· 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k22 grants · $62k
- $10k–50k19 grants · $404k
- $50k–250k4 grants · $225k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN | $67,750 |
| ST PIUS X ST MATTHIAS | $57,500 |
| ASPIRUS HEALTH FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| MARSHFILED CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| WAUSAU & MARATHON COUNTY PARKS RECREATION & FORESTRY DEPARTMENT | $40,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF WAUSAU | $30,000 |
| THE NEIGHBOR'S PLACE | $28,500 |
| THE WOMEN'S COMMUNITY | $27,500 |
| MONK BOTANICAL GARDENS | $25,000 |
| BREAKTHROUGH T1D | $25,000 |
| BRIDGE STREET MISSION | $25,000 |
| GREATER WAUSAU PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP | $25,000 |
| PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| NEWMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS | $25,000 |
| ROGERS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $72k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 89% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 14% of The Macdonald Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 66% of the giving stays in WI; by stated purpose, 59%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
79 repeat relationships: 30 still active in FY2025, 49 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $133k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MCMARSHFIELD CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM INC6× · 2017–2023 · $287k · revenue +219%
- AHASPIRUS HEALTH FOUNDATION INC8× · 2017–2025 · $212k · revenue +13%
- BTBREAKTHROUGH T1D9× · 2017–2025 · $193k · revenue +49%
Funded once
- COCity of Wausau - Athletic Parkone grant, 2020 · $119k
- MCMarshfield Clinic Health Foundationone grant, 2024 · $75k
- BNBasilica Nat'l Shrine of Our Lady of Consolationone grant, 2017 · $50k
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.
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.
Promote a positive state legislative and regulatory climate for wisconsin's community health plans. the association communicates with regulatory agencies to promote issue positions representing community health plans.
To improve the health of the people of wisconsin by supporting and strengthening physicians' ability to practice high quality patient care in a changing environment.
We actively advocate, educate and support our members to help them positively impact the wisconsin communities they serve.
Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.
Eliminating barriers to employment by providing pathways for those who are underserved, underrepresented and disadvantaged who have a goal of building skills that lead to sustained employment and improved financial stability.
The minnesota business partnership's mission is to maintain a high quality of life for all minnesotans by ensuring that the state's economy remains strong, globally competitive and its prospects for growth bright by working with elected…
We will stirve to make a significant difference in improving the quality of life of our members and the communities we serve by providing affordable access to credit and financial services.
To lead wisconsin in development and retention of science and tech-based businesses and to provide policy guidance to lawmakers, the governor of wisconsin, state agencies, and other institutions.
Reedsburg area medical center, always there, going beyond the expected to provide compassionate, quality, and efficient health care.
The organization is a cooperative, nonprofit corporation, incorporated under wisconsin state law to encourage thrift among its members, create a source of credit at a fair and reasonable cost, and provide an opportunity for its members to…
Extraordinary healthcare from the heart - one person at a time.vision: we will set the standard for community-based healthcare that improves the health and quality of life of the people we serve.
A cooperative, nonprofit corporation, incorporated under wisconsin state law to encourage thrift among its members, create a source of credit at a fair and reasonable cost, and provide opportunity for its members to improve their economic…
How this is measured
59 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. 59 of the 123 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF NORTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN INC ↗
- Who funds ROLLING HILLS PREPARATORY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds MARSHFIELD CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM INC ↗
- Who funds ASPIRUS HEALTH FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds BREAKTHROUGH T1D ↗
- Who funds THE WOMEN'S COMMUNITY INC ↗
- Who funds PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBORS PLACE INC THE ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S IMAGINARIUM INC ↗
- Who funds Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northcentral Wisconsin Inc ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY PARTNERS CAMPUS INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE ROGUE VALLEY ↗
- Who funds LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREEN COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds MARSHFIELD CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds K-TECH CHARITIES INC ↗
- Who funds Keep Area Teens Safe Inc ↗
- Who funds ROGERS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ASHLAND EMERGENCY FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds WAUSAU YOUTH BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL INC ↗
- Who funds WISCONSIN AUTOMOTIVE AND TRUCK EDUCATION ASSOCIATION INC ↗
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.
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
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Macdonald Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Macdonald Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Rogue Valley Farm to School: 17% of income from government
- Lewis & Clark College: 2% of income from government
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival Association Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
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.
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