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Wisconsin · Private foundation

Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina 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.

$229k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
4
Grants FY2025
9
Organizations funded FY2024
44%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$71,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$100,000
Organizations funded a year
3 to 11
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
2
Total assets, FY2025
$1.9M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 44% of the organizations Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 15% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $32k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthArts & CultureEducationYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesHousing & ShelterOther
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 arriving4$229k25%
FY20249$215k44%
FY20237$144k14%
FY20225$129k60%
FY20216$146k50%
FY20203$142k0%
FY20197$118k29%
FY201811$108k73%
95% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Human Services$566kEducation$422kHealth$225kArts & Culture$53kPhilanthropy$25kHousing & Shelter$25kReligion$15kYouth Development$6kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Show all 21 grantees
All grantees of Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
La Casa de Esperanza Inc$545,76591%
Marquette University High School$347,0009n/a
Bryon Riesch Paralysis Foundation Inc$100,000121%
Shriners Hospitals for Children$75,00010%
Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation$20,00015%
Habitat for Humanity of Waukesha County Inc$20,00020%
Latino Arts Inc$20,00033%
American Liver Foundation$13,00010%
The Medical College of Wisconsin Inc$10,00010%
Milwaukee World Festival Inc$6,93510%
Blood Cancer United Inc$6,00010%
Cops N Kids Reading Center Inc$5,000126%
Gold in September Charitable Trust$5,00010%
St Joseph Catholic Church$5,0002n/a
Notre Dame School of Milwaukee Inc$5,0001n/a
Zachariah's Acres Inc$5,00011%
White Stone Warriors Inc$5,00015%
Living Hope International Inc$5,00010%
Milwaukee Rescue Mission$5,0001n/a
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc$3,20020%
American Heart Association Inc$1,00010%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 9 recipients with no EIN on record ($128k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 17 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLa Casa de Esperanza Inc: $545,765 over 9y, 0.5% of budgetBryon Riesch Paralysis Foundation Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetShriners Hospitals for Children: $75,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTesticular Cancer Awareness Foundation: $20,000 over 1y, 5.4% of budgetHabitat for Humanity of Waukesha County Inc: $20,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetLatino Arts Inc: $20,000 over 3y, 2.6% of budgetAmerican Liver Foundation: $13,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetThe Medical College of Wisconsin Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMilwaukee World Festival Inc: $6,935 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBlood Cancer United Inc: $6,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCops N Kids Reading Center Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 26% of budgetGold in September Charitable Trust: $5,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetZachariah's Acres Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetWhite Stone Warriors Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetLiving Hope International Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetUnited Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc: $3,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $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.

Baird Foundation IncWI19.5× affinity9 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Baird Foundation Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Generac Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Annex Charitable Foundation Inc · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Chubb Charitable Foundation · American Endowment 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 Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation with peer funders

About Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation

How much does Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation give?
Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation reported 4 grants totaling $229,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 11 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (42%), Education (31%), Health (17%).
Who are Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: La Casa de Esperanza Inc ($546k), Marquette University High School ($347k), Bryon Riesch Paralysis Foundation Inc ($100k).
Does Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 44% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina 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 Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Baird Foundation Inc, Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc, Generac Foundation Inc.
Where is Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina Family Foundation based?
Gerald W & Sharon K Wadina 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 32 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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