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· Private foundation

Karl and Mildred Niekamp Charitable Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$175k
Granted FY2025still arriving
10
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$52k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Education$651kArts & Culture$381kFood & Nutrition$130kHousing & Shelter$90kYouth Development$62kPublic Benefit$23kReligion$16kHealth$15kOther$0
02FY2025 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k4 grants · $20k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $104k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $52k
$15,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$2.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Strand Theatre Preservation Society$51,500
Moundsville Marshall CO Library$38,500
Cameron High School$20,000
Marshall County Historical Society$20,000
Simpson United Methodist Church$15,000
John Marshall High School$10,000
Individual grant recipient$5,000
Sherrard Middle School$5,000
McNinch Primary School$5,000
Center McMechen Elementary$5,000
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–22, $123k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 15%. 71% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 15%Helping Heroes: $18k → 15%YOUTH SERVICE SYSTEMS INC: $10k → 15%CHILDREN'S HOME OF WHEELING: $6k → 15%HELPING HEROES INC: $37k → 18%YOUTH SERVICE SYSTEMS INC: $2k → 15%HELPING HEROES INC: $20k → 18%HELPING HEROES INC: $5k → 18%HELPING HEROES INC: $5k → 18%HELPING HEROES INC: $5k → 18%OHIO VALLEY RECOVERY INC: $15k → 18%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

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

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.3M · 17 repeat orgs$133k to everyone else

17 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
9

Total granted

$1.3M
$128k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+114%
+137%

Still filing today

29%
22%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesArts & CultureEducationOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • ST
    Strand Theatre Preservation Society Inc
    5× · 2021–2025 · $229k · revenue +114% · 32% of their budget
  • HH
    HELPING HEROES INC
    6× · 2017–2022 · $90k · revenue +192%
  • MC
    MARSHALL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
    5× · 2020–2025 · $80k · revenue +192% · 31% of their budget

Funded once

  • WF
    WVNCC Foundation
    one grant, 2023 · $25k
  • MM
    Moundsville Marshall Co Public Lib
    one grant, 2022 · $23k
  • CM
    Cameron Middle School
    one grant, 2023 · $20k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Hospice of Southern West Virginia Inc

To serve the needs of individuals suffering from life-limiting illness as well as to serve the individuals caring for them. to place emphasis on comfort and quality of life while fulfilling the physical, psychological, social and spiritual…

2
Anchor Homes Inc

Anchor homes operates a faith-based recovery program and believes in helping people of all races, nationality, social class, religion, gender, and language with recovery programming and housing. we believe that the answer to addiction is…

Health
3
West Virginia Homes Inc

Provide housing to low-income families.

4
Wayne County Community Services Organization

Establish, conduct, implement, operate, coordinate and finance programs for the benefit of the low-income, minority, elderly, disadvantaged and handicapped citizens of wayne county, wv

Community Improvement
5
Cumberland Valley Domestic Violence Services Inc

To provide shelter for victims of domestic violence

Human Services
6
Valley Residential Services

Valley Residential Services provides personalized support in safe, comfortable home environments for developmentally disabled individuals, residences for veterans with rehabilitation opportunities, and family assistance services.

Health
7
ValleyBridge House Inc

Residential treatment centers that offer programs to enable individuals to make the necessary changes to recover from substance abuse and lead productive lives.

Health
8
Westcare Kentucky Inc

To provide substance abuse prevention & treatment.

Health
9
Housing Development Corporation

Promote and advance decent, safe and sanitary housing for persons of low and moderate income, the elderly, disadvantaged or infirm, in the cabell- wayne counties and surrounding metropolitan area of west virginia.

Housing & Shelter
10
House of Hope for Recovery Inc

Rehabilitation of adult alcoholics and drug addicts.

11
Mountain State Justice Inc

Mountain state justice provides free legal services to low income people in west virginia and assures that low income people have access to the court system.

Crime & Legal
12
Community Havens Inc

As a supporting organization of Community Residences Inc, Community Havens provides residential services and housing facilities to those individuals in Virginia who need assistance and support.

Housing & Shelter

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley Inc and the most unlike its peers is Marshall County Historical Society 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

8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 28 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
8/8
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MOUNDSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL — $148,000 · OtherMOUNDSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOLSIMPSON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH — $133,500 · OtherSIMPSON UNITED METHODIST CHURCHMOUNDSVILLE-MARSHALL COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY — $128,500 · OtherMOUNDSVILLE-MARSHALL COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARYCameron High School — $114,000 · OtherCameron High SchoolMARSHALL COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY — $73,000 · OtherMARSHALL COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARYJohn Marshall High School — $46,000 · OtherMoundsville Marshall CO Library — $46,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient — $40,000 · OtherCENTRAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL — $33,000 · Other+11 more — $153,500 · Other+11 moreStrand Theatre Preservation Society Inc — $228,500 · Arts & CultureStrand Theatre Preservat…MARSHALL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC — $80,000 · Arts & CultureMARSHALL COUNTY HISTORIC…HELPING HEROES INC — $90,000 · Human ServicesHELPING H…OHIO VALLEY RECOVERY INC — $15,000 · Human ServicesOHIO VALL…YOUTH SERVICES SYSTEM INC — $12,000 · Human ServicesYOUTH SER…THE CHILDRENS HOME OF WHEELING INC — $5,500 · Human ServicesWEST VIRGINIA NORTHERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 · EducationCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR THE OHIO VALLEY INC — $12,000 · Philanthropy
Other$915,500Arts & Culture$308,500Human Services$122,500Education$50,000Philanthropy$12,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetStrand Theatre Preservation Society Inc — $228,500 over 5y, 32% of budgetHELPING HEROES INC — $90,000 over 6y, 8.6% of budgetMARSHALL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC — $80,000 over 5y, 31% of budgetWEST VIRGINIA NORTHERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC — $50,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetOHIO VALLEY RECOVERY INC — $15,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetYOUTH SERVICES SYSTEM INC — $12,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR THE OHIO VALLEY INC — $12,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CHILDRENS HOME OF WHEELING INC — $5,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds Strand Theatre Preservation Society Inc
  • Who funds HELPING HEROES INC
  • Who funds MARSHALL COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC
  • Who funds WEST VIRGINIA NORTHERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds OHIO VALLEY RECOVERY INC
  • Who funds YOUTH SERVICES SYSTEM INC
  • Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR THE OHIO VALLEY INC
  • Who funds THE CHILDRENS HOME OF WHEELING INC

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Raymond A & Gertrude D Hyer FoundationWV15.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Raymond A & Gertrude D Hyer Foundation · Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley Inc · Robert L& Helen E Levenson Family Charitable Tr · The Driehorst Family Foundation · Amazonsmile Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Karl and Mildred Niekamp Charitable Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%your 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
    3report 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, FY2025

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Karl and Mildred Niekamp Charitable Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Karl and Mildred Niekamp Charitable 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 28 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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