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Wisconsin · Private foundation

Dr David & Karen Olson 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.

$205k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
14
Grants FY2025
11
Organizations funded FY2024
0%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$20,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$20,000
Organizations funded a year
11 to 18
FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$3.9M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 0% of the organizations Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
PhilanthropyArts & CultureHuman ServicesOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving14$205k7%
FY202411$190k0%
FY202315$215k20%
FY202216$235k19%
FY202118$186k33%
FY202013$195kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$418kEducation$180kHousing & Shelter$131kFood & Nutrition$105kHuman Services$95kHealth$90kYouth Development$88kInternational$70kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 18 grantees

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 8 recipients with no EIN on record ($345k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSecond Harvest Heartland: $105,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Society: $92,500 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetMinnesota Public Radio American Public Media: $90,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetLutheran Social Service of Minnesota: $90,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetUjamaa Place: $87,500 over 6y, 1.1% of budgetTwin Cities Public Television Inc: $85,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetConcordia University St Paul: $65,000 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetThe Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library: $60,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetPeople Incorporated: $45,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetMinnesota Orchestral Association: $40,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSaint Paul Police Foundation: $30,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetGuthrie Theater Foundation: $25,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPlanned Parenthood North Central States: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPenumbra Theatre Company Inc: $20,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetTwin Cities Habitat for Humanity: $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPark Square Theatre: $10,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetClare Housing: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 17.

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.

Saint Paul & Minnesota FoundationMN23× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Nicholson Family Foundation · Hardenbergh Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Hrk Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation with peer funders

About Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation

How much does Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation give?
Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation reported 14 grants totaling $205,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 18 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (34%), Education (15%), Housing & Shelter (11%).
Who are Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Second Harvest Heartland ($105k), The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Society ($93k), Minnesota Public Radio American Public Media ($90k).
Does Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Xcel Energy Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation.
Where is Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation based?
Dr David & Karen Olson Family Foundation is based in WI.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 26 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

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

Source object · view filing

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