Wisconsin · Nonprofit
1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN
1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN (Wisconsin) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,127,579 to it, the largest being SALLY MEAD HANDS FOUNDATION ($280,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $533k
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $335k
What 1000 Friends of Wisconsin does
Mission
Through education, coalitions, policy, planning, and projects, we help wisconsin communities, governments, and people make land use and transportation decisions that both achieves healthy, thriving, equitable, and resilient communities, and protects our natural environment.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
We continued our focus on the relationship between community design and transportation to help build better places to live. With an emphasis on developing transit connections, we help residents reduce their dependence on cars. We continued our work promoting statewide transportation policy that uses "fix it first" methods rather than wasteful highway expansion resulting in a more equitable, accessible transit system. We are leaders of the coalition for more responsible transportation that works across the state holding forums and gathering stories to build our case for equitable and affordable public transportation. Our active wisconsin program promotes bike, ped and rolling infrastructure. This is the key to healthy communities and access beyond just motor vehicles. We are leading a campaign to rethink 794. This is a project that informs milwaukee residents the value of turning a local freeway into a boulevard to reconnect a community and open land to development for an expanded tax base.
$145,007 spent62% of program spendingWhen discussing ecological breakdown mitigation strategies, the focus tends to be on energy and alternative types of energy. A critical area that is often overlooked in combating ecological breakdown is urban and regional land use planning, how communities are designed and how people move around them has both short and long-term consequences for mitigating and adapting to ecological breakdown. We are at the forefront of fighting for an equitable transportation future. We coordinate meeting across the state of wisconsin to share ideas, offer resources, and share success stories.
$48,331 spent$27,462 earned by the program21% of program spendingWe are focused on making the connection between good community design and protection of land. Everything that we do on the land touches something else. We address policies in communities that are too frequently underestimated in their importance to protecting the land. We have never strayed from our objective to curb sprawl through better use of our lands, but we have taken steps that many other tend to overlook achieving benefits that go far beyond any one community's borders. We promote sound land use policy that takes into consideration how development affects the livability of a community. It considers the equitable access to services (such as health care, healthy food, schools, etc.), health impacts, the culture of neighborhoods, and the will of the residents.
$42,290 spent18% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $235,628.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $139k to $345k (+148%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 13% · 2021 19% · 2023 5% · 2024 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Deb Nemeth
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $47k → $131k.
5 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 42% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
68% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 31% · 2019 46% · 2020 59% · 2021 39% · 2022 71% · 2023 42% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
57% of 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
63% of 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $473k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $70k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$70k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Wisconsin
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
74% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN?
- 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN (Wisconsin) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,127,579 to it, the largest being SALLY MEAD HANDS FOUNDATION ($280,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $1,127,579 in grants to 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN?
- SALLY MEAD HANDS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $280,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like 1000 FRIENDS OF WISCONSIN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Wisconsin. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds 1000 Friends of Wisconsin →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 19 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing