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Plinth

· Public charity

Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Inc

Promote and facilitate services to wisconsin's private nonprofit colleges and universities.

$4.6M
Granted FY2025still arriving
14
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$1.2M
Largest
01What you fund
01FY2025 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 14 grants below total $3,709,927 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $4,579,142 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $869,215 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $6k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $143k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $604k
  • $250k+4 grants · $3.0M
$170,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$27M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HERZING UNIVERSITY$1,213,686
EDGEWOOD COLLEGE INC$673,497
ALVERNO COLLEGE$661,518
RIPON COLLEGE$408,610
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY INC$231,110
LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN$202,547
BELOIT COLLEGE$170,000
LAKELAND UNIVERSITY$47,700
MILWAUKEE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING$29,950
MOUNT MARY UNIVERSITY INC$22,635
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY$15,079
ST NORBERT COLLEGE INC$14,000
WISCONSIN LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC$13,420
MARIAN UNIVERSITY$6,175
02The need
02

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.

show:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY25–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 42% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 11%CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY INC: $231k → 6%LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: $203k → 7%RIPON COLLEGE: $409k → 9%LAKELAND UNIVERSITY: $48k → 9%ST NORBERT COLLEGE INC: $14k → 10%BELOIT COLLEGE: $170k → 10%EDGEWOOD COLLEGE INC: $673k → 10%MILWAUKEE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING: $30k → 17%MARIAN UNIVERSITY: $6k → 16%MOUNT MARY UNIVERSITY INC: $23k → 17%WISCONSIN LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC: $13k → 17%HERZING UNIVERSITY: $1.2M → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your field

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.

1
St Marys University of Minnesota

Enriched by the lasallian catholic heritage, saint mary's university of minnesota awakens, nurtures, and empowers learners to ethical lives of service and leadership.

Education
2
Saint Xavier University

Saint xavier university, a catholic institution inspired by the heritage of the sisters of mercy, educates persons to search for truth, think critically, communicate effectively and serve wisely and compassionately in support of human…

Education
3
The Corporation of Saint Mary's College Notre Dame

The corporation of saint mary's college, notre dame (saint mary's) is a catholic, residential, women's, liberal arts college offering undergraduate degrees and co-educational graduate programs. (continued in schedule o)

Education
4
John Carroll University

As a jesuit catholic university committed to academic rigor, inclusive excellence, and care for the whole person, john carroll university inspires individuals of intellect and character to learn, lead and serve in the community and…

Education
5
Lourdes University

Lourdes university, rooted in catholic and franciscan traditions, provides a values-centered education that enriches lives and advances academic excellence through the integration of the liberal arts and professional studies.

Education
6
California Lutheran University

The mission of the university is to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice.

Education
7
Luther College

Founded by the norwegian evangelical lutheran church in 1861, luther college is a four-year, residential liberal arts institution. luther welcomes students of all backgrounds to engage in a way of learning that moves beyond immediate…

Education
8
St Mary's University

St. marys university, as a catholic marianist university, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence.

9
Endicott College

Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.

Education
10
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
11
Augustana University Association

Inspired by lutheran scholarly tradition and the liberal arts, augustana provides an education of enduring worth that challenges the intellect, fosters integrity and integrates faith with learning and service in a diverse world.

Education
12
Saint John's University

To foster the vitality of community through learning and the pursuit of wisdom.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lawrence University of Wisconsin and the most unlike its peers is Marquette University. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

03the grantee network

14 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
14/14
Grantees still filing
1/14
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

HERZING UNIVERSITY LTD — $1,213,686 · EducationHERZING UNIVERSITY LTDEDGEWOOD UNIVERSITY INC — $673,497 · EducationEDGEWOOD UNIVERSITY INCALVERNO COLLEGE — $661,518 · EducationALVERNO COLLEGERIPON COLLEGE — $408,610 · EducationRIPON COLLEGECONCORDIA UNIVERSITY INC — $231,110 · EducationCONCORDIA UNIVERSITY INCLAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN — $202,547 · EducationLAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSINBELOIT COLLEGE — $170,000 · Education+5 more — $112,904 · EducationMOUNT MARY UNIVERSITY INC — $22,635 · OtherWISCONSIN LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC — $13,420 · Other
Education$3,673,872Other$36,055

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetEDGEWOOD UNIVERSITY INC — $673,497 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetALVERNO COLLEGE — $661,518 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetRIPON COLLEGE — $408,610 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCONCORDIA UNIVERSITY INC — $231,110 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLAWRENCE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN — $202,547 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBELOIT COLLEGE — $170,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetLAKELAND UNIVERSITY — $47,700 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMILWAUKEE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING — $29,950 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMOUNT MARY UNIVERSITY INC — $22,635 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMarquette University — $15,079 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetST NORBERT COLLEGE INC — $14,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWISCONSIN LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC — $13,420 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMarian University — $6,175 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

Herb Kohl Educational Foundation IncWI15.8× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Inc · Greater Milwaukee Foundation Inc · Baird Foundation Inc · The Boldt Family Fund Inc · Council of Independent Colleges · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · American Endowment Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · 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 Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities 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.

2025
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 14 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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