· Private foundation
Donald and Donna Baumgartner Charitable Trust
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 it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k1 grant · $25k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $375k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MILWAUKEE BALLET | $170,000 |
| THE FLORENTINE OPERA COMPANY | $76,497 |
| MILWAUKEE FILM INC | $65,000 |
| MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM | $63,654 |
| FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN | $25,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 97% of its 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 +14% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
8 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 4 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, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $25k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
MILWAUKEE BALLET COMPANY INC5× · 2020–2025 · $770k · revenue +19%- MAMILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC5× · 2018–2025 · $682k · revenue +8%
FLORENTINE OPERA COMPANY INC6× · 2017–2025 · $490k · revenue +38%
Funded once
UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INCone grant, 2024 · $130k · revenue 0%
MILWAUKEE AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2023 · $60k · revenue -4%- NSNORTH SHORE LIBRARYone grant, 2024 · $30k
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.
Making the arts accessible to all
To provide the finest collaborative environment for: supporting performing arts training and education for a diverse population of youth; nurturing youth from diverse ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, instilling life-skills…
Strengthen communities by providing high-quality and innovative artistic experiences that entertain, inspire, and unite diverse audiences.
The mission of madison opera is to produce operas of the highest artistic standards.
Support the south milwaukee performing arts center and community arts
To reach a new generation of radio listeners on air, online and in the community with a compelling selection of music and public affairs programming. the corporation celebrates milwaukee music, arts, heritage, and culture by supporting and…
The mission of Arts @ Large is to activate Milwaukees communities to build environments that support arts-rich, lifelong learning. The organization uses the arts to cultivate inclusive and innovative communities where students, their…
The corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code ("irc") and for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to…
Inspire artists, audiences, and our greater southern wisconsin community to celabrate the art of theatre.
The mission of the milwaukee bar association is to be an inclusive, equitable and diverse organization that serves the interests of the lawyers, judges and the people of milwaukee county by working to promote the professional interests of…
Monroe street arts center engages a community of learners in exploring the arts and developing the creative self
Orchestral program for communit
How this is measured
18 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. 18 of the 22 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 BALLET COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds FLORENTINE OPERA COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds MARCUS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC ↗
- Who funds Imagine MKEInc ↗
- Who funds SCULPTURE MILWAUKEE INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE FILM INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE LTD ↗
- Who funds LYNDEN INC ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER INC ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC ↗
- Who funds RENAISSANCE THEATERWORKS INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE INSTITUTE OF ART & DESIGN INC ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF WISCONSIN 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: Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation Inc · Bert L and Patricia S Steigleder Charitable · Baird Foundation Inc · Peck Foundation Milwaukee Ltd · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Andy Nunemaker Foundation Inc · Gardner Foundation · Northwestern Mutual Life Foundation Inc · Ge Aerospace Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Donald and Donna Baumgartner Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Donald and Donna Baumgartner Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Donald and Donna Baumgartner’s filings →