· Private foundation
Oleson Foundation
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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k33 grants · $107k
- $10k–50k45 grants · $866k
- $50k–250k10 grants · $609k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| TART TRAILS | $77,000 |
| TRAVERSE BAY CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER | $76,000 |
| NW MI FOOD COALITION | $75,000 |
| CONSERVATION RESOURCE ALLIANCE | $62,000 |
| GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN | $57,900 |
| GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH | $55,000 |
| GRAND TRAVERSE REGIONAL LAND CONSERVANCY | $54,000 |
| GRAND TRAVERSE BAY YMCA | $52,000 |
| GRASS RIVER NATURAL AREA | $50,000 |
| LEELANAU CONSERVANCY | $50,000 |
| NORTE | $42,500 |
| THE FESTIVAL FOUNDATION | $36,040 |
| CHERRYLAND HUMANE SOCIETY | $35,000 |
| ZONTA CLUB OF TRAVERSE CITY | $34,171 |
| THE WATERSHED CENTER | $34,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $635k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 69% 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.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +44% since the first grant, against -4% for those funded once.
107 repeat relationships: 67 still active in FY2025, 40 since wound down; 18 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, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $224k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- GTGRAND TRAVERSE REGIONAL LAND CONSERVANCY9× · 2017–2025 · $391k · revenue +321%
- NMNORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION9× · 2017–2025 · $368k · revenue +53%
- TATRAVERSE AREA RECREATION & TRANSPORTATION TRAILS INC8× · 2017–2025 · $321k · revenue +334%
Funded once
- DFDIRECTORS FUNDone grant, 2024 · $90k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $70k
- FOFRIENDS OF GT CONSERVATION DISTRICTone grant, 2024 · $50k
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.
To protect scenic and natural lands in northern Michigan.
Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…
The Center's mission is to inspire, entertain, educate, and serve all in Northern Michigan year-round by presenting exceptional experiences across the full spectrum of the performing arts and offering impactful educational opportunities.
Safeguard southern michigan's land and water to support diverse, resilient, and thriving communities - forever
To conserve, sustain, and connect natural areas, land, and waters that make the places we live special
To permanently protect and improve natural environments in Mid-Michigan by leading and inspiring actions that conserve vital habitats and waterways for the benefit of our entire community.
A provider of the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) which is a community-based, long-term care delivery program that provides comprehensive, coordinated, managed care to eligible participants.
To stimulate and sustain a vibrant regional economy by facilitating economic growth and prosperity.
To provide facilities for nonprofit organizations to enjoy the experience of nature in michigan, promote ourdoor education, and to offer camping enjoyment to the people of midland county.
To create and preserve quality affordable housing options for northern michigan residents through education, development, and partnering with local communities.
To protect and restore central michigan's land, water, and wildlife resources to improve the quality of life for all.
To promote business and economic development for eight towns in southwest michigan.
How this is measured
111 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. 111 of the 198 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 GRAND TRAVERSE REGIONAL LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRAVERSE AREA RECREATION & TRANSPORTATION TRAILS INC ↗
- Who funds GRAND TRAVERSE BAY YMCA ↗
- Who funds LEELANAU CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION RESOURCE ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds BOTANICAL GARDEN SOCIETY OF NORTHWEST MICHIGAN INC ↗
- Who funds FATHER FRED FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAFE HARBOR OF GRAND TRAVERSE INC ↗
- Who funds NORTE YOUTH CYCLING ↗
- Who funds MUNSON HEALTHCARE FOUNDATIONS ↗
- Who funds GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN INC ↗
- Who funds BENZIE AREA CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORS INC ↗
- Who funds TRAVERSE BAY CHILDRENS ADVOCACY CENTER ↗
- Who funds SEEDS ↗
- Who funds DISCOVERY CENTER GREAT LAKES ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds NORTHWEST MI HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds TRAVERSE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA D/B/A TRAVERSE CITY PHILHARMONIC ↗
- Who funds LITTLE TRAVERSE BAY HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds CITY OPERA HOUSE HERITAGE ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE ROCK OF KINGSLEY INC ↗
- Who funds MCLAREN NORTHERN MICHIGAN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PETOSKEY-HARBOR SPRINGS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
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: Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation · The Art and Mary Schmuckal Family Foundation · Rotary Charities of Traverse City · Les & Ann Biederman Foundation Inc · Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation · Consumers Energy Foundation · Charlevoix County Community Foundation · The Broad Family Foundation · Green Brick Foundation Inc · Frey Foundation · United Way of Northwest Michigan · DTE Energy Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Oleson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Oleson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Oleson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Oleson 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 Oleson’s filings →