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The Alex W Nielsen Foundation Nfp at a glance

· Private foundation

The Alex W Nielsen Foundation Nfp

Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$695
Granted FY2023
3
Grants FY2023
2
States reached
$340
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0187% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2023.

Philanthropy$2kArts & Culture$1kEnvironment$940Health$628Education$400Public Safety & Disaster$300Human Services$200Other$0
02FY2023 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$200
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE MORTON ARBORETUM$340
THE YOUNGSTOWN FOUNDATION$200
NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY$155
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY19–23) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 3% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%THE AMUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK: $100 → 17%THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION: $100 → 14%ST JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $228 → 17%LOAVES & FISHES ORGANIZATION: $27k → 7%CHICAGO GOURMET: $663 → 14%COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION: $200 → 7%THE AMUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK: $100 → 17%ST JUDE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: $200 → 17%LOAVES & FISHES ORGANIZATION: $13k → 7%COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION: $200 → 7%THE AMUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK: $100 → 17%LOAVES & FISHES ORGANIZATION: $11k → 7%COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION: $100 → 7%THE AMUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK: $100 → 17%COMMUNITY ACCESS NAPERVILLE (CAN): $200 → 7%COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION: $100 → 7%NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY: $155 → 7%NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY: $145 → 7%NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY: $145 → 7%THE MORTON ARBORETUM: $340 → 7%THE MORTON ARBORETUM: $310 → 7%THE MORTON ARBORETUM: $145 → 7%THE MORTON ARBORETUM: $145 → 7%WOODRIDGE TORNADO RELIEF FUND: $300 → 7%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$53k · 6 repeat orgs$2k to everyone else

6 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2023, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
6

Total granted

$53k
$2k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+7%
+32%

Still filing today

83%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23
Arts & CultureHealthEnvironmentEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • TM
    THE MORTON ARBORETUM
    4× · 2019–2023 · $940 · revenue +103%
  • NH
    NAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY
    3× · 2021–2023 · $445 · revenue +7%
  • ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC
    2× · 2021–2022 · $428 · revenue +74%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2019 · $663
  • WT
    WOODRIDGE TORNADO RELIEF FUND
    one grant, 2021 · $300
  • CA
    COMMUNITY ACCESS NAPERVILLE
    one grant, 2022 · $200
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.

04Its field

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.

1
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
2
American Academy of Neurology

The Academy's mission is to enhance member career fulfillment and promote brain health for all.

Community Improvement
3
Museum of the American Revolution

The museum of the american revolution uncovers and shares compelling stories about the diverse people and complex events that sparked america's ongoing experiment in liberty, equality and self-government.

Arts & Culture
4
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
5
American Association for the Advancement of Science

Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…

Science & Tech
6
Museum of American Finance

Finance impacts everyone. as a socially relevant organization, the museum of american finance seeks to improve understanding of the influence of financial institutions and capital markets on the u.s. and global economies, and on…

—
7
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
8
University of New Haven

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…

Education
9
Jefferson Scholars Foundation

The jefferson scholars foundation (foundation) provides academic merit-based scholarship, fellowship and professorship support to students and faculty at the university of virginia (uva).

Philanthropy
10
The California Medical Innovations Institute Inc

The Institute is a scientific research center dedicated to conducting basic and applied research to advance the understanding of human disease and the improvement of human health. The Institute fosters an innovative research environment…

Education
11
American Astronomical Society

The american astronomical society (aas), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in north america. the basic objective of the aas is to promote the advancement of astronomy and closely related branches of…

Science & Tech
12
The American Neurological Association

Advancing science, education, and careers to improve neurologic health for all.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union; the most unlike its peers is Surfers Healing Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

9 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. 9 of the 13 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
6/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Individual grant recipient: $50,496 · OtherIndividual grant recipient+3 more: $1,163 · OtherYOUNGSTOWN FDN GENERAL: $1,900 · PhilanthropyColonial Williamsburg Foundation: $600 · Arts & CultureNAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY: $445 · Arts & CultureTHE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION: $150 · Arts & CultureTHE MORTON ARBORETUM: $940 · EnvironmentST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $428 · HealthSurfers Healing Foundation Inc: $100 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc: $100 · HealthTHE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK INC: $400 · Education
Other$51,659Philanthropy$1,900Arts & Culture$1,195Environment$940Health$628Education$400

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetYOUNGSTOWN FDN GENERAL: $1,900 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MORTON ARBORETUM: $940 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetColonial Williamsburg Foundation: $600 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNAPERVILLE HERITAGE SOCIETY: $445 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $428 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK INC: $400 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION OF THE UNION: $150 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSurfers Healing Foundation Inc: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Fidelity Investments …
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Alex W Nielsen Foundation Nfp funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Alex W Nielsen Foundation Nfp. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 13 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home