· Private foundation
Lynn S Nicholas Family Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2022–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- $50k–250k5 grants · $450k
- $250k+4 grants · $1.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION | $500,000 |
| UWM FOUNDATION | $400,000 |
| ROGERS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH FOUNDATION | $400,000 |
| MACC FUND | $300,000 |
| MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN | $200,000 |
| WATERTOWN HUMANE SOCIETY | $100,000 |
| LAFD FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN | $50,000 |
| PASADENA HUMANE | $50,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY22–22, $15k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +46% since the first grant, against +23% for the ones you funded once.
8 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 3 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; $150k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- CHCHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION INC4× · 2022–2025 · $2.0M · revenue +114%
- TMTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC4× · 2022–2025 · $800k · revenue +9%
- WHWATERTOWN HUMANE SOCIETY INC4× · 2022–2025 · $400k · revenue +106%
Funded once
- DGDELTA GAMMA FOUNDATIONone grant, 2022 · $100k
- UOUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue +39%
- LRLOVELEO RESCUEone grant, 2022 · $50k · revenue -8%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
The humane animal welfare society of waukesha county leads the community in animal welfare and assures sanctuary for animals in need.
The mission of the Wisconsin Humane Society is to make a difference for animals and the people who love them.
To improve and save lives through compassionate care, community engagement and advocacy for animals.
Underdog pet rescue is an all-breed companion animal rescue and vet clinic based out of dane county, wisconsin. our mission is to find permanent homes for animals in need and to enrich lives by strengthening the connection between animals…
The wisconsin hospital association, inc.'s (wha) mission is advocating for the ability of its members to provide high quality health care services to wisconsin communities.the association fulfills this mission through the following values:…
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…
The washington humane society protects animals, supports families, and advocates for positive change to create a world where all animals can thrive. we enrich the humanity of our communities by promoting compassion and encouraging people…
To improve the health of the people of wisconsin by supporting and strengthening physicians' ability to practice high quality patient care in a changing environment.
Angel's wish is dedicated to reducing animal overpopulation, rehoming companion animals, and raising awareness of animal welfare issues in south central wisconsin.
Seattle humane promotes the human-animal bond by saving and serving pets in need, regardless of age, ability, circumstance or geography.
Humane treatement of animals
An independent, not for profit wisconsin corporation, the uwrf foundation is organized solely for the benefit of the university of wisconsin-river falls. private giving to the foundation is essential in raising the level of excellence at…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Elmbrook Humane Society Inc and the most unlike its peers is Loveleo Rescue. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 52 years old; the field is 14. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
23 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 23 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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 CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE UWM FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ROGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds WATERTOWN HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds AURORA HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Wags and Walks ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LOVELEO RESCUE ↗
- Who funds PASADENA HUMANE ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds The Labelle Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC ↗
- Who funds OSHKOSH AREA HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds THE RIDGES SANCTUARY INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENCE INC ↗
- Who funds WAUNAKEE HOOPS CLUB INC ↗
- Who funds HUNGER TASK FORCE INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE INSTITUTE OF ART & DESIGN INC ↗
- Who funds ELMBROOK HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds OCCUPAWS GUIDE DOG ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR DEAF-BLIND PERSONS 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.
Open a dossier: Nicholas Family Foundation Trust · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
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 Lynn S Nicholas Family Foundation Inc 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.
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Lynn S Nicholas Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Lynn S Nicholas Family Foundation 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.