· Private foundation
Barbara Meyer Elsner Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k6 grants · $20k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $45k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BURNHAM BLOCK | $44,625 |
| WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $7,292 |
| MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM | $6,750 |
| MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART | $5,000 |
| WILD SPACE DANCE CO | $1,000 |
| GLACIAL LAKES CONSERVANCY | $250 |
| PBS | $200 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY19–19, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +72% since the first grant, against +6% for those funded once.
28 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 22 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MAMILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC8× · 2017–2025 · $34k · revenue +34%
MILWAUKEE AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC6× · 2018–2024 · $34k · revenue +83%- HMHISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC6× · 2017–2022 · $11k · revenue +41%
Funded once
HUNGER TASK FORCE INCone grant, 2020 · $16k · revenue -17%- SHSTATE HISTORICAL SOCIETYone grant, 2021 · $15k
- WTWISCONSIN TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION INCone grant, 2021 · $15k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
WMNC will continue constructing the new Milwaukee Public Museum facility to completion and will then continue as the owner and operator of the new museum.
Supporting the charitable, scientific and educational purposes of the milwaukee public museum.
The milwaukee county historical society was founded in 1935 to collect, preserve, and make available materials relating to the history of the milwaukee community.
The wisconsin maritime museum connects all people with wisconsin's waterways, by engaging and educating the public about wisconsin's maritime history, wisconsin's world war ii submarines, uss cobia, and the great lakes. the wisconsin…
The war memorial center's mission is to honor the dead and serve the living. we commemorate the courageous men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom while preserving and sharing the stories, experiences, and…
Engage our community in supporting milwaukee county parks to collectively steward a thriving park system.
Milwaukee women inc is an organization of executives determined to change the quality and composition of corporate boards to maximize the performance of public and private companies with a focus on women and women of color.
To partner with the public and private sectors to develop and hold real estate for the benefit of the university of wisconsin-milwaukee. the uwm real estate foundation, inc. holdings may include any properties that advance the mission of…
The museum is an educational institution dedicated to preserving the history and culture of waukesha county.
We conduct impartial public policy research and analysis to drive informed debate and effective decision-making in the state of wisconsin.
Making the arts accessible to all
Promote modern, contemporary art through exhibitions, educational programs, and collecting.
How this is measured
26 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 26 of the 54 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HUNGER TASK FORCE INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION INC ↗
- Who funds GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HISTORIC MILWAUKEE INC ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC ↗
- Who funds Metro Milwaukee Mediation Services Inc ↗
- Who funds FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BUILDING CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds WILD SPACE INC ↗
- Who funds WOMEN'S FUND OF GREATER MILWAUKEE INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE PRESERVATION ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds SAINT JOHNS COMMUNITIES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds PABST MANSION INC ↗
- Who funds LAKE PARK FRIENDS LTD ↗
- Who funds CASCADE FIRE DEPARTMENT INC ↗
- Who funds VILLA TERRACE MUSEUM AND GARDENS LTD ↗
- Who funds GLACIAL LAKES CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds TALIESIN PRESERVATION INC ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · Bert L and Patricia S Steigleder Charitable · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Coles Family Foundation co Peter Coles · Dudley and Constance Godfrey Foundation Inc · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Bradley Impact Fund Inc · Ge Aerospace Foundation · National Center for Housing Management Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Barbara Meyer Elsner Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Barbara Meyer Elsner Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Barbara Meyer Elsner Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Barbara Meyer Elsner Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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