· Private foundation
Robert and Lyn Nicolay Foundation
Its FY2023 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 FY2019–2023.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k5 grants · $23k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $140k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $60k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $60,000 |
| FONTBONNE UNIVERSITY | $45,000 |
| CENTRAL METHODIST UNIVERSITY | $25,000 |
| KIRKWOOD PERFORMING ARTS CENTER | $25,000 |
| HUMANE SOCIETY OF MISSOURI | $25,000 |
| STAGES ST LOUIS | $20,000 |
| REPERTORY THEATRE OF ST LOUIS | $9,015 |
| STRAY DOG THEATRE | $5,000 |
| ST LOUIS METROPOLITAN ORCHESTRA | $5,000 |
| KIRKWOOD THEATRE GUILD | $2,000 |
| COAST GUARD FOUNDATION | $1,790 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 60% of your 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.
4 repeat relationships — 3 still active in FY2023, 1 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 43% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $128k 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
- CMCENTRAL METHODIST UNIVERSITY3× · 2019–2023 · $185k · revenue +14%
- HSHUMANE SOCIETY OF MISSOURI2× · 2019–2023 · $35k · revenue +41%
- AHAmerican Heart Association Inc2× · 2019–2020 · $20k · revenue +43%
Funded once
- ACAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETYone grant, 2020 · $50k
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.
See schedule o.inspired by our home city, baltimore center stage acts as a cultural catalyst for all communities to access theater in every form and engage in compelling conversations. programming: capture the collective imagination and…
The shakespeare theatre company creates, preserves and promotes classic theatre-ambitious, enduring plays with universal themes-for all audiences. through the creation of provocative, imaginative, and accessible theatre, stc ignites a…
To enrich the community by producing and presenting exceptional live theatre that touches the heart, engages the mind and delights the spirit.
Founded in 1915, webster is a private non-profit and global university that is committed to delivering high-quality learning experiences that transform students for global citizenship and individual excellence.
The chicago theatre group is committed to producing both classic and contemporary works giving full voice to a wide range of artists and visions. by dedicating itself to three guiding principles - quality, equity, and community - the…
Amda is committed to providing an unsurpassed performing arts education to a diverse community of creative artists. amda seeks to be both the school and the stage, where students are given the support and the freedom to find their voice…
To actively connect performing arts design and technology communities to ensure a vibrant dialog among practitioners, educators, and students.
Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.
Connecting our community through live arts experiences that entertain, inspire, and engage
Syracuse stage tells stories that engage, entertain, and inspire us to see life beyond our own experiences.
Theater mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the asian american experience.
Charleston stage's vision is to be a leading professional theater company, engaging the broad community through high quality productions, with leading artists, and excellent production values. the organization provides the community access…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Stages St Louis and the most unlike its peers is Kirkwood Theatre Guild. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
9 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. 9 of the 13 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 CENTRAL METHODIST UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds FONTBONNE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds HUMANE SOCIETY OF MISSOURI ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
- Who funds STAGES ST LOUIS ↗
- Who funds THE REPERTORY THEATRE OF ST LOUIS ↗
- Who funds STRAY DOG THEATRE ↗
- Who funds KIRKWOOD THEATRE GUILD ↗
- Who funds COAST GUARD FOUNDATION 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: Commerce Bancshares Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Robert and Lyn Nicolay 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.
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 Robert and Lyn Nicolay Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Robert and Lyn Nicolay 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.