Skip to content
Mark M Welter Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Mark M Welter Foundation Inc

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$456k
Granted FY2024still arriving
14
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$70k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0174% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Education$498kPhilanthropy$170kHuman Services$125kFood & Nutrition$50kEmployment$50kYouth Development$46kReligion$15kOther$0
02FY2024 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $6k
  • $10k–50k9 grants · $230k
  • $50k–250k4 grants · $220k
$25,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$6.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LEAD MN$70,000
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS$50,000
U OF MN - SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH$50,000
ST CLOUD TECH COLLEGE$50,000
TOO MUCH TALENT$46,000
VARIOUS OTHERS$35,000
Individual grant recipient$25,000
CHICAGO WORKERS COLLABORATIVE$25,000
ARISE CHICAGO$25,000
BEST CHRISTMAS EVER$25,000
ST ANNE SCHOOL$21,000
ROCKFORD URBAN MINISTRIES$15,000
ISD 2397$13,198
MANKATO LOYOLA SCHOOL$6,200
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 13% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%BELLE PLAINE FOOD SHELF: $10k → 5%LEAD MN: $70k → 6%VARIOUS OTHERS: $329k → 6%BEST CHRISTMAS EVER: $25k → 8%U OF MN - SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: $50k → 11%ST CLOUD TECH COLLEGE: $50k → 11%MANKATO LOYOLA SCHOOL: $20k → 15%YERKES OBSERVATORY: $250k → 10%ARISE CHICAGO: $25k → 14%ROCKFORD URBAN MINISTRIES: $15k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: $50k → 19%BELLE PLAINE FOOD SHELF: $10k → 5%LEAD MN: $70k → 6%VARIOUS OTHERS: $156k → 6%BEST CHRISTMAS EVER: $20k → 8%GREATER MN CHRISIS NURSERY: $30k → 11%TOO MUCH TALENT: $46k → 11%MANKATO LOYOLA SCHOOL: $19k → 15%YERKES OBSERVATORY: $25k → 10%CHICAGO WORKERS COLLABORATIVE: $25k → 14%BELLE PLAINE FOOD SHELF: $5k → 5%LEAD MN: $70k → 6%VARIOUS OTHERS: $140k → 6%GREATER MN CHRISIS NURSERY: $20k → 11%ST JOHNS UNIVERSITY: $25k → 11%MANKATO LOYOLA SCHOOL: $6k → 15%YERKES OBSERVATORY: $25k → 10%LEAD MN: $70k → 6%ISD 2397: $135k → 6%GREATER MN CHRISIS NURSERY: $20k → 11%MANKATO LOYOLA SCHOOL: $5k → 15%LEAD MN: $50k → 6%UNITED WAY OF MN: $95k → 6%MANKATO LOYOLA SCHOOL: $5k → 15%VARIOUS OTHERS: $89k → 6%ST ANNE SCHOOL: $37k → 6%VARIOUS OTHERS: $35k → 6%ST ANNE SCHOOL: $25k → 6%ST ANNE SCHOOL: $21k → 6%ST ANNE SCHOOL: $16k → 6%ISD 2397: $13k → 6%ISD 2397: $11k → 6%LE SUEUR FOOD SHELF: $10k → 6%NEY CENTER: $10k → 6%LE SUEUR FOOD SHELF: $10k → 6%ST ANNE SCHOOL: $6k → 6%LE SUEUR FOOD SHELF: $5k → 6%ISD 2397: $4k → 6%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 grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 11 repeat orgs$391k to everyone else

11 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

11
3

Total granted

$1.9M
$130k

Still filing today

27%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 43% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $261k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24
Food & NutritionEducationEmploymentOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • VO
    VARIOUS OTHERS
    5× · 2020–2024 · $748k
  • LM
    LEAD MN
    5× · 2020–2024 · $330k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    3× · 2022–2024 · $300k

Funded once

  • UW
    UNITED WAY OF MN
    one grant, 2020 · $95k
  • SJ
    ST JOHNS UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2023 · $25k
  • NC
    NEY CENTER
    one grant, 2022 · $10k
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.

04Its field
04the grantee network

6 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. 6 of the 21 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/6
Grantees still filing
1/6
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

VARIOUS OTHERS: $747,700 · OtherVARIOUS OTHERSLEAD MN: $330,000 · OtherLEAD MNIndividual grant recipient: $300,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientISD 2397: $163,045 · OtherISD 2397ST ANNE SCHOOL: $105,200 · OtherUNITED WAY OF MN: $95,000 · OtherCENTRAL MN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION: $75,000 · Other+10 more: $415,900 · Other+10 moreLE SUEUR FOOD SHELF INC: $25,000 · Food & NutritionBELLE PLAINE FOOD SHELF INC: $25,000 · Food & NutritionChicago Workers' Collaborative NFP: $25,000 · EducationARISE CHICAGO: $25,000 · Employment
Other$2,231,845Food & Nutrition$50,000Education$25,000Employment$25,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetBEST CHRISTMAS EVER INC: $45,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetLE SUEUR FOOD SHELF INC: $25,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetChicago Workers' Collaborative NFP: $25,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetARISE CHICAGO: $25,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetBELLE PLAINE FOOD SHELF INC: $25,000 over 3y, 14% 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.

  • Who funds TO MUCH TALENT ↗
  • Who funds BEST CHRISTMAS EVER INC ↗
  • Who funds LE SUEUR FOOD SHELF INC ↗
  • Who funds Chicago Workers' Collaborative NFP ↗
  • Who funds ARISE CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds BELLE PLAINE FOOD SHELF 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA2.4× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile Foundation

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 Mark M Welter Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mark M Welter Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%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
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Mark M Welter Foundation Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Mark M Welter 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.

    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 21 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-PF 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 Mark M Welter’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    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