· Private foundation
Nickum Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HOUSING TRUST OF BENZIE | $30,000 |
| DENISON UNIVERSITY | $25,000 |
| PAUL OLIVER MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| FRANKFORT-ELBERTA EDUCATION FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| CRANBROOK SCHOOLS | $20,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF IOWA | $13,500 |
| GRAND TRAVERSE REGIONAL LAND CONSERVANCY | $12,500 |
| ROLLINS COLLEGE | $10,000 |
| SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY | $10,000 |
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 (FY17–22, $80k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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.
16 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 2 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, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- DUDENISON UNIVERSITY9× · 2017–2025 · $165k · revenue +39%
- TPTURNING POINTE AUTISM FOUNDATION6× · 2017–2022 · $80k · revenue +199%
- RCROLLINS COLLEGE4× · 2021–2025 · $65k · revenue +37%
Funded once
- MHMUNSON HEALTHCARE FOUNDATIONSgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue +57%
- SUSTATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $15k · revenue +53%
- ICINTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTSone grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue -69%
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.
Provide post-secondary education leading to a baccalaureate degree. Program service expenditures are made in conjunction with the operation of a liberal arts college spread over 107 acres with approximately 63 educational and support…
Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher education learning providing a four-year educational program leading to the baccalaureate degree. illinois college is a community committed to the highest standards of scholarship…
The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.
Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…
Depauw university develops leaders the world needs through an uncommon commitment to the liberal arts. depauw's diverse and inclusive learning and living experience, distinctive in its rigorous intellectual engagement and its global and…
Dunwoody college changes lives by building opportunities for graduates to have successful careers, to develop into leaders and entrepreneurs, and to engage in "the better performance of life's duties." quote is from the last will and…
Wheaton college provides a transformative liberal arts education, combining theory and practice, for intellectually curious students within a collaborative and vibrant extended community and network that values and strives to create an…
The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.
See Disclosure Above.
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Gettysburg college is a residential, undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences.
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 27 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 DENISON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds TURNING POINTE AUTISM FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ROLLINS COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds RAY GRAHAM ASSOCIATION FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ↗
- Who funds Avery Coonley School ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds GRAND TRAVERSE REGIONAL LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds FRANKFORT-ELBERTA EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds MUNSON HEALTHCARE FOUNDATIONS ↗
- Who funds STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PRESIDENT-BOARD OF TRUSTEES SANTA CLARA COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds INTERLOCHEN CENTER FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds FRANKFORT AREA COMMUNITY LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds HINSDALE HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds HINSDALE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO ROWING FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FREEDOM GOLF ASSOCIATION ↗
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: The Chicago Community Trust · The Dupage Community Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Nickum Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Nickum Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Rollins College: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Nickum Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Nickum 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.
Play a game based on Nickum’s filings →