· Private foundation
The Stratton Foundation Inc
Its FY2020 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
79% of The Stratton Foundation Inc’s FY2020 grant dollars went to Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2020 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2017, the last year The Stratton Foundation Inc named its own grantees at scale: 7 organizations, $72k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2020.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k8 grants · $34k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $38k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MILWAUKEE CORP | $27,500 |
| MILWAUKEE COLLEGE PREP SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| YOUNG LIFE MILWAUKEE NORTH SHORE | $9,000 |
| FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ-AUDUBON CENTER I | $6,500 |
| MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| SERENITY INNS INC | $3,500 |
| MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC | $3,000 |
| MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM INC | $3,000 |
| FOX POINT LUTHERAN CHURCH | $2,000 |
| ST CHRISTOPHER'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH | $2,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–19, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those 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.
10 repeat relationships — 10 still active in FY2017, 0 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2017 (too recent to call). Read against FY2017, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2020, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $16k 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
THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MILWAUKEE CORPORATION3× · 2017–2019 · $50k · revenue +39%
FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC3× · 2017–2019 · $14k · revenue +59%
SERENITY INNS INC3× · 2017–2019 · $10k · revenue +217%
Funded once
- TBTRINITY BY THE COVE EPISCOPAL CHURCHone grant, 2020 · $13k
- VCVASSAR COLLEGEgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $3k · revenue +43%
MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INCone grant, 2019 · $3k · revenue +5%
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.
Supporting the charitable, scientific and educational purposes of the milwaukee public museum.
Milwaukee school of engineering (msoe) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian university providing a balanced education at the undergraduate and graduate level in the disciplines of engineering business, mathematics, and nursing. (see schedule o)…
The milwaukee institute of art and design's mission is to ignite curious minds through art, design and service. we value courage to seek our own path, integrity to pursue our lives and work with meaning, kindness to thoughtfully engage…
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…
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…
To partner with the public and private sectors to develop and hold real estate for the benefit of the university of wisconsin-milwaukee. the uwm real estate foundation, inc. holdings may include any properties that advance the mission of…
The mission of the michigan state university college of law is to provide a rigorous educational program which prepares a diverse community of students to be national and international leaders in private legal practice, business and…
Cincinnati museum center inspires people of all ages to learn more about our world through science, regional history, and educational, engaging and meaningful experiences.
WMNC will continue constructing the new Milwaukee Public Museum facility to completion and will then continue as the owner and operator of the new museum.
The wisconsin maritime museum connects all people with wisconsin's waterways, by engaging and educating the public about wisconsin's maritime history, wisconsin's world war ii submarines, uss cobia, and the great lakes. the wisconsin…
The war memorial center's mission is to honor the dead and serve the living. we commemorate the courageous men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of freedom while preserving and sharing the stories, experiences, and…
The mission of the uwm foundation, inc. is to support the educational, literary, and scientific endeavors of the university of wisconsin-milwaukee by receiving, managing, and distributing gifts to benefit the university's students,…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Milwaukee Art Museum Inc and the most unlike its peers is Serenity Inns 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 15 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 GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MILWAUKEE CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF SCHLITZ AUDUBON NATURE CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SERENITY INNS INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds VASSAR COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds MILWAUKEE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC ↗
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: United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Rite-Hite Foundation Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · American Endowment Foundation · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
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 Stratton Foundation Inc 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 Stratton Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to The Stratton Foundation Inc 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.