· Private foundation
Joanne Nicolay 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DE LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| THE HELM - MEALS ON WHEELS | $2,500 |
| REGINA HIGH SCHOOL | $2,000 |
| GEORGE W BUSH PRESIDENTIAL CENTER | $1,000 |
| DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $1,000 |
| DETROIT GOODFELLOWS | $1,000 |
| GETTYSBURG COLLEGE | $1,000 |
| NEIGHBORHOOD CLUB | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–22, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 18%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 67% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
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 +40% since the first grant, against +3% for those funded once.
22 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 15 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, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Vanderbilt University4× · 2018–2024 · $105k · revenue +65%- GPGROSSE POINTE THEATRE INC5× · 2017–2024 · $35k · revenue +67%
- DADETROIT ATHLETIC CLUB FOUNDATION7× · 2017–2023 · $24k · revenue +162%
Funded once
- GCGETTYSBURG COLLEGE- JO NICOLAY SCHone grant, 2020 · $20k
- ECEARLY CHILDHOOD INITIATIVE INCgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $20k · revenue +74%
- SSSTEPH SAVESone grant, 2023 · $20k
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.
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.
See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…
Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…
Golden gate university prepares individuals to lead and serve by providing high quality, practice-based educational programs in law, taxation, business and related professions - as a nonprofit institution - in an innovative and challenging…
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…
To inform and enrich the intellectual lives of 20,000 alumni of harvard university in the washington, dc area and to assist harvard university with respect to applicants and undergraduates from the dc area.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
How this is measured
21 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. 21 of the 59 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 Vanderbilt University ↗
- Who funds GROSSE POINTE THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds DETROIT ATHLETIC CLUB FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HELPHOPELIVE INC ↗
- Who funds GROSSE POINTE ANIMAL ADOPTION SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds EARLY CHILDHOOD INITIATIVE INC ↗
- Who funds Warrior Dog Foundation ↗
- Who funds GETTYSBURG COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds ADRIAN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds EDSEL & ELEANOR FORD HOUSE ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY LIGGETT SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds PHOENIX GOSPEL MISSION ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBORHOOD CLUB ↗
- Who funds GROSSE POINTE LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds OLD NEWSBOYS GOODFELLOW FUND OF DETROIT MICHIGAN ↗
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: S Gary Spicer Sr Foundation · Doris J & Donald L Duchene Foundation C/O David Findling · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · Mary I McLeod Foundation · William & Martha Ford Fund · Thomas and Carol Cracchiolo Foundation · Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation · Dolores and Paul Lavins Foundation · Alice Kales Hartwick Foundation · Thomas a Mackey Charitable Foundation · McGregor Fund · National Philanthropic Trust
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Joanne Nicolay Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Joanne Nicolay Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Joanne Nicolay Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Joanne Nicolay 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.
Play a game based on Joanne Nicolay’s filings →