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Joy Engine Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Joy Engine Inc

Joy engine, inc.

$132k
Granted FY2024still arriving
10
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$723kCommunity Improvement$63kHealth$10kEnvironment$10k
02FY2024 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 10 grants below total $97,356, the rows itemized in this filing. The $132,297 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $34,941 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k2 grants · $17k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $80k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ART INTERSECTION MKE$10,000
ARTS LARGE$10,000
MILLENNIAN LLC$10,000
HARBOR DISTRICT INC$10,000
Individual grant recipient$10,000
HISTORIC KING DRIVE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT INC$10,000
LATINO ARTS INC$10,000
FUNK ENTERPISES LLC$10,000
THE MIDDLE GROUND INC$9,856
BERNARD ART STUDIO LLC$7,500
02The need
03

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 (FY22–22, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 14%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 14%LA FAMILIA DE ARTE INC: $10k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
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.
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 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.

1
Madison Art Gallery
—
2
Artworks for Milwaukee Inc

ArtWorks mission is preparing youth for tomorrow by providing transferable career skills through arts internships today. More than 1,450 high school students have completed ArtWorks internships since our inception.

Arts & Culture
3
Wisconsin Visual Artists Inc

WVA champions and supports visual artists working within the state by forging partnerships that make creative opportunities possible.

—
4
Redline Milwaukee Inc

Redline Milwaukee is an arts and culture incubator located in a depressed and transitional neighborhood in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The mission of Redline Milwaukee is to serve the community through arts and educational programs with…

—
5
Mitchell Street Arts Collaborative Incorporated

The mitchell street arts collaborative mission is to promote cross-cultural connection and equitable development.

Arts & Culture
6
Black Arts Mke Inc

To increase the availability and quality of african american arts and culture.

Arts & Culture
7
Milwaukee Riverwalk District Inc

The District supports programs designed to promote beautification, accessibility and public entertainment within the Riverwalk District.

Community Improvement
8
Westbrook Arts & Culture

Westbrook arts & culture vitalizes westbrook by supporting the city's cultural assets, integrating arts and culture into community life, and showcasing westbrook as a great place to live and visit. through arts advocacy, education,…

Arts & Culture
9
Kendall Whittier Main Street Inc

Kendall Whittier celebrates the fusion of old and new by preserving history and promoting growth. We embrace the entrepreneurial spirit by fostering inclusion and cultivating a rich, creative and colorful environment for businesses to…

Community Improvement
10
Flint Public Art Project

Non Profit Art Organization

Community Improvement
11
Madison Arts Alliance Inc

Our mission is to interact with all artists, civic, and art organizations - acting as an advocate for arts in all forms in the madison, in area, and to promote the area as an arts and creative destination.

Arts & Culture
12
Media Rhythm Institute Studios Inc

Our vision is to create a diverse and inclusive arts ecosystem where every artist, regardless of status, identity, or background, has the opportunity to achieve potential, flourish as a creative professional, and thrive in communities…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sculpture Milwaukee Inc; the most unlike its peers is Bronzeville Center for the Arts 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

15 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. 15 of the 22 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
15/15
Grantees still filing
8/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LYNDEN INC: $270,000 · Arts & CultureLYNDEN INCSCULPTURE MILWAUKEE INC: $270,000 · Arts & CultureSCULPTURE MILWAUKEE INCARTS AT LARGE INC: $47,500 · Arts & CultureARTS AT LARGE INCImagine MKEInc: $30,000 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC: $25,000 · Arts & Culture+4 more: $43,022 · Arts & Culture+4 moreIndividual grant recipient: $10,000 · OtherIndividual…MILLENNIAN LLC: $10,000 · OtherMILLENNIAN…RIVERWEST RADIO INC: $10,000 · OtherRIVERWEST …FUNK ENTERPISES LLC: $10,000 · OtherFUNK ENTER…JAZALE S ART STUDIO INC: $10,000 · OtherJAZALE S A…BLOOM ART AND INTEGRATED THERAPIES INC: $10,000 · OtherBLOOM ART …BERNARD ART STUDIO LLC: $7,500 · OtherBERNARD AR…SOME MONKEY BUSINESS LLC: $6,000 · OtherSOME MONKE…HISTORIC KING DRIVE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT INCORPORATED: $10,000 · Community ImprovementWESTOWN ASSOCIATION OF MILWAUKEE INC: $7,500 · Community ImprovementLA FAMILIA DE ARTE INC: $10,000 · Human ServicesHARBOR DISTRICT INC: $10,000 · EnvironmentTHE MIDDLE GROUND INC: $9,856 · Public Benefit
Arts & Culture$685,522Other$73,500Community Improvement$17,500Human Services$10,000Environment$10,000Public Benefit$9,856

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLYNDEN INC: $270,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetSCULPTURE MILWAUKEE INC: $270,000 over 1y, 22% of budgetARTS AT LARGE INC: $47,500 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetImagine MKEInc: $30,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetMUSEUM OF WISCONSIN ART INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetBRONZEVILLE CENTER FOR THE ARTS INC: $13,022 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE NEW STATE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 9.7% of budgetLATINO ARTS INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.6% of budgetHISTORIC KING DRIVE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT INCORPORATED: $10,000 over 1y, 53% of budgetLA FAMILIA DE ARTE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetBLOOM ART AND INTEGRATED THERAPIES INC: $10,000 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetHARBOR DISTRICT INC: $10,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetART INTERSECTION MKE COMMUNITY PARTNERS INC: $10,000 over 1y, 14% of budgetTHE MIDDLE GROUND INC: $9,856 over 1y, 47% of budgetWESTOWN ASSOCIATION OF MILWAUKEE INC: $7,500 over 1y, 1.3% of budget
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.

Greater Milwaukee Fou…Richard and Ethel Her…Green Bay Packers Fou…Donald and Donna Baum…Bert L and Patricia S…Northwestern Mutual L…Rdk FoundationRalph Evinrude Founda…Evan & Marion Helfaer…Wisconsin Humanities …Baird Foundation IncFidelity Investments …
Greater Milwaukee Foundation IncWI33.1× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Donald and Donna Baumgartner Charitable Trust · Bert L and Patricia S Steigleder Charitable · Northwestern Mutual Life Foundation Inc · Rdk Foundation · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Wisconsin Humanities Council Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Joy Engine Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Joy Engine Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%4%15%34%60%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    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.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Joy Engine Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Joy Engine 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.

    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 22 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Joy Engine’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
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    The regranting layer
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    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