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Plinth

· Private foundation

Mischler Family Charitable Trust

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.

$12k
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$12k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20212024.

Arts & Culture$60kReligion$4kEducation$3kHuman Services$3kCommunity Improvement$750Public Benefit$100
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$12,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$102k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA$12,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY21–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%INTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $10k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $2k → 10%PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH: $4k → 10%WAUNAKEE COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL: $2k → 10%ROTARY CLUB OF WAUNAKEE: $100 → 10%MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $13k → 10%MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $12k → 10%MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: $6k → 10%FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN: $3k → 10%OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $2k → 10%MADISON OPERA: $2k → 10%OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS: $2k → 10%GOODMAN CENTER: $2k → 10%MADISON OPERA: $2k → 10%MMOCA: $1k → 10%FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN: $1k → 10%GOODMAN CENTER: $1k → 10%MADISON ROTARY FOUNDATION: $750 → 10%SALON PIANO SERVIES FARLEY'S HOUSE OF PIANOS: $1k → 10%SALON PIANO SERVIES FARLEY'S HOUSE OF PIANOS: $1k → 10%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

73%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$51k · 8 repeat orgs$19k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +39% since the first grant, against -44% for the ones you funded once.

8 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

8
7

Total granted

$51k
$19k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+39%
-44%

Still filing today

50%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEducationCommunity ImprovementOther

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

  • MS
    MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC
    3× · 2021–2024 · $31k · revenue +81%
  • FO
    FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC
    2× · 2021–2022 · $4k · revenue +24%
  • WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INC
    2× · 2021–2022 · $3k · revenue +39%

Funded once

  • IC
    INTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
    one grant, 2021 · $10k · revenue -44%
  • PL
    PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH
    one grant, 2022 · $4k
  • WC
    WAUNAKEE COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL
    one grant, 2023 · $2k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field
04the grantee network

7 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 7 of the 15 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/7
Grantees still filing
4/7
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC — $30,700 · Arts & CultureMADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INCINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS — $10,000 · Arts & CultureINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTSFRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC — $3,500 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INCWISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INC — $3,000 · Arts & CultureWISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INCMADISON OPERA INC — $3,000 · Arts & CultureMADISON OPERA INCPEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH — $4,000 · OtherPEACE LUTHERAN CHURCHWYSO — $3,500 · OtherWYSOOVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS — $3,000 · OtherOVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTSGOODMAN CENTER — $2,500 · OtherGOODMAN CENTERSALON PIANO SERVIES FARLEY'S HOUSE OF PIANOS — $2,000 · OtherSALON PIANO SERVIES FARLEY'S…WAUNAKEE COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL — $1,500 · OtherWAUNAKEE COMMUNITY HIGH SCHO…MMOCA — $1,250 · OtherMMOCA+1 more — $100 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION — $1,500 · EducationMADISON ROTARY FOUNDATION — $750 · Community Improvement
Arts & Culture$50,200Other$17,850Education$1,500Community Improvement$750

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC — $30,700 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC — $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INC — $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMADISON OPERA INC — $3,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION — $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMADISON ROTARY FOUNDATION — $750 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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 MADISON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC
  • Who funds INTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN INC
  • Who funds WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO ASSOCIATION INC
  • Who funds MADISON OPERA INC
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION
  • Who funds MADISON ROTARY FOUNDATION

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.

Madison Gas and Electric FoundationWI14.1× affinity4 shared granteesties to 2 of 2Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Madison Gas and Electric Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

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 Mischler Family Charitable Trust 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.

2025
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your 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, FY2025

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 15 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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