· Private foundation
The Lee and Mary Volkmer Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k8 grants · $56k
- $10k–50k19 grants · $257k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CATHOLIC SOCIAL SERVICES | $50,000 |
| WOMEN'S CARE CENTER | $20,000 |
| MATT TALBOT KITCHEN AND OUTREACH | $20,000 |
| FOOD BANK OF LINCOLN | $20,000 |
| FOCUS | $16,000 |
| TABITHA HEALTH CARE SERVICES | $15,000 |
| ST LABRE INDIAN SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| CUES | $15,000 |
| ST TERESA'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| RED CLOUD INDIAN SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| VILLA MARIE SCHOOL | $12,000 |
| SKUTT CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL | $12,000 |
| CEDAR'S HOME FOR CHILDREN | $12,000 |
| SACRED HEART CATHOLIC SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| CLINIC WITH A HEART | $10,000 |
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% 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.
27 repeat relationships — 27 still active in FY2024, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k 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
- CSCATHOLIC SOCIAL SERVICES8× · 2017–2024 · $268k · revenue +20%
- MTMATT TALBOT KITCHEN & OUTREACH8× · 2017–2024 · $134k · revenue +148%
- FBFOOD BANK OF LINCOLN INC8× · 2017–2024 · $134k · revenue +25%
Funded once
- SVST VINCENT DE PAULone grant, 2023 · $5k
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.
To provide emergency shelter
Hope gospel rescue mission is a christ centered ministry in york, nebraska. helping the hurting & homeless in the name of jesus christ.
To promote, facilitate and develop or co-develop affordable housing in lincoln county, nebraska.
The lincoln county foood bank is organized to provide food assistance to those individuals who are economically disadvantaged and without adequate food sources.
Habitat for humanity of central iowa, inc. works in partnership with god and people everywhere, from all walks of life, to develop communities with god's people in need by building houses, so that there are decent houses in decent…
Lutheran family services of nebraska, inc.'s (lfs) mission is to express god's love for all people by providing quality human care services that build and strengthen individual, family and community life. our vision is saftey, hope and…
Seeking to put god's love into action, habitat for humanity brings people together to build homes, communities and hope to realize our vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live. habitat for humanity of columbus, ne, inc.,…
The lawrence community shelter is the only emergency homeless shelter serving lawrence and douglas county in kansas. our mission is to provide a safe shelter and comprehensive services and programs in order to set people experiencing or at…
Bridge of Hope empowers Lincoln County neighbors to overcome housing crises through resources, healing, and hope. We provide safe shelter, advocacy, and connections to community resources that help individuals and families work toward…
Helping people move to a better life through hope-filled care, services, and advocacy; calling all those of goodwill to join us
The organization is a nondenominational christian nonprofit whose purpose is to create decent, affordable housing for those in need, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience with people everywhere.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Bethlehem House and the most unlike its peers is Clinic With a Heart Inc. 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 29 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 CATHOLIC SOCIAL SERVICES ↗
- Who funds MATT TALBOT KITCHEN & OUTREACH ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF LINCOLN INC ↗
- Who funds Tabitha Inc ↗
- Who funds CUES FUND ↗
- Who funds CLINIC WITH A HEART INC ↗
- Who funds PEOPLE'S CITY MISSION ↗
- Who funds BETHLEHEM HOUSE ↗
- Who funds LINCOLNLANCASTER COUNTY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
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: Lincoln Community Foundation Inc · D F Dillon Foundation · Firespring Foundation · Kinder Porter Scott Family Foundation · Abel Foundation · Orphan Grain Train Inc · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · The Allstate Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
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 The Lee and Mary Volkmer Family 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 The Lee and Mary Volkmer Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Lee and Mary Volkmer Family 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.