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The Martinson Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Martinson Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$57k
Granted FY2024still arriving
16
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0183% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Health$105kEducation$85kPublic Benefit$50kArts & Culture$38kRecreation & Sports$15kMembership Benefit$14kYouth Development$12kReligion$11kOther$0
02FY2024 · 16 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k15 grants · $47k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $10k
$2,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$764k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
PRESERVE APPLETON'S HERITAGE$10,400
LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS$9,500
CITY OF APPLETON$7,400
APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES$6,433
Individual grant recipient$5,400
TOYS FOR TOTS$3,000
APPLETON PUBLIC LIBRARY$2,800
PRAIRIE PLAYHOUSE$2,000
APPLETON '52 WING COMMITTEE$2,000
DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS$2,000
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH$1,500
AMERICAN LEGION POST 72$1,500
APPLETON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE$1,000
HOME 2 HOME$1,000
FIRST CONGRETIONAL CHURCH$560
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 (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 6%HOLLOWAY FIRST RESPONDERS: $5k → 10%LQPV DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $18k → 10%DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $7k → 11%TOYS FOR TOTS: $3k → 7%SWIFT COUNTY: $3k → 10%LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS: $10k → 10%DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $3k → 11%LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS: $9k → 10%DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $3k → 11%SWFIT COUNTY FAIR: $5k → 10%LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS: $6k → 10%DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $3k → 11%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $22k → 10%LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS: $4k → 10%DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $3k → 11%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $19k → 10%LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY HEALTH NETWORK: $3k → 10%PRESERVE APPLETON'S HERITAGE: $16k → 10%LQPV COMMUNITY EDUCATION: $3k → 10%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $14k → 10%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $13k → 10%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $12k → 10%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $12k → 10%PRESERVE APPLETON'S HERITAGE: $10k → 10%APPLETON RECREATION ASSOCIATION: $10k → 10%CITY OF APPLETON: $9k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $8k → 10%CITY OF APPLETON: $7k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $7k → 10%APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $6k → 10%CITY OF APPLETON: $6k → 10%VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS: $6k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $5k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $5k → 10%PRESERVE APPLETON'S HERITAGE: $5k → 10%CITY OF APPLETON: $5k → 10%APPLETON RECREATION ASSOCIATION: $5k → 10%APPLETON PUBLIC LIBRARY: $3k → 10%VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS: $3k → 10%AMERICAN LEGION POST 72: $3k → 10%AMERICAN LEGION POST 72: $3k → 10%TOYS FOR TOTS: $3k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $3k → 10%APPLETON PUBLIC LIBRARY: $3k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $3k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $3k → 10%APPLETONMILAN ELEMENTARY: $3k → 10%APPLETON SENIOR CITIZENS CENTER: $3k → 10%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.

87%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$369k · 27 repeat orgs$53k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +164% since the first grant, against -3% for those funded once.

27 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

27
21

Total granted

$369k
$49k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+164%
-3%

Still filing today

11%
5%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $4k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CulturePhilanthropyRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • AA
    APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES
    8× · 2017–2024 · $102k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    8× · 2017–2024 · $36k
  • LQ
    LAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS
    8× · 2017–2024 · $33k

Funded once

  • LD
    LQPV DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS
    one grant, 2021 · $18k
  • HF
    HOLLOWAY FIRST RESPONDERS
    one grant, 2023 · $5k
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2021 · $5k
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
04the grantee network

4 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. 4 of the 50 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
4/4
Grantees still filing
3/4
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

APPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICES: $102,227 · OtherAPPLETON AREA HEALTH SERVICESIndividual grant recipient: $35,943 · OtherIndividual grant recipientLAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLS: $33,050 · OtherLAC QUI PARLE VALLEY SCHOOLSCITY OF APPLETON: $28,825 · OtherCITY OF APPLETONDOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $18,500 · OtherLQPV DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS: $17,500 · OtherAMERICAN LEGION POST 72: $14,155 · Other+39 more: $113,175 · Other+39 morePRESERVE APPLETONS HERITAGE: $32,900 · Arts & Culture+1 more: $500 · Arts & CultureAPPLETON RECREATION ASSOCIATION INC: $15,000 · Recreation & SportsMARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION: $10,000 · Philanthropy
Other$363,375Arts & Culture$33,400Recreation & Sports$15,000Philanthropy$10,000

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 budgetPRESERVE APPLETONS HERITAGE: $32,900 over 4y, 10% of budgetAPPLETON RECREATION ASSOCIATION INC: $15,000 over 2y, 58% of budgetMARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetMILAN VILLAGE ARTS SCHOOL INC: $500 over 1y, 0.5% 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.

  • Who funds PRESERVE APPLETONS HERITAGE ↗
  • Who funds APPLETON RECREATION ASSOCIATION INC ↗
  • Who funds MARINE TOYS FOR TOTS FOUNDATION ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%4%15%34%60%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%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 · 0–5%
    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 50 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Martinson’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