Wisconsin · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION
CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION (Wisconsin) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,916,464 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER MILWAUKEE & WAUKESHA COUNTY INC ($6,773,943). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.0M
- Funders on record
- 77
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Children's Outing Association does
Mission
Children's Outing Association/coa youth & family centers (coa) helps milwaukee children, teens, and families reach their greatest potential through a continuum of educational recreational and social work programs offered through its riverwest and goldin community centers, six community learning centers and at coa's rural camp facility. As a multicultural agency, coa values diversity and cooperation and promotes personal growth and positive social interaction.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Early childhood development: coa youth and family centers offers nationally accredited childcare programs for children ages 6 weeks through 12 years. All programs are multicultural and nonsectarian, and fees are determined based on family income. All programs provide individual attention, care, and nurturing, focusing on a child's healthy physical, mental and emotional development. In 2015 coa opened another early child education center at coa's goldin center.
$2,199,174 spent$1,506,965 earned by the program37% of program spendingYouth development programs: coa's commitment to the community involves a wide variety of services for area youth ages 4 through 17 (18 if still in high school). Activities include after-school, summer and weekend programming; special groups for elementary school-aged children, preteens and teens; athletics and field trips; and educational opportunities including computers, arts and crafts, creative writing, homework help and many other activities. Coa's goldin summer day camps offer boys and girls age 6 through 12 summer day activities including games, arts and crafts, field trips and much more. Programs operate at coa's riverwest center and goldin center; at coa's community learning centers located at ow holmes elementary school, auer elementary school, lincoln center of the arts, hopkins-lloyd community school, doerfler elementary school, and westside academy.
$1,345,280 spent$385,954 earned by the program23% of program spendingFamily centered programs: coa provides family programming through the rose and harry samson family center (located at coa's riverwest center), and the ethel nutis gill family center (at coa's goldin center). These services seek to strengthen families through parenting education, life skills workshops, peer discussion groups and family-oriented activities. Parents of preschool children (ages 2 through 5) may also participate in coa's home instruction for parents of preschool youngsters (hippy), based on a national model which focuses on helping parents to become their children's primary teachers. Coa's family-centered programs are integrated into other program areas including early child development, youth development, and community development.
$919,475 spent$200 earned by the program15% of program spendingInclude: community development: coa youth and family centers is a valuable part of the neighborhood and the community it serves. Coa is committed to the overall well-being of the neighborhoods surrounding the children and families served and working together with neighborhood residents. Coa also partners with many other agencies such as the hunger task force and mcfi to provide nutritious meals to the community, and the dominican center to provide adult education and community development. Through its long-term lease with the city of milwaukee, coa operates kilbourn and kadish parks and provides recreational, educational, cultural and group activities for youth and families. Through its lease with milwaukee county, coa provides recreational and educational activities in moody park, adjacent to coa's goldin center. Camping/conference center: as part of coa's youth development programs, each summer coa operates camping programs accredited by the american camping association. Boys and girls ages 8 through 15 attend coa's camp helen brachman, located on 206 acres in central wisconsin near steven's point. Sessions include water and field sports, arts and crafts, music, environmental…
$1,476,548 spent$150,570 earned by the program25% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,940,477.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $13M to $16M (+27%).
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: 2017 15% · 2018 17% · 2019 12% · 2020 12% · 2021 6% · 2022 18% · 2023 21% · 2024 23% · 2025 18%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 34 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $1.7M.
12 of 77 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 77 funders by total. 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
CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 49% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
78% 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 CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 55% · 2019 62% · 2020 34% · 2021 45% · 2022 43% · 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
47% of CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
87% of CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.
Organizations like CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION
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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
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 CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION: 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 CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION?
- CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION (Wisconsin) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $13,916,464 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER MILWAUKEE & WAUKESHA COUNTY INC ($6,773,943). 51 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 77 organizations giving $13,916,464 in grants to CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION, 51 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION?
- UNITED WAY OF GREATER MILWAUKEE & WAUKESHA COUNTY INC is the largest funder on record, with $6,773,943 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S OUTING ASSOCIATION 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 Children's Outing Association →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 77 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