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Wisconsin · Private foundation

The Macdonald 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.

$690k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
45
Grants FY2025
39
Organizations funded FY2024
21%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$10,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$67,750
Organizations funded a year
36 to 49
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
6
Total assets, FY2025
$12M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 21% of the organizations The Macdonald Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 27% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $161k went to new ones.

50%100%’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthRecreation & SportsEducationArts & CultureHuman ServicesEnvironmentOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving44$623k32%
FY202439$591k21%
FY202344$549k14%
FY202249$548k20%
FY202146$629k26%
FY202036$601k25%
FY201943$473k21%
FY201848$563k19%
99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$1.4MHealth$1.1MPhilanthropy$612kYouth Development$601kReligion$363kArts & Culture$361kHuman Services$267kRecreation & Sports$250kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
ID
MN
IL
WI
NY
OR
IN
OH
CA
UT
NE
KY
VA
MD
KS
TN
DC
GA
TX

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Rolling Hills Preparatory School$548,80062%
Marshfield Clinic Health System Inc$287,47960%
Aspirus Health Foundation Inc$212,46683%
Breakthrough T1d$192,50090%
The Women's Community Inc$157,50081%
Performing Arts Foundation Inc$156,50091%
Newman Catholic Schools$155,0009n/a
Neighbors Place Inc The$153,50091%
Children's Imaginarium Inc$120,00044%
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northcentral Wisconsin Inc$120,00065%
Show all 68 grantees
All grantees of The Macdonald Foundation by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Rolling Hills Preparatory School$548,80062%
Marshfield Clinic Health System Inc$287,47960%
Aspirus Health Foundation Inc$212,46683%
Breakthrough T1d$192,50090%
The Women's Community Inc$157,50081%
Performing Arts Foundation Inc$156,50091%
Newman Catholic Schools$155,0009n/a
Neighbors Place Inc The$153,50091%
Children's Imaginarium Inc$120,00044%
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northcentral Wisconsin Inc$120,00065%
Community Partners Campus Inc$100,00022%
Boys & Girls Club of the Rogue Valley$95,00071%
Lewis & Clark College$85,00020%
Bridge Street Mission Inc$83,0004n/a
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Green County Inc$60,000311%
Marshfield Clinic Health System Foundation Inc$50,0001n/a
American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches$50,00050%
K-Tech Charities Inc$48,000910%
Keep Area Teens Safe Inc$42,12545%
Dceverest School District$40,2006n/a
Rogers Memorial Hospital Foundation Inc$40,00020%
Ashland Emergency Food Bank$37,00082%
Wausau Youth Baseball and Softball Inc$37,00068%
Wisconsin Automotive and Truck Education Association Inc$37,00091%
Community Center of Hope$34,50077%
California Indian Manpower Consortium Inc$32,00040%
Children's Miracle Network$28,50070%
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Association Inc$27,64040%
Greater Wausau Prosperity Partnership L Partnership Ltd$25,0001n/a
Junior Achievement of Wisconsin Inc$24,00080%
Woodson YMCA Inc$22,50030%
Boyscouts of America 627 Samoset Council$19,85070%
Jireh Food Pantry Inc$19,0004n/a
Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes Inc$14,50040%
Habitat for Humanity Northwoods Inc$12,50012%
Dream Flight USA Foundation Inc$12,00064%
Chatterbox Charities Inc$11,000510%
Covantage Cares Foundation Inc$10,00014%
Mosinee School District$10,0001n/a
National Parks Conservation Association$9,50030%
Southern Oregon Land Conservancy Inc$9,00040%
Ethiopian Community Dev Council Inc$8,00020%
Wausau Pilot and Review Corporation$6,50022%
Forrest Goetsch Charities Inc$6,00034%
Opportunities for Housing Resources And$5,00010%
Rogue Valley Farm to School$4,00030%
National Foundation for Transplants Inc$3,50020%
Everest Fastpitch Inc$3,25021%
Blessings in a Backpack Inc$3,00020%
Marathon County 4-H Leaders Federation Inc$3,00016%
Rogers House of Missions Inc$3,0001n/a
Special Olympics Wisconsin Inc$2,50010%
National Arbor Day Foundation$2,30020%
Mosinee Youth Baseball Inc$2,25031%
Idaho Foodbank Warehouse$2,00010%
American Cancer Society Inc$2,00010%
Gigis Playhouse Inc$2,0001n/a
Empowered Dream Hunts Inc$1,50032%
Marathon Baseball Association Ua$1,2502n/a
Granite Peak Ski Team Inc$1,20050%
Eagle Community Foodbank Inc$1,00010%
United Way of Marathon County Inc$1,00010%
Nmdp Foundation$1,00010%
Stevens Point Softball Association Inc$1,0001n/a
Tigerton School District$1,0001n/a
American Heart Association Inc$50010%
Our Lady of the Mountain Catholic Church$4002n/a
Alzheimer's Disease & Related Disorders Association Inc$27510%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 54 recipients with no EIN on record ($1.9M), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Macdonald Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetRolling Hills Preparatory School: $548,800 over 6y, 1.7% of budgetMarshfield Clinic Health System Inc: $287,479 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetAspirus Health Foundation Inc: $212,466 over 8y, 2.5% of budgetBreakthrough T1d: $192,500 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetThe Women's Community Inc: $157,500 over 8y, 1.1% of budgetPerforming Arts Foundation Inc: $156,500 over 9y, 1.4% of budgetNeighbors Place Inc The: $153,500 over 9y, 1.0% of budgetChildren's Imaginarium Inc: $120,000 over 4y, 4.3% of budgetBig Brothers Big Sisters of Northcentral Wisconsin Inc: $120,000 over 6y, 5.0% of budgetCommunity Partners Campus Inc: $100,000 over 2y, 2.1% of budgetBoys & Girls Club of the Rogue Valley: $95,000 over 7y, 0.8% of budgetLewis & Clark College: $85,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBig Brothers Big Sisters of Green County Inc: $60,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $50,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetK-Tech Charities Inc: $48,000 over 9y, 9.9% of budgetKeep Area Teens Safe Inc: $42,125 over 4y, 4.5% of budgetRogers Memorial Hospital Foundation Inc: $40,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetAshland Emergency Food Bank: $37,000 over 8y, 2.2% of budgetWausau Youth Baseball and Softball Inc: $37,000 over 6y, 7.8% of budgetWisconsin Automotive and Truck Education Association Inc: $37,000 over 9y, 1.0% of budgetCommunity Center of Hope: $34,500 over 7y, 6.7% of budgetCalifornia Indian Manpower Consortium Inc: $32,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetChildren's Miracle Network: $28,500 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetOregon Shakespeare Festival Association Inc: $27,640 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetJunior Achievement of Wisconsin Inc: $24,000 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetWoodson YMCA Inc: $22,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBoyscouts of America 627 Samoset Council: $19,850 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetGirl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes Inc: $14,500 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetHabitat for Humanity Northwoods Inc: $12,500 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetDream Flight USA Foundation Inc: $12,000 over 6y, 3.6% of budgetChatterbox Charities Inc: $11,000 over 5y, 9.7% of budgetCovantage Cares Foundation Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetNational Parks Conservation Association: $9,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSouthern Oregon Land Conservancy Inc: $9,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetEthiopian Community Dev Council Inc: $8,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWausau Pilot and Review Corporation: $6,500 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetForrest Goetsch Charities Inc: $6,000 over 3y, 4.3% of budgetOpportunities for Housing Resources And: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRogue Valley Farm to School: $4,000 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetNational Foundation for Transplants Inc: $3,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEverest Fastpitch Inc: $3,250 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetBlessings in a Backpack Inc: $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMarathon County 4-H Leaders Federation Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetSpecial Olympics Wisconsin Inc: $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetNational Arbor Day Foundation: $2,300 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMosinee Youth Baseball Inc: $2,250 over 3y, 0.9% of budgetIdaho Foodbank Warehouse: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Cancer Society Inc: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 55.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Ba & Esther Greenheck FoundationWI53.3× affinity23 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Ba & Esther Greenheck Foundation · Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin Inc · Incrediblebank Foundation Inc · Judd S Alexander Foundation · Church Mutual Insurance Company Foundation Inc · Dudley Foundation Inc · Dwight and Linda Davis Foundation · Abbybank Foundation Inc · George Kress Foundation Inc · Lewitzke Foundation Inc · Bell Family Charitable Foundation I · Green Bay Packers 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.

Compare The Macdonald Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Macdonald Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Macdonald 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.

About The Macdonald Foundation

How much does The Macdonald Foundation give?
The Macdonald Foundation reported 45 grants totaling $690,450 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 36 and 49 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does The Macdonald Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (24%), Health (18%), Philanthropy (11%).
Who are The Macdonald Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Rolling Hills Preparatory School ($549k), Marshfield Clinic Health System Inc ($287k), Aspirus Health Foundation Inc ($212k).
Does The Macdonald Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 21% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Macdonald Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Macdonald Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Ba & Esther Greenheck Foundation, Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin Inc, Incrediblebank Foundation Inc.
Where is The Macdonald Foundation based?
The Macdonald Foundation is based in WI.

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 123 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 Macdonald’s filings →

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