Wisconsin · Nonprofit
East Side Business Improvement Dist
East Side Business Improvement Dist (Wisconsin) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,500 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($20,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $358k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $28k
- Net assets
- $213k
What East Side Business Improvement Dist does
Mission
Building a coalition to create Milwaukee most dynamic neighborhood.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Completed a multi-year strategic planning process for the BID and have developed a new impact strategy. Hired a new Executive Director for the BID who has strong experience and passion for non-profit work. The Leadership transitioned after a three year tenure. Contracts were initiated to clean sidewalks and graffiti removal. Obtained services of a company that plants flowers and maintains street planters. Providers decorate the core of the district with Holdiday lighting during the Holiday season. Continued management of Black Cat Alley, which included maintaining the current murals, improving pedestrian safety, improving signage security and developing and launching new programing uses for the Alley. BID businessses were promoted through the East Side BID website. Board Committees introduced for Economic Development, Area Management, Marketing, Events, Black Alley Cat, and provided staff support for the East Side Architectural Board.
$275,544 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $275,544.
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 2022 to 2023, from $123k to $190k (+55%).
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: 2021 8% · 2022 3% · 2023 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
0% of East Side Business Improvement Dist’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Ryan Laessig
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2021: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $8k → $20k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 73% 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 East Side Business Improvement Dist’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
East Side Business Improvement Dist leans on a few funders — its largest provides 73% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
73% 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 East Side Business Improvement Dist.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 100% — broadly stable.
“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
73% of East Side Business Improvement Dist's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $8k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Wisconsin funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $20k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
East Side Business Improvement Dist runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,971 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,971 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like East Side Business Improvement Dist
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 East Side Business Improvement Dist: 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 East Side Business Improvement Dist?
- East Side Business Improvement Dist (Wisconsin) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $27,500 to it, the largest being GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC ($20,000). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 73% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does East Side Business Improvement Dist have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $27,500 in grants to East Side Business Improvement Dist.
- Who is the largest funder of East Side Business Improvement Dist?
- GREATER MILWAUKEE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $20,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like East Side Business Improvement Dist 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.
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 2 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