· Private foundation
Merganser Fund Inc
Its FY2024 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| VERSITI BRI FOUNDATION | $6,000 |
| ST TERESA OF CALCUTTA PARISH | $4,000 |
| MALAIKA EARLY LEARNING CENTER | $3,550 |
| LAKE AREA FREE CLINIC | $2,000 |
| FELLOW MORTALS | $2,000 |
| TALL PINES CONSERVANCY | $1,000 |
| HEBRON HOUSE | $100 |
| THE WOMENS CENTER | $100 |
| MILWAUKEE PBS | $60 |
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 (FY17–24, $900) land where the poverty rate runs at 5%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
Which US states your grants reach
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 +94% since the first grant, against +51% for the ones you funded once.
13 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60 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
- FMFELLOW MORTALS INC7× · 2017–2024 · $27k · revenue +94%
LAKE AREA FREE CLINIC INC7× · 2017–2024 · $15k · revenue +410%
MALAIKA EARLY LEARNING CENTER5× · 2017–2024 · $13k · revenue +97%
Funded once
- STST THERESA OF CALCUTTA PARISHone grant, 2020 · $2k
- APANIMAL PROTECTION NEW MEXICOgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $2k · revenue +73%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $1k
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.
To protect, conserve, and enhance wisconsin's natural resources by advocating for and supporting county conservation efforts, for current and future generations.
The mission of the wisconsin association of lakes is to conserve, enhance, and restore wisconsin's 15,000 lakes to ensure their sustainability for the benefit and collective use and enjoyment for this and future generations.
The natural resource development association supports policies that lead to proper, necessary, and conscientious resource development and conservation. by engaging community leaders, laborers, manufacturers, and job creators in the…
Landmark conservancy is a nationally accredited, nonprofit conservation organization serving 20 counties across northwest wisconsin. their mission is to conserve wisconsin's natural legacy for everyone...forever.
The mission of the wisconsin woodland owners association is to conserve and enhance the private woodlands of the state through the following actions: sustainably manage our woodlands with informed management plans that utilize best…
The wisconsin wildlife federation has a dual mission to engage in conservation education and to advocate for sound conservation policy.
To empower and support wpra members by fostering professional growth, advocating for the parks and recreation profession, and enhancing the quality of life for communities across wisconsin through education, networking, and leadership…
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 protect wisconsin's lands, waters, and wildlife by providing funding, leading partnerships, and connecting all people with nature.
Our vision is for wisconsin to be the model for excellence in equitable school counseling practice, exemplified by the advocacy, leadership, and expertise of the members of the wsca.
The lake leelanau lake association is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the quality and beauty of lake leelanau and its surrounding watershed for current and future generations.
Advance science-informed analysis and policy solutions that address wisconsin's greatest conservation challenges.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Fellow Mortals Inc and the most unlike its peers is Waukesha County Christmas Clearing Council Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
21 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 21 of the 54 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 FELLOW MORTALS INC ↗
- Who funds LAKE AREA FREE CLINIC INC ↗
- Who funds MALAIKA EARLY LEARNING CENTER ↗
- Who funds TALL PINES CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds ANIMAL PROTECTION NEW MEXICO ↗
- Who funds ALL HANDS BOATWORKS INC ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY LAKE SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds THE WOMEN'S CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds CHENEQUA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WAUKESHA COUNTY CHRISTMAS CLEARING COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds WAUKESHA COUNTY LAND CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds KETTLE MORAINE GARDEN CLUB INC ↗
- Who funds FOREST SERVICE EMPLOYEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS INC ↗
- Who funds GLIDE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL AUTISM ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds WESTERN GOLF ASSOCIATION ↗
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: Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · A C Kootz Foundation · Arthur C Kootz Foundation · Four-Four Foundation Inc · The Galaxy Foundation Inc · Windhover Foundation Inc · Waukesha County Community Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · Debbink Family Foundation Inc · Jean & Thomas Harbeck Family Foundation · Green Bay Packers 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 Merganser Fund 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.