· Private foundation
Bernadette M Otto Charitable Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k15 grants · $40k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| AREA COMMUNITY THEATRE INC | $10,000 |
| FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST | $5,000 |
| NEIGHBOR FOR NEIGHBOR INC | $5,000 |
| TOMAH CONCERT ASSOCIATION | $4,000 |
| VETERANS ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION INC | $4,000 |
| TOMAH AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $3,000 |
| VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS POST 1382 | $3,000 |
| FAMILIES FIRST OF MONROE COUNTY | $3,000 |
| KINDNESS COMMUNITY INC | $3,000 |
| TOMAH AREA CANCER SUPPORT | $2,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN | $2,000 |
| MR ED'S COMMUNITY THANSGIVING DINNER | $2,000 |
| NORTH AMERICAN SQUIRREL ASSOCIATION | $1,000 |
| CHASING DAYLIGHT ANIMAL SHELTER INC | $1,000 |
| SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC | $1,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY20–25, $11k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
18 repeat relationships — 16 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- TMTomah Memorial Hospital5× · 2018–2022 · $50k · revenue +50%
- ACAREA COMMUNITY THEATER INC7× · 2019–2025 · $32k · revenue +61%
- VAVETERANS ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION INC6× · 2020–2025 · $22k · revenue +23%
Funded once
- HCHO CHUNK MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTERone grant, 2021 · $5k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The mission of Tomah Health Community Foundation, Inc. is to support the community of Tomah and the healthcare providers that serve its residents.
The Housing Action Coalition brings together community resources to address the needs of Waukesha Countys most vulnerable people. The Coalition assists those in need of emergency housing, financial assistance, food and many other…
Baraboo area homeless shelter works to provide shelter and comprehensive case management services to persons experiencing homelessness in baraboo, wisconsin and the surrounding area.
To create decent, affordable housing for those in need
Humane society providing animal stray service and animal care including adoptions, redemptions, and surrenders for residents located in dodge county, wi and surrounding areas.
To provide animal control services for marathon county, provides for the care of stray and unwanted animals, and provides public education concerning the safety of animals and responsible pet ownership.
To promote the health and welfare of animals by providing homes, meals, and healthcare. to control the stray population and the spread of disease.
To promote the sport of ice hockey and educate participants while instilling the importance of sportsmanship and fair play.
To operate as an animal shelter by taking in stray or surrendered animals. We provide medical care and surgical care, including spaying and neutering of all animals if needed prior to adoption.
Providing elderly housing and assistance to eligible clients in northeast wisconsin.
The purpose of neighborhood housing services of southeast wisconsin, inc. is to renew pride, restore confidence,promote reinvestment, and revitalize the nhs neighborhoods through the efforts of local residents acting in concert with…
Provide for shelter, food, veterinary services and adoption of small animals. this shelter operates as a no kill shelter in north central iowa.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Veterans Assistance Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Kindness Community Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 19 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Tomah Memorial Hospital ↗
- Who funds AREA COMMUNITY THEATER INC ↗
- Who funds VETERANS ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds TOMAH AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds CHASING DAYLIGHT ANIMAL SHELTER INC ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBOR FOR NEIGHBOR INC ↗
- Who funds KINDNESS COMMUNITY INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF WEST CENTRAL WIS ↗
- Who funds FAMILIES FIRST OF MONROE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH AMERICAN SQUIRREL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Frank G Andres Charitable Trust · Thomas B Earle Foundation · The Covia Foundation · Burnstad Family Foundation Inc · Jw Etzelmueller Trust Fund · Stephen D and Betty J Gebhardt Family Foundation Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Bernadette M Otto Charitable Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.