Salzwedel Family Fund Ltd

Salzwedel Family Fund Ltd is a closely held family foundation run entirely by Salzwedel family members — Sara and Jack Salzwedel as co-Presidents, Tyler Salzwedel as Vice President, Luke Salzwedel as Treasurer, and Katy Lea as Secretary — with $0 officer compensation reported in every filed year, meaning there is no paid program staff evaluating proposals. Grantmaking is strongly localized: of the roughly 117 tracked grants, about 80 (68%+) went to Wisconsin organizations, concentrated in Dane County (Centro Hispano of Dane County, Edgewood High School, United Way of Dane County, UW Foundation, Aldo Leopold Foundation). Nearly every tracked grant purpose is coded 'General Operations,' confirming this is primarily an unrestricted operating-support funder rather than a program- or capital-restricted one. A small core of anchor partners receives repeat, multi-year funding — Wartburg College ($296,500 across 3 grants, plus a separate $1 million capital gift in April 2025), Peace Lutheran Church ($230,150/3 grants), Bethel Horizons ($198,400/2 grants), Centro Hispano ($135,000/3 grants), and Edgewood High School ($131,370/3 grants) — together representing over half of tracked top-50 dollars. This pattern signals that funding becomes durable once a relationship is established, but new organizations can and do break in: many first-time grantees appear at $1,200–$25,000. First-time applicants should not expect a formal invitation-only gate — the Fund's own website actively runs an online application form on a defined annual cycle, despite some third-party aggregator profiles describing it as invitation-only. Given Jack Salzwedel's background as former Chairman/CEO of American Family Insurance, a major Madison-based employer, the family likely has an extensive regional civic and corporate network; a warm introduction through Dane County faith, education, or insurance-industry circles is likely to carry more weight than a cold online submission alone. Applicants should lead with concrete local impact, frame the request as general operating support, and calibrate expectations to a modest first ask rather than assuming the Wartburg-sized gift is representative of the standard competitive process.

Total grants paid by fiscal year show a declining-then-recovering trend: $1,254,460 (2019), $832,785 (2020), $517,180 (2021), $560,400 (2022), and $630,789 (2023) — giving is down roughly 50% from the 2019 peak, with a modest rebound in the two most recent filed years. Book-value total assets (per Form 990-PF) are volatile and non-monotonic: $1,676,670 (2019), $1,046,736 (2020), $2,345,130 (2021), $2,194,765 (2022), and $1,871,272 (2023) — a separate IRS Business Master File snapshot lists a $6,428,925 fair-market-value asset figure that does not reconcile cleanly with the 990 book-value series, so the smaller figures are the more conservative estimate of near-term spendable capacity. Contributions received into the Fund are lumpy rather than steady: $1,778,143 (2019), $0 (2020), $2,464,156 (2021 — the year total revenue spiked to $2,856,231), $518,959 (2022), and $526,411 (2023), meaning annual grantmaking budgets track discretionary family contributions rather than a fixed payout formula. Per the Fund's own reported typical grant size, awards range from a $250 minimum to a $130,250 maximum, with a $4,925 median and $18,608 average across 30 tracked grants — confirming this is predominantly a small-grant funder with occasional larger exceptions for anchor partners. Across the fuller top-50 grantee list (117 total tracked grants, $1,706,219 cumulative, $14,583 average), Wisconsin recipients dominate by count, with smaller tails in Iowa (5), Illinois (4), and single-digit counts in Alabama, California, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and New York. By dollar concentration, the top 10 recipients — Wartburg College, Peace Lutheran Church, Bethel Horizons, Centro Hispano of Dane County, Edgewood High School, Center for Black Excellence and Culture, UW Foundation, Aldo Leopold Foundation, United Way of Dane County, and Heartland Church — capture roughly 84% of top-50 tracked dollars ($1,432,814 of $1,706,219), leaving a long tail of 40+ organizations splitting the remaining 16%. Virtually every tracked grant purpose is 'General Operations,' with the one clear exception being the web-sourced $1 million capital/scholarship gift to Wartburg College reported outside the structured grantee data.

All five peers sit within a nearly identical $6.428–$6.430 million asset band and share the same IRS 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' classification, indicating this is an asset-tier peer set rather than a mission-matched one — their actual program priorities are not independently confirmed here. Only two of the five peers (Jessica Cares Foundation, Thierer Family Foundation) maintain a public website at all, versus Salzwedel's fully public site with a defined application form, four named funding pillars, and a published annual deadline. That relative transparency, paired with a tight Wisconsin/Dane County geographic concentration rather than the dispersed national giving typical of many similarly sized family funds, makes Salzwedel comparatively easier for outside applicants to research and approach than most of its same-tier peers.

The most significant recent, dated activity is the April 1, 2025 announcement that the Salzwedel Family Fund committed $1 million to Wartburg College's 'Our Brightest Days' campaign — $550,000 for Wartburg Commitment scholarships and $450,000 for the Knight's Experience Fund, which provides up to $1,500 per undergraduate for experiential learning. The $36 million campaign had secured over $20 million at the time of the gift and is slated to close October 2026. Notably, this single gift is roughly 1.6 times the Fund's entire FY2023 grants-paid total ($630,789), suggesting either a multi-year pledge, a personal commitment layered alongside the Fund's standard grantmaking, or materially increased 2025 giving capacity not yet reflected in the most recent filed Form 990-PF (FY2023). On the operational side, the Fund's own website shows a clear 2026 shift: rather than its typical semiannual cycle, it consolidated to a single annual window with an April 1, 2026 submission deadline, a May 2026 review period, and June 2026 distributions, explicitly citing 'the high volume of applications received' as the reason — with the next cycle not opening until January 2027. No other dated news, leadership changes, or new program announcements turned up beyond static aggregator/directory listings (CauseIQ, Zeffy, Instrumentl, Grantable, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, GrantMakers.io) that largely mirror the same IRS filing data already captured in this profile. Family leadership has remained stable across all filed years: Sara and Jack Salzwedel as co-Presidents, Tyler Salzwedel as Vice President, Luke Salzwedel as Treasurer, and Katy Lea as Secretary, all uncompensated.

Apply within the confirmed 2026 window: the submission deadline is April 1, 2026, with review in May 2026 and distributions in June 2026; if that date is missed, the next cycle is not expected to open until January 2027, so plan accordingly. Use the Fund's own official online Google Form at salzwedelfamilyfund.com rather than relying on third-party aggregator profiles — sources like Grantable and GrantMakers.io describe the Fund as invitation-only, which conflicts with the Fund's own current, actively promoted application page. Frame the proposal as general operating support: nearly every tracked grant purpose in the underlying data is 'General Operations,' so a tightly restricted capital or single-program budget is a weaker match for the default grant type here. Anchor the request in one of the Fund's four stated pillars, using their own language: Equity & Sustainability (affordable housing, racial/LGBTQIA+ equity, environmental conservation, gun safety), Children & Families (youth athletics and girls' sports, adoption services, educational enrichment, early intervention), Physical & Mental Health (cancer, women's/reproductive health, children's health, stillbirth support, mental health services), or Community & Education (local schools, faith-based organizations, community connection). Emphasize a Wisconsin or Dane County presence or impact — roughly 68% of tracked grants by count went to Wisconsin organizations — while noting the Fund does make occasional larger out-of-state gifts tied to personal relationships (the Wartburg College, Iowa gift). Right-size the ask: the Fund's own reported typical grant size shows a $4,925 median and $18,608 average, with a $130,250 ceiling for standard grants; first-time applicants should target $2,500–$25,000 rather than assuming five- or six-figure requests are routine — the $1 million Wartburg gift is a clear outlier tied to a personal alumni relationship, not the standard competitive cycle. A common mistake to avoid: writing a proposal as if for a large staffed foundation. There is no paid program staff (officer compensation is $0 in every filed year); it is a small, hands-on family board, so keep materials concise and easy to evaluate quickly. Before the deadline, email info@salzwedelfamilyfund.com directly to confirm eligibility and ask clarifying questions — direct, low-friction contact is likely to be welcomed given the Fund's small, personal structure. If your organization has any connection to Dane County faith, education, or American Family Insurance-adjacent civic networks, note it explicitly, since Jack Salzwedel's professional background suggests the family's giving network runs through those channels.