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The Cudahy Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Cudahy 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.

$7.1M
Granted FY2025still arriving
18
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$6.3M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$8.5MArts & Culture$464kHealth$434kReligion$425kHuman Services$405kYouth Development$230kAnimals$188kEmployment$40kOther$0
02FY2025 · 18 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $5k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $131k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $715k
  • $250k+1 grant · $6.3M
$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$16M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DISCOVERY WORLD$6,270,000
ST AUGUSTINE PREPARATORY ACADEMY$120,000
UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER$110,000
WISCONSIN WOMEN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION$100,000
MILWAUKEE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE$100,000
ACTS$100,000
MILWAUKEE BALLET$75,000
ST MARCUS SCHOOL$60,000
CUDAHY FAMILY LIBRARY$50,000
MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER$20,500
TEENS GROW GREENS$20,000
CRISTO REY JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL$20,000
EMPLOY MILWAUKEE$20,000
MADACC$20,000
VISION FORWARD$10,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY23–25, $405k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER: $150k → 17%UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER: $145k → 17%UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER: $110k → 17%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.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$10M · 18 repeat orgs$1.4M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +24% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.

18 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

18
18

Total granted

$10M
$1.3M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%
0%

Still filing today

78%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $101k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthEmploymentAnimalsCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • DISCOVERY WORLD LTD
    6× · 2020–2025 · $7.1M · revenue +213% · 40% of their budget
  • ST AUGUSTINE PREPARATORY ACADEMY INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $514k · revenue +342%
  • UC
    UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER INC
    3× · 2023–2025 · $405k · revenue +1%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2024 · $1.0M
  • MJ
    MILWAUKEE JAZZ INSTITUTE INC
    one grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue -4%
  • CITY YEAR INC
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +4%
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
Milwaukee Excellence Inc

The mission of the organization is to provide a high quality education for all students with choices after graduation that will provide financial stability, inspire personal freedom to builda legacy.

—
2
Milwaukee Public Theatre Inc

Making the arts accessible to all

—
3
Milwaukee Women Inc

Milwaukee women inc is an organization of executives determined to change the quality and composition of corporate boards to maximize the performance of public and private companies with a focus on women and women of color.

Education
4
Radio Milwaukee Inc

To reach a new generation of radio listeners on air, online and in the community with a compelling selection of music and public affairs programming. the corporation celebrates milwaukee music, arts, heritage, and culture by supporting and…

Arts & Culture
5
Wisconsin Policy Forum Inc

We conduct impartial public policy research and analysis to drive informed debate and effective decision-making in the state of wisconsin.

Public Benefit
6
The University School of Milwaukee Corporation

University school of milwaukee cultivates excellence in learning, leadership, and citizenship for prekindergarten through 12th grade students. students are engaged, known, and valued within our passionate independent school community…

Education
7
Milwaukee Community Service Corps Inc

The milwaukee community service corps (mcsc) is a non-profit vocational training organization providing employment, education and life skills to training youth adults and unemployed and underemployed of milwaukee, wisconsin.

Employment
8
Milwaukee Bar Association Inc

The mission of the milwaukee bar association is to be an inclusive, equitable and diverse organization that serves the interests of the lawyers, judges and the people of milwaukee county by working to promote the professional interests of…

—
9
Milwaukee Water Commons Inc

Milwaukee water commons is helping catalyze milwaukee as a true model water city-a place where we all have a stake in the health of our waters and all share in their stewardship and benefits. we are advancing our community envisioned water…

Environment
10
Museum of Wisconsin Art Inc

The museum of wisconsin art celebrates the value, diversity, and uniqueness of the visual arts and artists of wisconsin. this is achieved by collecting, conserving, documenting, exhibiting, and promoting aesthetic understanding of the…

Arts & Culture
11
Milwaukee Parks Foundation Inc

Engage our community in supporting milwaukee county parks to collectively steward a thriving park system.

Environment
12
Montessori Institute of Milwaukee Inc

Montessori institute teaches and develops programs to montessori instructors to educate them as to montessori teaching methods

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Employ Milwaukee Inc; the most unlike its peers is Marquette University. 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

29 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. 29 of the 41 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
29/29
Grantees still filing
16/29
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DISCOVERY WORLD LTD: $7,077,575 · EducationDISCOVERY WORLD LTDST AUGUSTINE PREPARATORY ACADEMY INC: $514,240 · EducationST AUGUSTINE PREPARATORY ACADEMY INCTHE MILWAUKEE SCIENCE EDUCATION CONSORTIUM INC: $375,000 · Education+3 more: $60,000 · EducationIndividual grant recipient: $1,000,000 · OtherIndividual grant recip…ACTS: $414,700 · OtherACTSST MARCUS LUTHERAN CHURCH: $235,000 · OtherST MARCUS LUTHERAN CHU…BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREEN COUNTY INC: $210,000 · OtherBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTE…CUDAHY FAMILY LIBRARY: $204,150 · OtherCUDAHY FAMILY LIBRARY+17 more: $280,000 · Other+17 moreMILWAUKEE BALLET COMPANY INC: $216,250 · Arts & CulturePABST THEATER FOUNDATION INC: $128,001 · Arts & CultureMILWAUKEE JAZZ INSTITUTE INC: $50,000 · Arts & CultureMILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER INC: $20,500 · Arts & CultureMILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM INC: $17,500 · Arts & Culture+3 more: $31,890 · Arts & CultureWISCONSIN WOMEN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $404,120 · HealthVISION FORWARD ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED: $20,000 · HealthUNITED COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $405,000 · Human ServicesWISCONSIN HUMANE SOCIETY: $147,900 · AnimalsHeavens Gait Ranch Inc: $40,000 · Recreation & Sports
Education$8,026,815Other$2,343,850Arts & Culture$464,141Health$424,120Human Services$405,000Animals$147,900Recreation & Sports$40,000

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 budgetDISCOVERY WORLD LTD: $7,077,575 over 6y, 40% of budgetST AUGUSTINE PREPARATORY ACADEMY INC: $514,240 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetUNITED COMMUNITY CENTER INC: $405,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetWISCONSIN WOMEN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION INC: $404,120 over 6y, 5.0% of budgetTHE MILWAUKEE SCIENCE EDUCATION CONSORTIUM INC: $375,000 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetMILWAUKEE BALLET COMPANY INC: $216,250 over 5y, 1.3% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREEN COUNTY INC: $210,000 over 4y, 29% of budgetWISCONSIN HUMANE SOCIETY: $147,900 over 6y, 0.6% of budgetPABST THEATER FOUNDATION INC: $128,001 over 4y, 0.8% of budgetMILWAUKEE JAZZ INSTITUTE INC: $50,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetHeavens Gait Ranch Inc: $40,000 over 2y, 4.7% of budgetCITY YEAR INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER INC: $20,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWISCONSIN LIONS FOUNDATION INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTHE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPORTAL INC: $20,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetMarquette University: $20,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEMPLOY MILWAUKEE INC: $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWorld Ocean School Inc: $20,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetMILWAUKEE TENNIS AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetVISION FORWARD ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED: $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM INC: $17,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetARTS AT LARGE INC: $14,500 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetMILWAUKEE HOMELESS VETERANS INITIATIVE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetCENTERS FOR INDEPENDENCE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHUNGER TASK FORCE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMILWAUKEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: $9,640 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetMILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC: $7,750 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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Baird Foundation IncGreater Milwaukee Fou…Youth Foundation IncHerbert H Kohl Charit…Green Bay Packers Fou…Anon Charitable TrustEvan & Marion Helfaer…Ralph Evinrude Founda…Waukesha County Commu…United Way of Greater…Gardner FoundationThe Ros Foundation
Baird Foundation IncWI31.5× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Baird Foundation Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Youth Foundation Inc · Herbert H Kohl Charities Inc · Green Bay Packers Foundation · Anon Charitable Trust · Evan & Marion Helfaer Foundation · Ralph Evinrude Foundation Inc · Waukesha County Community Foundation · United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc · Gardner Foundation · The Ros Foundation

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 Cudahy Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Cudahy Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 11%
  • City Year Inc: 11% of income from government
  • World Ocean School Inc: 4% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Cudahy Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Cudahy 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.

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 41 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Cudahy’s filings →

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