· Private foundation
Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
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 $10k15 grants · $23k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $23k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE EASTERN WI | $22,500 |
| SHARING CENTER | $2,200 |
| ST FRANCIS DE SALES | $1,500 |
| TWIN LAKES AREA FOOD PANTRY | $1,500 |
| PM&L THEATRE | $1,500 |
| LOAVES & FISHES | $1,500 |
| HELPING HANDS | $1,500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $1,500 |
| COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY | $1,500 |
| FISH OF MCHENRY | $1,500 |
| OPEN ARMS MISSION | $1,500 |
| ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY | $1,500 |
| ANTIOCH AREA HEALTHCARE ACCESSIBILITY | $1,500 |
| ST PETERS ST VINCENT DEPAUL | $1,500 |
| WARREN TOWNSHIP FOOD PANTRY | $1,500 |
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, $84k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 14 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 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, 47% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $24k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
American Brain Tumor Association2× · 2019–2020 · $42k · revenue +32%- SCSHARING CENTER INC9× · 2017–2025 · $32k · revenue +551%
- CFCOMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY9× · 2017–2025 · $26k · revenue +18%
Funded once
- UPUS PAIN FOUNDATION INCgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $25k · revenue +55%
- AAALZHEIMER'S ASSOCIATION GREATER ILone grant, 2021 · $5k
- SVST VINCENT DE PAULone grant, 2017 · $3k
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.
We provide food, household and personal items as available to combat food scarcity and poverty in our community.
Free food pantry. The Organization distributes free food to over 100 needy families per week, totaling almost 5000 visits per year. Over 70 individual volunteers receive, organize, and distribute over 200,000 pounds of food annually.
The Foodbank's mission is to provide food, and develop awareness of and creative solutions for food insecurity. Annually, the Foodbank distributes approximately 9.5 million pounds of food to 130 food pantries, soup kitchens, children's…
Distribute food to needy families and individuals.
Providing food to needy families in the illinois valley area.
The Christian mission of the Geneseo-Atkinson food Pantry is to provide food, clothing, and short-term emergency assistance for families and individuals residing in Geneseo (61254) or Atkinson (61235) zip code areas.
Providing food for people in need.
Our mission at the Sauk Valley Foodbank is to help alleviate food insecurity in the Sauk Valley area.
Food and nonfood assistance to individuals
Distribution of food to the needy residents in the City of Watertown and surrounding rural communities falling into the Watertown School District. Patrons may come every 30 days.
Provide food and other assistance to families and individuals in the western suburbs of chicago.
The lockport fish food pantry is a non-profit organization, operated solely by volunteers. the pantry helps supplement food and essentials for individuals and families in need in lockport and homer townships in will county, illinois.
How this is measured
8 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. 8 of the 26 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 American Brain Tumor Association ↗
- Who funds SHARING CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY ↗
- Who funds TWIN LAKES AREA FOOD PANTRY INC ↗
- Who funds FISH OF MCHENRY ↗
- Who funds US PAIN FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SOCIETY OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL ROCKFORD COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds ANTIOCH AREA HEALTHCARE ACCESSIBILITY ALLIANCE 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: The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Vern & Bunny Thelen Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Vern & Bunny Thelen 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.
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