· Private foundation
Cummings-Christensen Family Foundation
Its FY2024 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k32 grants · $117k
- $10k–50k11 grants · $226k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $359k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| FIDELITY CHARITABLE GIFT | $174,350 |
| JUVENILE DIABETES RESEARCH | $125,000 |
| SONOMA COUNTY VINTNERS FOUNDATION | $60,000 |
| CHILDREN'S THEATER OF MADISON | $40,000 |
| MERITER FOUNDATION | $36,000 |
| OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS | $25,000 |
| THE GOODMAN CENTER | $25,000 |
| PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF WI | $21,000 |
| ROUTT COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY | $20,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS | $15,000 |
| OPERTION FRESH START | $12,000 |
| ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND | $11,000 |
| NATIONAL RESOURCE DEFENSE COUNCIL | $11,000 |
| COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE ALLIANCE | $10,000 |
| FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN | $7,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $91k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 92% 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
52 repeat relationships — 43 still active in FY2024, 9 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k 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
- MFMERITER FOUNDATION INC8× · 2017–2024 · $338k · revenue +101%
- CTCHILDREN'S THEATER OF MADISON INC6× · 2017–2024 · $231k · revenue +238%
- OFOPERATION FRESH START INC8× · 2017–2024 · $130k · revenue +64%
Funded once
- CACOMMUNITY AFRICULTURE ALLIANCEone grant, 2019 · $10k
- PCPALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUNDgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +32%
- RBROGERS BEHAVIOR HEALTH FOUNDATIONone grant, 2023 · $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.
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.
Landmark conservancy is a nationally accredited, nonprofit conservation organization serving 20 counties across northwest wisconsin. their mission is to conserve wisconsin's natural legacy for everyone...forever.
The purpose of the association shall be to restore and conserve wisconsin's waterfowl and wetland resources; to educate state waterfowlers during their progression from natural resource consumer to steward; and to promote governmental…
To develop and promote a carbon dividends framework - based on carbon fees whose revenues are rebated to citizens through dividends - as the most cost-effective, equitable, and politically viable climate solution.
Legal protection and advocacy to protect the rights of people with disabilities in wisconsin.
Gathering waters (wisconsin's alliance for land trusts) strengthens land trusts to protect wisconsin's special places and grow healthy, vibrant communities. the stronger the alliance between gathering waters' staff and board members, land…
To protect, conserve, and enhance wisconsin's natural resources by advocating for and supporting county conservation efforts, for current and future generations.
We conduct impartial public policy research and analysis to drive informed debate and effective decision-making in the state of wisconsin.
Rogue Climate's mission is to empower Southern Oregon communities most impacted by climate change including low-income, rural, youth, seniors & communities of color, to win climate justice by organizing for clean energy, sustainable jobs &…
The door county land trust is a local, non-governmental non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve door county's exceptional lands and waters forever.
Waterstep focuses on providing safe water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions to communities in need around the world. its mission is rooted in the belief that safe water is a basic human right and a critical foundation for health,…
Our vision is for wisconsin to be the model for excellence in equitable school counseling practice, exemplified by the advocacy, leadership, and expertise of the members of the wsca.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Clean Lakes Alliance Inc and the most unlike its peers is Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 37 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
32 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. 32 of the 59 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 UNITED WAY OF DANE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds MERITER FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S THEATER OF MADISON INC ↗
- Who funds OPERATION FRESH START INC ↗
- Who funds SMILE TRAIN INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds ONE CITY SCHOOLS INC ↗
- Who funds SONOMA COUNTY VINTNERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds MADISON MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds PORCHLIGHT INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds LEELANAU CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds Routt County Humane Society ↗
- Who funds SOUTHWESTERN DIABETIC FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds MADISON COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds CLEAN LAKES ALLIANCE INC ↗
- Who funds PALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUND ↗
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: Madison Community Foundation · Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc · The Evjue Foundation Inc · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Craig-Scheckman Family Foundation · Pleasant T Rowland Foundation Inc · The Simmons Foundation · Trustage Foundation Inc · Colorado Gives Foundation · Gates Family Foundation · Hooper Corp Foundation · Nimick Forbesway 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 Cummings-Christensen 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Cummings-Christensen Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Cummings-Christensen Family 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.