GrantmakersWisconsin

Wisconsin Community Action Program

Madison, WI · EIN 39-1209035. Reported 64 grants totalling $9,051,746 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

23organizations funded
$84,136median reported grant
$9,051,746granted, 2021-2024
100%of grantees funded again the next year
16%of dollars to its largest recipient

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:

  1. What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 16% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 100% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $84,136. Half of what it reported fell between $38,600 and $200,389; the smallest was $3,000 and the largest $717,862. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
Under $5,000
2 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
7 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
3 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
5 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
18 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
20 grants
$250,000 Or More
9 grants

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.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Community Relations - Social Development CommissionMilwaukee, WI$1,460,657442024
Community Action Coaltion for South Central Wisconsin IncMadison, WI$1,244,810442024
Cap Services IncStevens Point, WI$898,911442024
Advocap IncFond Du Lac, WI$686,338442024
Newcap IncOconto, WI$682,320442024
Couleecap IncWestby, WI$679,662442024
Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program IncDodgeville, WI$610,864442024
Central Wisconsin Community Action Council IncWisc Dells, WI$541,753442024
Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council IncorporatedIndependence, WI$462,082442024
Indianhead Community Action AgencyLadysmith, WI$319,830332024
Lakeshore Cap Inc of WisconsinManitowoc, WI$258,191442024
West Central Wisconsin Community Action Agency IncGlenwood City, WI$254,287332024
Community Action Inc of Rock and Walworth CountiesBeloit, WI$253,756442024
Wisconsin Trust Account FoundationMadison, WI$203,233112024
Foundation for Rural Housing IncOregon, WI$148,574222024
Illinois Association of Community Action AgenciesSpringfield, IL$68,279112024
Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies IncColumbus, OH$61,375112024
Michigan Community ActionOkemos, MI$59,888112024
Indiana Community Action ProgramIndianapolis, IN$59,491112024
Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Group IncorporatedMadison, WI$58,845112024
Northwest Wisconsin Community Services Agency IncSuperior, WI$19,600222024
North Central Community Action Program IncWisc Rapids, WI$10,000222023
Racine Kenosha Community Action Agency IncRacine, WI$9,000222023

17 of 23 (74%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 1 group of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

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.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 15 of 23 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Human Services
6 orgs
Community Improvement
4 orgs
Mutual Benefit
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org
Housing & Shelter
1 org
Social Science
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202111$2,007,251$63,300
202215$854,784$51,762
202317$3,092,693$166,693
202421$3,097,018$140,911

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

97% 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.

Wisconsin
$8.8M
Illinois
$68K
Ohio
$61K
Michigan
$60K
Indiana
$59K

Down to the city

Madison, WI
$1.5M
Milwaukee, WI
$1.5M
Stevens Point, WI
$899K
Fond Du Lac, WI
$686K
Oconto, WI
$682K
Westby, WI
$680K

Find more funders like Wisconsin Community Action Program

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of11 shared recipientsWheda Foundation Inc8 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund7 shared recipientsOtto Bremer Trust7 shared recipientsAlliant Energy Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsGreen Bay Packers Foundation5 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. 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.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $84,136 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Wisconsin.
  4. 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 Wisconsin Community Action Program's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 21 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: 30 West Mifflin Street 406, Madison, WI, 53703.

EIN 39-1209035 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.