Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

Brand Family 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.

$1.5M
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0197% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.

Education$7.5MRecreation & Sports$480kArts & Culture$293kEmployment$251kYouth Development$157kHuman Services$117kPhilanthropy$100kCommunity Improvement$51kOther$0
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $3k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $20k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $105k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.4M
$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$5.9M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION$1,027,000
VARSITY COLLECTIVE CHARITABLE FUND INC$350,000
FIRST TEE SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN$55,000
MADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM$50,000
UNITED WAY OF MIAMI-DADE INC$10,000
BALANCE AND BELIEVE FOUNDATION INC$10,000
COCONUT GROVE CARES INC$2,000
AGRACE FOUNDATION INC$1,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $217k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 8% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%COCONUT GROVE CARES INC: $5k → 15%COCONUT GROVE CARES: $2k → 15%COCONUT GROVE CARES INC: $2k → 15%COCONUT GROVE CARES INC: $2k → 15%COCONUT GROVE CARES INC: $2k → 15%COCONUT GROVE CARES INC: $2k → 15%Coconut Grove Cares: $2k → 15%ATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION: $20k → 10%ATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION: $20k → 10%ATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION: $20k → 10%ATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION: $20k → 10%ATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION: $20k → 10%CENTRO HISPANO OF DANE COUNTY: $100k → 10%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$8.7M · 11 repeat orgs$319k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +47% since the first grant, against +38% for the ones you funded once.

11 repeat relationships — 5 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
17

Total granted

$8.7M
$263k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+47%
+38%

Still filing today

91%
47%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $56k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesArts & CultureEducationPhilanthropyEmploymentFood & NutritionOther

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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION
    9× · 2017–2025 · $7.4M · revenue +39%
  • TV
    THE VARSITY COLLECTIVE CHARITABLE FUND INC
    2× · 2024–2025 · $460k · revenue +77%
  • CW
    COMMUNITY WORK SERVICES INC
    2× · 2019–2023 · $251k · revenue +9%

Funded once

  • CH
    CENTRO HISPANO INC
    one grant, 2024 · $100k · revenue 0%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $100k
  • A
    AGRACE
    one grant, 2020 · $10k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
The University School of Milwaukee Corporation

University school of milwaukee cultivates excellence in learning, leadership, and citizenship for prekindergarten through 12th grade students. students are engaged, known, and valued within our passionate independent school community…

Education
2
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Inc

The milwaukee institute of art and design's mission is to ignite curious minds through art, design and service. we value courage to seek our own path, integrity to pursue our lives and work with meaning, kindness to thoughtfully engage…

—
3
Midwest Dairy Association

Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.

—
4
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
5
Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Mcad provides a transformative education within a community of support for creative students of all backgrounds to work, collaborate, and lead with confidence in a dynamic, interconnected world.

Education
6
The Medical College of Wisconsin Inc

The medical college of wisconsin (mcw) is a distinguished leader and innovator in the education and development of the next generation of physicians, (continued in schedule o)

Education
7
The Uwm Foundation Inc

The mission of the uwm foundation, inc. is to support the educational, literary, and scientific endeavors of the university of wisconsin-milwaukee by receiving, managing, and distributing gifts to benefit the university's students,…

Education
8
Downtown Madison Inc

Make downtown madison an economically strong, equitable, inclusive, and vibrant place to live, work, and visit.

—
9
The Uwm Real Estate Foundation Inc

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…

Housing & Shelter
10
Wisconsin Maritime Museum Inc

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…

Arts & Culture
11
Columbia College

Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.

Education
12
The College of Wooster

The college of wooster is a community of independent minds, working together to prepare students to become leaders of character and influence in an interdependent global community. (continued on schedule o)we engage motivated students in a…

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is CHAMPIONS4KIDS Inc and the most unlike its peers is National Historic Cheesemaking. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 42 years old; the field is 12. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number27%4%<5yr16%0%5–10yr21%17%10–20yr16%13%20–35yr9%22%35–55yr12%44%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value27%5%<5yr16%0%5–10yr21%1%10–20yr16%0%20–35yr9%7%35–55yr12%87%55yr+

The field is 27% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 5% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 16% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/24
the rest of the field
16%
2,604/16,464

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

21 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 21 of the 31 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
21/21
Grantees still filing
16/21
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION — $7,368,200 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION+1 more — $1,000 · EducationTHE VARSITY COLLECTIVE CHARITABLE FUND INC — $460,000 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY MIAMI INC — $90,000 · Philanthropy+1 more — $10,000 · PhilanthropyPALMER TRINITY PRIVATE SCHOOL INC — $120,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $100,000 · OtherBALANCE AND BELIEVE FOUNDATION INC — $20,000 · OtherMADISON ROTARY FOUNDATION — $51,000 · Other+14 more — $58,050 · OtherMADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC — $250,000 · Arts & CultureWISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA INC — $15,000 · Arts & Culture+1 more — $5,000 · Arts & CultureCOMMUNITY WORK SERVICES INC — $250,800 · EmploymentCENTRO HISPANO INC — $100,000 · Human ServicesATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION — $100,000 · Human ServicesCOCONUT GROVE CARES INC — $17,000 · Human ServicesCHAMPIONS4KIDS INC — $55,000 · Recreation & Sports
Education$7,369,200Philanthropy$560,000Other$349,050Arts & Culture$270,000Employment$250,800Human Services$217,000Recreation & Sports$55,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION — $7,368,200 over 9y, 0.4% of budgetTHE VARSITY COLLECTIVE CHARITABLE FUND INC — $460,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetCOMMUNITY WORK SERVICES INC — $250,800 over 2y, 18% of budgetMADISON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC — $250,000 over 4y, 3.5% of budgetPALMER TRINITY PRIVATE SCHOOL INC — $120,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetCENTRO HISPANO INC — $100,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetATTIC ANGEL ASSOCIATION — $100,000 over 5y, 2.0% of budgetUNITED WAY MIAMI INC — $90,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetMADISON ROTARY FOUNDATION — $51,000 over 2y, 2.9% of budgetCOCONUT GROVE CARES INC — $17,000 over 7y, 1.6% of budgetWISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA INC — $15,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetNATIONAL HISTORIC CHEESEMAKING — $10,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetBATTIER TAKE CHARGE FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetFRATERNITY OF PHI GAMMA DELTA LANDMARK PRESERVATION INC — $5,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetSWISS CENTER OF NORTH AMERICA INC — $5,000 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetRIPON COLLEGE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF DANE COUNTY INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSECOND HARVEST FOODBANK OF SOUTHERN WI — $400 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS INC — $250 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Madison Community Fou…The Evjue Foundation …Madison Gas and Elect…Alliant Energy Founda…Steinhauer Charitable…John J Frautschi Fami…Pleasant T Rowland Fo…Baird Foundation IncThe Blackbaud Giving …Vanguard Charitable E…Morgan Stanley Global…Jpmorgan Chase Founda…
Madison Community FoundationWI19.6× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Madison Community Foundation · The Evjue Foundation Inc · Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Steinhauer Charitable Foundation · John J Frautschi Family Foundation Inc · Pleasant T Rowland Foundation Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Jpmorgan Chase 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 Brand Family 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →median 23%
  • United Way Miami Inc — 23% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 31 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines