Colony Brands Foundation Inc
Monroe, WI · EIN 20-1344988. Reported 110 grants totalling $13.5M to 39 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 Colony Brands Foundation Inc, the IRS classifies it as a private independent foundation (NTEE T22).
- How spread out its giving is. 39 distinct organizations, with 60% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 66% 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 $15,000. Half of what it reported fell between $7,500 and $29,000; the smallest was $5,003 and the largest $4,002,372. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
2 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $12,289 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green County Family YMCA Inc | Monroe, WI | $8,109,939 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| School District of Monroe Wi | Monroe, WI | $1,830,801 | 13 | 5 | 2025 |
| University of Wisconsin Foundation | Madison, WI | $1,279,073 | 9 | 5 | 2025 |
| Green County Development | Monroe, WI | $510,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Main Street Monroe Inc | Monroe, WI | $350,503 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Family Promise of Green County Inc | Monroe, WI | $210,298 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Rubin for Kids Inc | Madison, WI | $135,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| City of Monroe - Parks & Rec | Monroe, WI | $120,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Monroe Arts Center Inc | Monroe, WI | $119,831 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Madison Community Foundation | Madison, WI | $110,209 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Green County Humane Society Inc | Monroe, WI | $68,961 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Green County Cheese Days Inc | Monroe, WI | $64,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| The Charles E Kubly Foundation Inc | Mequon, WI | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Roar Foundation | Acton, CA | $50,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Monroe Clinic and Hospitalfoundation | Monroe, WI | $47,034 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Jacobs Swag Foundation Inc | Monroe, WI | $43,717 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Edgewood University Inc | Madison, WI | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Green County Food Pantry Inc | Monroe, WI | $35,192 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| American Cancer Society Inc | Atlanta, GA | $30,596 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Everyoneneedsahome Inc | South Wayne, WI | $25,810 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Henry Vilas Park Zoological Soc | Madison, WI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Big Brothers Big Sisters of Green County Inc | Monroe, WI | $24,936 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Green Haven Family Advocates Inc | Monroe, WI | $24,927 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Friends of PBS Wisconsin Inc | Madison, WI | $24,875 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| School District of New Glarus | New Glarus, WI | $23,100 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin Inc | Janesville, WI | $21,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Friends of New Glarus Woods State Park Inc | New Glarus, WI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Way of Dane County Inc | Madison, WI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Forum-Monroe Youth Hockey Association Inc | Monroe, WI | $11,274 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Eau Claire Community Humane Association Inc | Eau Claire, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Madison Public Schools Foundation Inc | Madison, WI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Society of St Vincent De Paul of Monroe Inc | Monroe, WI | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program Inc | Dodgeville, WI | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Green County Emergency Medical Service Inc | Monroe, WI | $7,232 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Green County 4-H | Monroe, WI | $6,548 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Medecins Sans Frontieres USA Inc | New York, NY | $6,055 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| River Cities Information Referral and Assistance Services | Clinton, IA | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Aly Wolff Foundation Inc | Cottage Grove, WI | $5,250 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Dane County Humane Society | Madison, WI | $5,003 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
21 of 39 (54%) 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.
- School District of Monroe Wi
Sponsorship/Naming Rights - Green County Development Corp
Housing Development Projects - Main Street Monroe Inc
Underwriting & general support - Uw-Madison Foundation
Recruiting flights & gen. support - Monroe Arts Center
Underwriting entertainment season - School District of New Glarus
Support of backpack buddies program
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 29 of 39 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 | 31 | $692,000 | $12,592 |
| 2022 | 20 | $978,780 | $12,952 |
| 2023 | 21 | $717,554 | $10,541 |
| 2024 | 21 | $4,530,507 | $15,000 |
| 2025 | 17 | $6,583,323 | $35,000 |
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
99% 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
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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 $15,000 -- 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 Colony Brands Foundation Inc'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 3 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: 1112 7TH Avenue, Monroe, WI, 53566.
EIN 20-1344988 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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