Black River Falls Area Foundation
Black River Falls, WI · EIN 39-1563654. Reported 67 grants totalling $2,157,078 to 27 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Black River Falls Area Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31Z).
- How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 28% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 54% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $12,166. Half of what it reported fell between $8,000 and $28,123; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $280,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Black River Falls Public Library | Black River Falls, WI | $603,283 | 14 | 5 | 2025 |
| Jackson County Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $479,100 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| City of Black River Falls | Black River Falls, WI | $189,695 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jackson County Humane Society Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Black River Falls School District | Black River Falls, WI | $149,436 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Methodist Church of Black River Falls Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $113,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Village of Alma Center - Fire Department | Alma Center, WI | $85,141 | 7 | 5 | 2025 |
| Merrillan Volunteer Fire Department & First Responders | Merrillan, WI | $70,204 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Black River Health Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $49,118 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Boys & Girls Club of the Greater Chippewa Valley Inc | Eau Claire, WI | $47,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Evangelical Lutheran Church | Blk River Fls, WI | $35,027 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Jackson County Depart Health & Human Services | Black River Falls, WI | $23,250 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Hixton Volunteer Fire Department | Hixton, WI | $23,060 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Friends Sharing Food Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $23,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Bolton Refuge House Inc | Eau Claire, WI | $22,467 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Family Promise of Monroe County Inc | Sparta, WI | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Blair Taylor School District | Blair Taylor, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Hatfield Fire & Rescue | Merrillan, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sleep in Heavenly Peace Inc | Pocatello, ID | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Village of Alma Center | Alma Center, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| St John's Lutheran Church | Black River Falls, WI | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Jackson County Child Care Network Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $7,837 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Black River Area Child Care Services Inc | Blk River Fls, WI | $5,960 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Aptiv Incorporated | La Crosse, WI | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Melrose First Responders Inc | Melrose, WI | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Dept of Wisconsin | Alma Center, WI | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Dept of Wisconsin | Black River Falls, WI | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
13 of 27 (48%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Jackson County Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers Inc
NEW BUILDING, OPERATING EXPENSES, COVID 19 GRANT - City of Black River Falls Skyline Golf Course
REMAINDER OF BEV MILLIS DONATION AND REMAINDER OF 2 SMALL FUNDS COMBINED, PAY OFF LAWN MOWER LOAN AT CCU FROM BEV MILLIS DONATION - City of Black River Falls
GOLF CART PROJECT, 2021 GRANT FOR THERMAL IMAGING CAMERA, DIRECT DISBURSEMENT GIFT FROM TIM & KAY FINCH, 2021 GRANT FOR REPLACING THE NORTH ENTRY GATE - Jc Interfaith Caregivers
BRF AREA FOUNDATION DONATITON TO BUILDUING FUND - Brf School District
JAY & KATIE LAABS DONATION FOR REPLACEMENT OF PIANOS AND 2 YEARS EEF DISBURSEMENTS - Jackson County Humane Society
DIRECTED DSBURSEMENT FROM TIM & KAY FINCH
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 13 of 27 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 14 | $624,612 | $15,000 |
| 2022 | 13 | $351,565 | $8,147 |
| 2023 | 11 | $313,146 | $12,000 |
| 2024 | 15 | $366,363 | $12,400 |
| 2025 | 14 | $501,392 | $10,122 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
100% of its giving went to organizations in Wisconsin. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one
4 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 7 grants totalling $788,915 to Black River Falls Area Foundation. That is 40% of the 10 funders we can see giving to it. Those 4 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a community foundation.
3 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.
What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.
| Foundation | State | Reported | Grants | Years | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim and Kay Finch Foundation Inc | Wisconsin | $485,710 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Timothy R Finch and Kay a Finch Family | Wisconsin | $297,638 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Phillip B Mills Foundation Inc | Wisconsin | $5,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Amazonsmile Foundation | Washington | $67 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $12,166 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Wisconsin.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Black River Falls Area Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 14 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 99, Black River Falls, WI, 54615.
EIN 39-1563654 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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