Wisconsin · Nonprofit
BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC
BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,291,299 to it, the largest being STEVEN R MICHELS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($600,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $239k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $7k
What Be the Difference Nil Inc does
Mission
This non-profit collective is dedicated to creating opportunities for athletes that positively contribute to campus and the community at large, while maintaining the commitment of marquette university to make a difference in the world.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Be the difference nil works with non-profit organizations and supporting community-minded events to positively impact the community while enabling personal growth with the athletes that sign with us. Be the difference nil makes investments in our non profit partners to support their missions and impact in the community. We do that through our organization including player engagement activities. In addition, the organizations encourages players to pursue opportunities to positively impact the community beyond be the difference nil non-profit partners. Big brothers big sisters of metro milwaukee is a nonprofit organization that our student-athletes at marquette university work with frequently. Today's youth face a variety of challenges, and a role model like the ones we provide them with on the men's and women's basketball team at marquette university can help them navigate these challenges so they can reach their full potential. Various events such as basketball clinics, speaking engagements, and back to school luncheons provide an opportunity for our student-athletes to engage with the boys and girls of big brothers big sisters of metro milwaukee. The boys and girls that attend…
$1,325,795 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,325,795.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2024 to 2025, from $1.2M to $9k (−99%).
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.
100% of BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 4 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
Travis Diener
Executive director/preside
Board chair
Charles Swoboda
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
4 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 26% 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 BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC’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
BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
26% 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 BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC.
“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.
Where its funders are
63% of BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $341k 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
BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC's revenue fell 74% between 2022 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,505 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC
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
96% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC: 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 BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC?
- BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,291,299 to it, the largest being STEVEN R MICHELS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($600,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $1,291,299 in grants to BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC?
- STEVEN R MICHELS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $600,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BE THE DIFFERENCE NIL INC 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 Be the Difference Nil →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), and the filings of 7 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing