Wisconsin · Nonprofit
FONDY FOOD CENTER INC
FONDY FOOD CENTER INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,811,785 to it, the largest being JOSEPH AND VERA ZILBER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($607,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.2M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What Fondy Food Center Inc does
Mission
He fondy food center connects greater milwaukee to local, fresh food- from farm to market to table - so that children learn better, adults live healthier, and communities celebrate cultural food traditions.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Fondy increases access to healthy, local food and economic opportunity across greater milwaukee by operating local farmers markets throughout the year; providing access to land, resources and support to small-scale farmers; and building a better food system to improve food security & food justice in our community. The non-profit organization was created in 2000 on milwaukees north side as a response to food security & system assessments that identified a high concentration of hunger, poverty, and dependence on emergency food pantries in the area - and the key role that the struggling fondy farmers market played. The city of milwaukee started the market in 1917 and managed operations until the budget was cut in the 1980s. Farmers struggled to keep the market going until fondy was created with the explicit mandate to ensure the supply of fresh, locally grown food to the neighborhood. This market improves public health, strengthens the local economy, protects the environment, and serves as a community gathering space. Over the past decade, fondy has grown from one farmers market to an organization creating strategic food systems change with multi-sector partners. Fondy now operates…
$350,964 spentof which $208,620 as grants$50,736 earned by the program82% of program spendingThe fondy farm project (ffp): the ffp was established in 2010, when staff realized that fondy farmers markets primarily low income, hmong american farmers were dropping out of farming due to numerous challenges. The ffp offers affordable, long-term leases on quality land plus the amenities needed to succeed, such as irrigation, greenhouses, tractors, as well as technical training and business assistance from the fondy farm director. In 2017, responding to increased demand for farmland, and land closer to the city of milwaukee where most of our farmers live, fondy moved its farm to the mequon nature preserve (mnp) and increased the number of farmers involved in the project to over 20. The ffp is also engaged in innovative partnerships to explore land sovereignty for socially disadvantaged farmers, with a goal of connecting small scale farmers to land while preserving farmland for future generations, and utilizing sustainable farming techniques to improve water quality in the milwaukee river watershed.
$75,138 spent$1,690 earned by the program17% of program spendingPublic health advocacy - staff of the fondy food center participated and provided leadership in multilple local and regional groups to further its mission and support its holisitc approach to a just and equitable food system. Such groups included the milwaukee farmers market coalition, the wisconsin nutrition incentive group, the wisconsin farmers union, the local food purchase assistance program, the milwaukee food council. The wisconsin farmers market association, and others.
$3,599 spent1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $429,701.
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 2024 to 2025, from $792k to $1.3M (+64%).
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 21% · 2018 4% · 2021 12% · 2022 35% · 2023 22% · 2024 50% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of FONDY FOOD CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
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.
Chief executive
Venice Williams
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $185k → $245k.
7 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 33% 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 FONDY FOOD CENTER 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
FONDY FOOD CENTER INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
57% 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 FONDY FOOD CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 29% · 2019 57% · 2020 59% · 2021 56% · 2022 58% · 2023 56% — growing more concentrated.
“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 FONDY FOOD CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
90% of FONDY FOOD CENTER INC's grant income comes from Wisconsin funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $606k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
FONDY FOOD CENTER INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 655 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 655 food & nutrition nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like FONDY FOOD CENTER 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
69% 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 FONDY FOOD CENTER 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 FONDY FOOD CENTER INC?
- FONDY FOOD CENTER INC (Wisconsin) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,811,785 to it, the largest being JOSEPH AND VERA ZILBER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($607,500). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FONDY FOOD CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $1,811,785 in grants to FONDY FOOD CENTER INC, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FONDY FOOD CENTER INC?
- JOSEPH AND VERA ZILBER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $607,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FONDY FOOD CENTER 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 Fondy Food Center →
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 28 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