Wisconsin · Private foundation
Gardner Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $233k
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 60
- Grants FY2025
- 55
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 13%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $3,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $10,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 44 to 57
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 1
- Total assets, FY2025
- $1.6M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 13% of the organizations Gardner Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 11% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 89% 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
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 60 | $233k | 12% |
| FY2024 | 55 | $225k | 13% |
| FY2023 | 52 | $213k | 12% |
| FY2022 | 57 | $228k | 21% |
| FY2021 | 48 | $155k | 21% |
| FY2020 | 44 | $151k | 27% |
| FY2019 | 50 | $151k | 26% |
| FY2018 | 49 | $149k | 35% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hunger Task Force Inc | $65,000 | 9 | 0% |
| Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin Inc | $61,500 | 8 | 0% |
| Ascension Wisconsin Foundation Inc | $45,000 | 9 | 0% |
| Milwaukee Art Museum Inc | $41,250 | 8 | 0% |
| Milwaukee Rescue Mission | $40,500 | 8 | n/a |
| Grand Avenue Club Inc | $36,500 | 7 | 1% |
| Penfield Children's Center Inc | $33,500 | 7 | 0% |
| Meta House Inc | $32,000 | 7 | 0% |
| Pathfinders Milwaukee Inc | $32,000 | 7 | 0% |
| Milwaukee Ballet Company Inc | $30,346 | 9 | 0% |
Show all 96 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 35 recipients with no EIN on record ($292k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Gardner Foundation supplied at peak.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Youth Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc · Bert L and Patricia S Steigleder Charitable · Anon Charitable Trust · Dorothy Inbusch Foundation Inc · Weiss Family Foundation · Harri Hoffmann Family Foundation Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Gardner Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Gardner 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.
About Gardner Foundation
- How much does Gardner Foundation give?
- Gardner Foundation reported 60 grants totaling $233,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 44 and 57 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Gardner Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (26%), Human Services (16%), Health (15%).
- Who are Gardner Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Hunger Task Force Inc ($65k), Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin Inc ($62k), Ascension Wisconsin Foundation Inc ($45k).
- Does Gardner Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Gardner Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Gardner Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc, Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc, Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation.
- Where is Gardner Foundation based?
- Gardner Foundation is based in WI.
Play a game based on Gardner’s filings →