· Private foundation
Michels Family Foundation
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.
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.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k13 grants · $63k
- $10k–50k14 grants · $235k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $305k
- $250k+2 grants · $1.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL | $1,000,000 |
| AGNESIAN HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION | $600,000 |
| ST LAWRENCE SEMINARY | $100,000 |
| HOLY FAMILY CATHOLIC CHURCH | $100,000 |
| THE ARC FOND DU LAC | $55,000 |
| WAUPUN YOUTH HOCKEY ASSOCIATION | $50,000 |
| ST MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH | $30,000 |
| ST MARY'S SPRINGS ACADEMY | $27,000 |
| SPECIAL OLYMPICS WISCONSIN | $24,000 |
| FOND DU LAC FAMILY YMCA | $20,000 |
| ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY | $20,000 |
| ST PAUL'S LUTHERAN CHURCH | $20,000 |
| FONDY FOOD PANTRY | $14,000 |
| HOLYLAND FOOD PANTRY | $14,000 |
| LOMIRA FOOD PANTRY | $14,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $306k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 95% 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 +12% since the first grant, against -5% for the ones you funded once.
46 repeat relationships — 25 still active in FY2024, 21 since wound down; 8 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, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $97k 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
- MUMarquette University6× · 2019–2024 · $5.0M · revenue +46%
- AHAGNESIAN HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION INC4× · 2018–2024 · $2.0M · revenue +32%
MIDWEST ATHLETES AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCER INC2× · 2019–2020 · $1.0M · revenue +5%
Funded once
- BSBRUNSWICK SCHOOL INCgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue +41%
- SFST FRANCIS HOME OF FOND DU LAC WISCONSIN INCone grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue +20%
- MFMPTV Fundone grant, 2017 · $40k
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.
We will stirve to make a significant difference in improving the quality of life of our members and the communities we serve by providing affordable access to credit and financial services.
To share christ's love as we serve the spiritual, physical, intellectual and emotional needs of people entrusted to our care and others whose lives we touch.
To unite individuals and organizations in a collaborative cost-effective effort to meet the human service needs of the community
The mission of lad lake, inc. is to guide the growth of at-risk youth so that they reach their potential and live responsibly.
The mission of envision greater fond du lac, inc. is to inspire our community to work in partnership and cultivate a vibrant economic future.
To serve the christian home and church by disciplining students academically and spiritually; helping each student attain a biblical worldview and their full potential as unique and beloved creations of a sovereign god.
The door county land trust is a local, non-governmental non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve door county's exceptional lands and waters forever.
Rooted in the loving ministry of jesus as healer, we commit ourselves to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. our catholic health ministry is dedicated to spiritually-centered, holistic care…
Fond du lac lutheran home, as part of lutheran homes and health services, provides a christian-based innovative approach to aging through comprehensive services, programs, and communities.
We are a catholic, faith-based organization entrusted with advancing the life-enhancing senior care ministry of the benedictine sisters of duluth, minnesota. we witness to god's love by creating inclusive communities, supporting those we…
The lutheran home, inc. is dedicated to serving older adults and enriching the lives of those we touch by providing compassionate and loving care.
Extraordinary healthcare from the heart - one person at a time.vision: we will set the standard for community-based healthcare that improves the health and quality of life of the people we serve.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Agnesian Healthcare Foundation Inc and the most unlike its peers is Lumen Christi. 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 44 years old; the field is 22. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 17% 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 10% 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.
57 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. 57 of the 105 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 Marquette University ↗
- Who funds MARIAN UNIVERSITY INC ↗
- Who funds AGNESIAN HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ST NORBERT COLLEGE INC ↗
- Who funds MIDWEST ATHLETES AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCER INC ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF FOND DU LAC WI INC ↗
- Who funds BRUNSWICK SCHOOL INC ↗
- Who funds GOLD IN SEPTEMBER CHARITABLE TRUST ↗
- Who funds THELMA SADOFF CENTER FOR THE ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds THE ARC FOND DU LAC INC ↗
- Who funds FOND DU LAC AREA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOND DU LAC SYMPHONIC BAND LTD ↗
- Who funds PRO-LIFE WISCONSIN EDUCATION TASK FORCE INC ↗
- Who funds MICHELS SCHOLARSHIP FUND INC ↗
- Who funds ST FRANCIS HOME OF FOND DU LAC WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds Holyland Food Pantry Inc ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF FOND DU LAC INC ↗
- Who funds ST ANN CENTER FOR INTERGENERATIONAL CARE ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF FOND DU LAC COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds VISTA CHRISTIAN RETREAT INC ↗
- Who funds FONDY FOOD PANTRY ↗
- Who funds SPECIAL OLYMPICS WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds SOLUTIONS CENTER 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: Fond Du Lac Area Foundation · Grande Foundation · Kevin and Connie Michels Family Foundation · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Mid-States Aluminum Foundation Inc · Mike Shannon Automotive Foundation Inc · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Agnesian Healthcare Inc · Jf Ahern Co Foundation · Sadoff Family Foundation · Patrick & Marysue Michels Family 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 Michels Family Foundation 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.
- The Shriners' Hospital for Children — 6% of income from government
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 Michels Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Michels Family Foundation 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.