gifts · Vancouver, WA · 2022

    Matching gifts

  • $1.0M

    Trust Matching Gifts · Vancouver, WA · 2023

    Trust matching gifts

  • $1.0M

    Cook Inlet Tribal Council · Anchorage, AK · 2024

    New fab lab

  • $1.0M

    Friends of Seattle Waterfront · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Downtown shoreline construction

  • $1.0M

    Latino Network · Portland, OR · 2024

    Facility construction

  • $1.0M

    Northwest University · Kirkland, WA · 2024

    New health sciences programs and facility renovation

  • $1.0M

    Friends of Waterfront Seattle · Seattle, WA · 2022

    Downtown shoreline construction

  • $1.0M

    Patricia Reser Center for the Arts · Beaverton, OR · 2022

    Facility construction

  • $800,000

    Carroll College · Helena, MT · 2024

    Library renovation

  • $800,000

    The Veritas Forum · Cambridge, MA · 2024

    Faculty development pipeline program

  • $800,000

    Linfield University · McMinnville, OR · 2022

    New facility

  • $750,000

    Human Resource Development Council of District Ix · Bozeman, MT · 2024

    Facility construction

  • $750,000

    Kcts Television · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Purchase and renovation of facility

  • $750,000

    Larche Foundation of Greater Vancouver · 2024

    New facility construction

  • $750,000

    The Young Mens Christian Association of Boise City Idaho · Boise, ID · 2024

    New construction

  • $750,000

    Alutiiq Heritage Foundation · Kodiak, AK · 2023

    Alutiiq museum permanent facility

  • $750,000

    Bibleproject · Portland, OR · 2023

    Global distribution architecture

  • $750,000

    Congregations for the Homeless · Bellevue, WA · 2023

    Shelter, reimagined: cfh capital campaign

  • $750,000

    Friends of Montana Pbs · Bozeman, MT · 2023

    Montana pbs building possibilities campaign

  • $700,000

    Generous Giving · Chattanooga, TN · 2024

    Program support

  • $700,000

    George Fox University · Newberg, OR · 2024

    Facility construction

  • $700,000

    Reid Saunders Evangelistic Association · Salem, OR · 2024

    New facility

  • $700,000

    Oaks Education Association · Spokane Valley, WA · 2023

    The deep roots initiative

  • $700,000

    Generous Giving · Chattanooga, TN · 2022

    Program support

  • $700,000

    United Human Services of Se Alaska · Juneau, AK · 2022

    Facility construction

  • $675,000

    Oregon State University · Corvallis, OR · 2022

    Cgmp manufacturing equipment

  • $650,000

    4 Ranges Community Recreation Foundation · Livingston, MT · 2024

    Facility construction

  • $650,000

    Seattle Repertory Theatre · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Leasehold improvements

  • $637,500

    Pacific Lutheran University · Tacoma, WA · 2023

    Community-serving investments in pre-health sciences education

  • $603,500

    George Fox University · Newberg, OR · 2022

    Online program expansion

  • $600,000

    Alaska Native Heritage Center · Anchorage, AK · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $600,000

    Community Leadership and Development · Billings, MT · 2022

    New housing facility

  • $600,000

    Oregon Food Bank · Portland, OR · 2022

    Renovation of key facilities

  • $552,000

    Providence Portland Medical Foundation · Portland, OR · 2023

    High-parameter flow cytometry suite to enhance cancer immunotherapy research

  • $550,500

    University of Washington · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (lc-ms)

  • $550,000

    Friends of the Children · Portland, OR · 2024

    Facility remodel and expansion

  • $550,000

    Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon · Portland, OR · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $550,000

    Regents of the University of Idaho · Moscow, ID · 2024

    Chemical ionization-mass spectrometer

  • $550,000

    Whitworth University · Spokane, WA · 2024

    Facilities renovation

  • $550,000

    University of Oregon Foundation · Eugene, OR · 2023

    Electron energy loss spectrometer detector for the transmission electron microscope in camcor

  • $550,000

    University of Washington · Seattle, WA · 2023

    Northwest quantum emitters microscope

  • $533,500

    Northwest Indian College · Bellingham, WA · 2022

    New facility construction

  • $527,500

    Oregon Health and Science University Foundation · Portland, OR · 2023

    Biofabrication equipment for engineering of precision tumor models at the knight cancer institute

  • $525,000

    Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Nucleic acids sequencing, microscopy, and imaging equipment

  • $506,500

    Seattle University · Seattle, WA · 2023

    Reimagine and revise the curriculum

  • $500,000

    Central Montana Medical Facilities · Lewistown, MT · 2024

    Renovation and new construction

  • $500,000

    Childrens Home Society of Washington · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $500,000

    Chugachmiut · Anchorage, AK · 2024

    New construction

  • $500,000

    Comprehensive Mental Health Center of Tacoma Pierce County · Tacoma, WA · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $500,000

    Empowering Youth & Families Outreach · Seattle, WA · 2024

    New construction

  • $500,000

    Grande Ronde Hospital · La Grande, OR · 2024

    New construction

  • $500,000

    Helena Food Share · Helena, MT · 2024

    Facility construction

  • $500,000

    Interfaith Sanctuary Housingservices · Boise, ID · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $500,000

    Lighthouse Mission Ministries · Bellingham, WA · 2024

    New facility

  • $500,000

    Literary Arts · Portland, OR · 2024

    Facility renovations

  • $500,000

    Meals On Wheels People · Portland, OR · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $500,000

    Mountain Home Montana · Missoula, MT · 2024

    Facility renovations

  • $500,000

    North Valley Music School · Whitefish, MT · 2024

    New facility

  • $500,000

    Olympic Peninsula Young Mens Christian Assn · Sequim, WA · 2024

    New construction

  • $500,000

    Seattle Aquarium Society-Seas · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Facility expansion

  • $500,000

    University of Portland · Portland, OR · 2024

    New facility

  • $500,000

    Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center · Aloha, OR · 2024

    Renovation and new construction

  • $500,000

    Artists Repertory Theatre · Portland, OR · 2023

    Rise - the campaign for artist repertory theatre

  • $500,000

    Chehalem Cultural Center · Newberg, OR · 2023

    Community performing arts wing

  • $500,000

    Friends of Hopewell House · Portland, OR · 2023

    Opening hopewell house: portlands only hospice residential care facility

  • $500,000

    Friends of Zoo Boise · Boise, ID · 2023

    Heart of the zoo renovation phase 1a: new red panda and meerkat homes

  • $500,000

    Heroes and Horses · Belgrade, MT · 2023

    One-eighty out capital campaign

  • $500,000

    Lighthouse Mission Ministries · Bellingham, WA · 2023

    Lighthouse mission ministries homeless services center

  • $500,000

    Parrott Creek Child and Family Services · Oregon City, OR · 2023

    Bright futures campaign

  • $500,000

    American Prairie Foundation · Bozeman, MT · 2022

    Facility renovation

  • $500,000

    Imagine Children'S Museum · Everett, WA · 2022

    Facility expansion

  • $500,000

    Literary Arts · Portland, OR · 2022

    Facility renovations

  • $500,000

    Madison Memorial Hospital · Rexburg, ID · 2022

    Facility renovation

  • $500,000

    Northwest Maritime Center · Port Townsend, WA · 2022

    Facility purchase

  • $500,000

    Oregon Coast Aquarium · Newport, OR · 2022

    New exhibits

  • $500,000

    Reed College · Portland, OR · 2022

    Library expansion and renovation

  • $500,000

    Triumph Treatment Services · Yakima, WA · 2022

    Facility construction

  • $500,000

    Vela Education Fund · Glencoe, IL · 2022

    Program support

  • $500,000

    World Vision · Federal Way, WA · 2022

    New digital technology

  • $497,500

    Oregon State University · Corvallis, OR · 2022

    Autonomous multibeam system

  • $493,500

    Boys and Girls Clubs of the Lewis Clark Valley · Lewiston, ID · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $481,000

    Seattle Children'S Hospital Foundation · Seattle, WA · 2023

    Integrated flow cytometry core

  • $480,000

    University of Montana Foundation · Missoula, MT · 2023

    Acquisition of a microfabrication system quantum x bio system as part of the montana biotechnology center research development initiative

  • $475,000

    Santiam Memorial Hospital · Stayton, OR · 2024

    Emergency department renovation and expansion

  • $473,500

    University of Washington · Seattle, WA · 2023

    A new era of environmental sensing: the uw photonic sensing facility

  • $470,500

    Nome Community Center · Nome, AK · 2023

    Homeplate: nome's housing first project

  • $450,000

    Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial · Bainbridge Island, WA · 2024

    Facility construction

  • $450,000

    Foundation for Community Care of Richland County · Sidney, MT · 2024

    Purchase of a new hyperbaric system

  • $450,000

    Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Scanners and ai-supported digital analysis software

  • $450,000

    Grays Harbor County Public Hospital District 1 · Elma, WA · 2024

    New magnetic resonance imaging unit

  • $450,000

    Kodiak Hockey League · Kodiak, AK · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $450,000

    Nature Conservancy · Arlington, VA · 2024

    Upper salmon basin conservation easement

  • $450,000

    Opportunities Industrialization Center of Washington · Yakima, WA · 2024

    Facility renovation

  • $450,000

    Southeast Alaska Food Bank · Juneau, AK · 2024

    New warehouse facility

  • $450,000

    University of Alaska Foundation · Fairbanks, AK · 2024

    New equipment

  • $450,000

    University of Washington · Seattle, WA · 2024

    Photolithography and atomic force microscope

  • $450,000

    Pullman Regional Hospital Foundation · Pullman, WA · 2022

    Facility renovation

View all 2,400 grants →

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Source: IRS Form 990-PF, Part XV, as filed by the foundation. These are grants already paid — a record of what this funder backs, not an open call.