· Private foundation
William J Nicholson Foundation
Its FY2024 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 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k4 grants · $16k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $99k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| KIDS READ NOW | $30,000 |
| MICHIGAN PARKINSON FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| SIX FEET OVER | $19,066 |
| FISHTOWN PRESERVATION SOCIETY | $10,000 |
| THE FLINT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM | $10,000 |
| MICHIGAN SCIENCE CENTER | $10,000 |
| MICHAEL'S PLACE | $6,244 |
| GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY | $5,441 |
| ELE'S PLACE | $3,663 |
| PEANUT GALLERY PLAYERS | $805 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 50% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
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 6% of William J Nicholson Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +79% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.
18 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down.
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 FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MPMICHIGAN PARKINSON FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2024 · $91k · revenue +178%
- MSMICHIGAN SCIENCE CENTER5× · 2019–2024 · $88k · revenue +110%
- TFTHE FLINT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM6× · 2019–2024 · $87k · revenue +79%
Funded once
- HMHURON-CLINTON METROPOLITAN AUTHORITYone grant, 2019 · $25k
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTSone grant, 2019 · $25k · revenue +13%
Binder Park Zoological Society Incgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $11k · revenue +55%
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.
Inspire awareness, appreciation and passion for michigan's history and stories, culture and environment through the arts.
To enhance the community by inspiring creativity, learning and curiosity.
The lincoln children's museum invites children to create, discover and learn through the power of play.
Provide an interactive learning environment for children to foster imagination and creativity while inspiring life-long learning
Our mission is to make science, technology, engineering, and math (stem) come alive, and our vision is a community where all people value stem to inform decision making and enrich lives. (continued on schedule o)guiding principles: we help…
Discovery World educates, motivates,mobilizes and inspires the innovators and entrepreneurs of the 21st century. We connect innovation, science, and technology with exploration, environment, and our Great Lakes freshwater resources through…
The museum celebrates learning through play. Exhibits and programs focus on developing self-direction, problem solving, logic and creativity skills in children (particularly ages 1-8) and their caregivers.
The museum is an educational corporation formed to ignite a life-long passion for exploring, discovering, and valuing nature and science.
The museum school celebrates, nurtures and enhances the ability of all participants through experimental, project-based learning. infusing the arts and utilizing resources available at local museums.
To conserve, sustain, and connect natural areas, land, and waters that make the places we live special
To ignite and fuel a passion for science, technology, arts and math through dynamic interactive experiences.
The milwaukee public museum inspires curiosity, excites minds and increases desire to preserve and protect our world's natural and cultural diversity through exhibitions, educational programs, collections and research.
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 24 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 MICHIGAN PARKINSON FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN SCIENCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE FLINT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds MICHAEL'S PLACE ↗
- Who funds ANN ARBOR HANDS-ON MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds SIX FEET OVER ↗
- Who funds ELE'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds KIDS READ NOW INC ↗
- Who funds JOHN BALL ZOO ↗
- Who funds FISHTOWN PRESERVATION SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS ↗
- Who funds GRASS LAKE SANCTUARY ↗
- Who funds PEANUT GALLERY PLAYERS ↗
- Who funds Binder Park Zoological Society Inc ↗
- Who funds MID-MICHIGAN CHILDREN'S MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds KIMBERLY ANNE GILLARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Neutral Zone ↗
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: Consumers Energy Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization William J Nicholson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from William J Nicholson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to William J Nicholson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to William J Nicholson 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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