· Private foundation
Lau & Bea Christensen Charitable Foundat
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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
71% of Lau & Bea Christensen Charitable Foundat’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Madison Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Lau & Bea Christensen Charitable Foundat named its own grantees at scale: 31 organizations, $805k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
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.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k12 grants · $34k
- $10k–50k31 grants · $521k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $250k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $100,000 |
| JDRF TID FUND LLC | $50,000 |
| MADISON READING PROJECT | $50,000 |
| THE PLAYING FIELD | $50,000 |
| ACLU FOUNDATION OF WI | $44,000 |
| WISCONSIN YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $40,000 |
| MADISON COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $30,000 |
| NATURE CONSERVANCY | $25,000 |
| WISCONSINS GREENFIRE | $22,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $20,000 |
| IPPFWHR | $20,000 |
| JUST DANE | $20,000 |
| CHILDREN'S THEATER OF MADISON | $20,000 |
| BAYVIEW | $20,000 |
| MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $20,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $612k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
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 +39% since the first grant, against -40% for those funded once.
66 repeat relationships: 46 still active in FY2023, 20 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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; $10k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- PPPLANNED PARENTHOOD OF WISCONSIN INC3× · 2018–2020 · $346k · revenue +12%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION5× · 2017–2021 · $331k · revenue +39%
- IAIRWIN A AND ROBERT D GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER INC9× · 2017–2025 · $250k · revenue +113%
Funded once
- PPPWIone grant, 2021 · $210k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $50k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2022 · $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.
Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.
We conduct impartial public policy research and analysis to drive informed debate and effective decision-making in the state of wisconsin.
Legal protection and advocacy to protect the rights of people with disabilities in wisconsin.
Renew wisconsin leads and accelerates the transformation to wisconsin's renewable energy future through advocacy, education, and collaboration.
The partnership is committed to housing for everyone because it's essential for building healthy communities. we build effective public-private partnerships to expand access to affordable housing options. we do this by directly developing…
Goodwill of south central wisconsin's mission is to help people in our community to live, work and thrive through housing, employment and supportive services. see schedule o for continuationsupported employment and job skills training are…
Gathering waters (wisconsin's alliance for land trusts) strengthens land trusts to protect wisconsin's special places and grow healthy, vibrant communities. the stronger the alliance between gathering waters' staff and board members, land…
Wayforward resources, inc. brings our community together to create food and housing security through action and advocacy.
The purpose of the association shall be to restore and conserve wisconsin's waterfowl and wetland resources; to educate state waterfowlers during their progression from natural resource consumer to steward; and to promote governmental…
To advance progressive values, ideas and policies through research, policy, networking, advocacy and public education.
The madison professional police officers association represents law enforcement professionals who serve the city of madison, wisconsin, as either police officers, detectives, investigators, or sergeants.
The organization acquires, holds, administers, and distributes real and personal property for the benefit of the university of wisconsin (uw)-madison.
How this is measured
48 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 48 of the 87 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 MADISON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds IRWIN A AND ROBERT D GOODMAN COMMUNITY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF DANE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds MADISON AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds LITERACY NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR BLACK EXCELLENCE AND CULTURE INC ↗
- Who funds THE RIVER FOOD PANTRY INC ↗
- Who funds VERA COURT NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds WCIJ INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN'S GREEN FIRE INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds THE PLAYING FIELD INC ↗
- Who funds JUSTDANE ↗
- Who funds THE NATURE CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds PORCHLIGHT INC ↗
- Who funds OPERATION FRESH START INC ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY NORTHWOODS INC ↗
- Who funds MADISON OPERA INC ↗
- Who funds Cloud Forest School Foundation ↗
- Who funds YWCA MADISON INC ↗
- Who funds THE ROAD HOME DANE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S THEATER OF MADISON INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
- Who funds Guttmacher Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds MADISON READING PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
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: Madison Community Foundation · The Evjue Foundation Inc · Madison Gas and Electric Foundation Inc · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · The Oscar Rennebohm Foundation Inc · The Roots and Wings Foundation Inc · Endres Manufacturing Foundation Inc · United Way of Dane County Inc · Ascendium Education Solutions Inc · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Madison Rotary Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Lau & Bea Christensen Charitable Foundat funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lau & Bea Christensen Charitable Foundat. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
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