How much does First Business Charitable Foundation Inc give?

First Business Charitable Foundation Inc reported 63 grants totaling $339,150 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 33 and 42 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.

What does First Business Charitable Foundation Inc fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (26%), Health (14%), Youth Development (13%).

Who are First Business Charitable Foundation Inc's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: United Way of Dane County Inc ($289k), University of Wisconsin ($150k), Boys and Girls Club of Dane County Inc ($135k).

Does First Business Charitable Foundation Inc fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 24% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does First Business Charitable Foundation Inc accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as First Business Charitable Foundation Inc?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc, Madison Community Foundation, Alliant Energy Foundation Inc.

Where is First Business Charitable Foundation Inc based?

First Business Charitable Foundation Inc is based in WI.

First Business Charitable Foundation Inc

First Business Charitable Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

First Business Charitable Foundation Inc

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$339k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$125k

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$342kHealth$180kYouth Development$168kEducation$163kRecreation & Sports$151kHuman Services$113kArts & Culture$81kFood & Nutrition$44kOther$0

02FY2025 · 63 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k57 grants · $116k
$10k–50k5 grants · $98k
$50k–250k1 grant · $125k

$1,500

Median grant

States reached

$1.9M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF DANE COUNTY INC	$125,000
UNITED WAY OF DANE COUNTY	$38,000
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION INC	$25,000
STEVE STRICKER AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE	$15,000
MADISON PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC	$10,000
ENVISION UNLIMITED	$10,000
AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC	$9,100
WISCONSIN YOUTH SYMPHONY	$5,000
COMMUNITY SMILES DENTAL	$5,000
STOUGHTON HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC	$5,000
LAD LAKE INC	$5,000
REEDSBURG AREA MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION	$5,000
EDGEWOOD COLLEGE	$5,000
VOLUNTEER CENTER OF EAST CENTRAL WI	$5,000
THE GRAND OSHKOSH INC	$5,000

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $68k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 35% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

82%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.1M · 51 repeat orgs$233k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +39% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.

51 repeat relationships: 26 still active in FY2025, 25 since wound down; 37 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.1M

$141k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%

+11%

Still filing today

82%

54%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $91k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesHealthEducationArts & CulturePhilanthropyCommunity ImprovementOther

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.

Backed again, and grew

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF DANE COUNTY INC
3× · 2020–2025 · $135k · revenue +13%
AH
Agrace HospiceCare Inc
5× · 2017–2023 · $60k · revenue +85%
MADISON AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC
3× · 2021–2023 · $50k · revenue +23%

Funded once

UL
URBAN LEAGUE OF GREATER
one grant, 2022 · $20k
BS
BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
one grant, 2022 · $12k
FO
FRIENDS OF CARBONE CANCER CENTER INCgraduated
one grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +120% · 30% of their budget

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.

04Its field

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.

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.

—

Wisconsin Policy Forum Inc

We conduct impartial public policy research and analysis to drive informed debate and effective decision-making in the state of wisconsin.

Public Benefit

Innovative Services Inc

Innovative services, inc. (isi) cares for those with disabilities, helping them lead fulfilling lives with maximum independence. innovative's vision is to be the most trusted care provider for people with disabilities in wisconsin.

Human Services

Uwm Research Foundation Inc

Support research and innovation at the university of wisconsin - milwaukee by providing reserach funding, entrepreneurship support, and by engaging in corporate partnering activities to that end.

Community Improvement

Community Care Health Plan Inc

Community care health plan's mission is to develop and demonstrate innovative, flexible, community-based approaches to care for at-risk adults, in order to optimize their quality of life and optimize the allocation of community resources.

Health

United Way of Wisconsin Inc

United way of wisconsin is dedicated to supporting and enriching a strong statewide united way network that maximizes the capacity of local united ways to address human needs, improve lives and create lasting positive change across…

Philanthropy

Reedsburg Area Medical Center

Reedsburg area medical center, always there, going beyond the expected to provide compassionate, quality, and efficient health care.

Health

Pathways of Wisconsin Inc

Pathways of wisconsin provides supported employment opportunities and empowerment through quality, person-centered programming for individuals of all abilities.

Human Services

Downtown Madison Inc

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

—

Milwaukee Women Inc

Milwaukee women inc is an organization of executives determined to change the quality and composition of corporate boards to maximize the performance of public and private companies with a focus on women and women of color.

Education

Portal Inc

To enhance opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (i/dd) to participate fully in their community as valued neighbors, productive workers and respected citizens. portal, inc. assists more than 200 adults…

Employment

Madison Development Corporation

Madison development corporation (mdc)'s mission is to help create jobs by providing gap financing to small businesses and to develop and finance quality, affordable workforce housing units in madison and the dane county area.

Community Improvement

How this is measured

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

04the grantee network

101 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 101 of the 150 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

98/101

Grantees still filing

68/101

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$816,352Youth Development$135,500Education$130,150Human Services$75,475Arts & Culture$65,600Health$64,700Philanthropy$38,963

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.

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.

Madison Gas and Electric Foundation IncWI58.5× affinity27 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc · Madison Community Foundation · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Endres Manufacturing Foundation Inc · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · The Evjue Foundation Inc · United Way of Dane County Inc · The Roots and Wings Foundation Inc · Trustage Foundation Inc · DAVID G and NANCY B WALSH FAMILY FOUNDATION LTD · M3 Insurance Foundation Inc

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization First Business Charitable Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from First Business Charitable Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

40report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to First Business Charitable Foundation Inc?

Find your warmest path to First Business Charitable Foundation Inc 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.

Play a game based on First Business’ filings →

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 endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home