· Private foundation
Messmer Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k18 grants · $68k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| VMP FOUNDATIONS INC | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $8,500 |
| MORNING GLORY MINISTRIES | $5,000 |
| FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH | $5,000 |
| MYSO | $5,000 |
| MILWAUKEE RESCUE MISSION | $5,000 |
| WOMENS CARE CENTER | $5,000 |
| MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN | $5,000 |
| VMP FOUNDATION INC | $5,000 |
| THE CONSERVANCY FOR HEALING HERIT | $5,000 |
| FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH WA | $5,000 |
| HEAR WISCONSIN | $3,000 |
| ARTISTS WORKING IN EDUCATION | $2,500 |
| ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS | $2,500 |
| BALLPARK DAY OF FAITH | $2,000 |
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 (FY21–25, $4k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-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.
12 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 10 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, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $35k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
ALL HANDS BOATWORKS INC3× · 2021–2024 · $22k · revenue +65%- PBPrevent Blindness Wisconsin2× · 2022–2023 · $15k · revenue +10%
CATHEDRAL CENTER INC3× · 2021–2024 · $8k · revenue +33%
Funded once
- COCHURCH OF THE GESUone grant, 2024 · $20k
- AAAQUINAS ACADEMYone grant, 2023 · $10k
- SFSAINT FRANCIS DE SALES SEMINARYone grant, 2024 · $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.
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.
Making the arts accessible to all
The mission of the organization is to provide a high quality education for all students with choices after graduation that will provide financial stability, inspire personal freedom to builda legacy.
The mission of the uwm foundation, inc. is to support the educational, literary, and scientific endeavors of the university of wisconsin-milwaukee by receiving, managing, and distributing gifts to benefit the university's students,…
Strengthen communities by providing high-quality and innovative artistic experiences that entertain, inspire, and unite diverse audiences.
Milwaukee women inc is an organization of executives determined to change the quality and composition of corporate boards to maximize the performance of public and private companies with a focus on women and women of color.
As a Catholic, Jesuit university our mission is to search for truth, discover shareknowledge, foster personal professional excellence, promote a life of faith and developleadership expressed in service to others. See Schedule O.
ArtWorks mission is preparing youth for tomorrow by providing transferable career skills through arts internships today. More than 1,450 high school students have completed ArtWorks internships since our inception.
A charter school providing motivation to inner city children to promote a successful future
To partner with the public and private sectors to develop and hold real estate for the benefit of the university of wisconsin-milwaukee. the uwm real estate foundation, inc. holdings may include any properties that advance the mission of…
We conduct impartial public policy research and analysis to drive informed debate and effective decision-making in the state of wisconsin.
The war memorial center's mission is to honor the dead and serve the living. we commemorate the courageous men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom while preserving and sharing the stories, experiences, and…
How this is measured
20 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. 20 of the 45 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 VMP FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ALL HANDS BOATWORKS INC ↗
- Who funds Prevent Blindness Wisconsin ↗
- Who funds CATHEDRAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds CONSERVANCY FOR HEALING & ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE CHAMBER THEATRE LTD ↗
- Who funds ABOVE THE CLOUDS INC ↗
- Who funds DR HOWARD FULLER COLLEGIATE ACADEMY INC ↗
- Who funds Chesterton Academy of Milw Inc ↗
- Who funds UNITED PERFORMING ARTS FUND INC ↗
- Who funds HEAR Wisconsin Inc ↗
- Who funds FLORENTINE OPERA COMPANY INC ↗
- Who funds ARTISTS WORKING IN EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds ST JOHN'S NORTHWESTERN ACADEMIES ↗
- Who funds Arise Milwaukee Inc ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE CATHOLIC HOME 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: Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Olive & Eunice Toussaint Fdn Inv Agy · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Dorothy Inbusch Foundation Inc · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · Gardner Foundation · Anon Charitable Trust · The Ros Foundation · Youth Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Messmer Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Messmer Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Messmer Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Messmer 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.
Play a game based on Messmer’s filings →