Schoenleber Foundation Inc.

Schoenleber Foundation Inc. is a small, closely-held Milwaukee family/corporate foundation — three uncompensated directors (Peter C. Haensel, Frank W. Bastian, Michael Orgeman) govern all grantmaking from a single downtown office at 111 E. Wisconsin Ave. It has no website presence, no online portal, no published mission statement, and no staff program officers, which marks it as a relationship-driven funder rather than an open-competition one. The IRS record lists the application instructions simply as "contact above for application," addressed to Janet Hoehnen c/o the foundation, with an explicit preference for Wisconsin-based organizations. First-time applicants should not expect a formal LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; the pattern in the grantee data instead shows long-running, repeat relationships — 14 of the top recipients (Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Foundation, UWM Research Foundation, Hunger Task Force, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Marquette University, and others) each received the identical grant three years running, suggesting the foundation renews known commitments rather than actively soliciting new ones. Newcomers are far more likely to break in with a modest first ask ($2,500-$10,000, matching the smaller one-time grants in the record, e.g., Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha at $5,000 or Milwaukee Homeless Veterans at $10,000) than to land a six-figure multi-year commitment out of the gate. The foundation favors established Milwaukee-area institutions — universities, museums, hospitals-adjacent human-service agencies, and civic nonprofits — over newly formed or unproven organizations; 66 of 69 recorded grants (96%) went to Wisconsin recipients, with only three outliers to a Michigan conservancy (Little Traverse Conservation), likely reflecting a personal connection of a director or donor family rather than a geographic expansion. Because there is no public RFP, the realistic entry points are: (1) a warm introduction through a current grantee's board or the directors' professional networks (the 111 E. Wisconsin Ave address is shared with several Milwaukee law/wealth-management firms), or (2) a concise, unsolicited letter mailed to the foundation ahead of the August 31 deadline, addressed to the contact on file, stating the ask plainly and citing Wisconsin community impact.

Per the foundation's IRS Form 990-PF data on file, typical grants range from $5,000 to $70,000 (sample of 21 disclosed "typical" grants), with a median of $15,000 and a mean of $22,810 — pulled up by a handful of larger, recurring institutional grants. The broader 69-grant dataset (spanning roughly the last three reporting cycles) totals $1,301,000 at an average of $18,855 per grant, and third-party aggregators (Instrumentl, CauseIQ) independently confirm a lifetime range of roughly $1,000 to $75,000 with an average near $16,400-$19,000 — consistent once smaller legacy grants (several $1,000-$3,000 gifts to groups like the Wisconsin EMS Association Foundation and St. Leonard Congregation) are folded in. By recipient, the largest cumulative commitments are Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin ($175,000 across 3 grants), University of Wisconsin Foundation ($160,000/3), UWM Research Foundation ($125,000/3), Hunger Task Force ($85,000/3), Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra ($75,000/3), and Marquette University ($72,000/3) — all repeat, multi-year relationships rather than one-off awards. Geographically, giving is almost entirely Wisconsin (66 of 69 grants, $1,301,000 base), with a small Michigan carve-out (3 grants) to Little Traverse Conservation. By program area, general-purpose/unrestricted support dominates — every recorded grant in the data is tagged "GENERAL," spanning education (UW/UWM/Marquette/MATC), health and human services (Planned Parenthood, Hunger Task Force, Kathy's House, Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity), and arts/culture (Milwaukee Symphony, Betty Brinn Children's Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, Zoological Society of Milwaukee). Financially, total assets have held steady between $6.7M and $8.5M since 2012, and annual giving has ranged $519,000-$647,000 over that period — a payout rate consistently above the 5% federal minimum (7.6% in 2023, 6.9% in 2022, 7.9% in 2021), indicating the foundation maintains a disciplined, above-floor distribution policy even in weaker market years (2022 total revenue fell to $365,745 on softer investment income, yet giving still reached $550,885).

Schoenleber sits at the smaller, quieter end of Milwaukee's private-foundation landscape — its ~$8M asset base and sub-$1M annual giving put it well below Bader and Kelben in scale, and unlike Bader it has never operated a public application process. It most closely resembles Argosy and Kelben in governance style (small family/director boards, invitation-driven relationships) but differs in focus: where Argosy is narrowly environmental and Kelben stays fully closed, Schoenleber funds a broad general/community-development mix and will respond to a well-targeted unsolicited letter, based on the mix of one-time smaller grants in its record.

No independent news coverage, press releases, or leadership changes surfaced for Schoenleber Foundation Inc. in 2025-2026 — it does not issue public communications, and Urban Milwaukee's business directory listing for the foundation contains no foundation-specific content beyond a placeholder page. The most concrete recent signal is procedural: the foundation's Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024 was filed with the IRS on November 14, 2025, reporting total assets of $8,160,559 and total revenue of $812,861, with third-party 990 trackers (Instrumentl) estimating roughly 22 grants awarded that year totaling approximately $460,000 — a modest increase over 2023's $450,000 in grants paid ($606,065 in total giving including multi-year pledges). Governance has been stable and unchanged in the available filings, with the same three uncompensated directors — Peter C. Haensel, Frank W. Bastian, and Michael Orgeman — listed across every reporting period in the dataset. One notable data-quality finding for applicants: the website on file, schoenleber.org, no longer resolves to the foundation (it currently serves an unrelated personal page), meaning any online "official" guidance found under that domain should be disregarded. In the absence of newsworthy grants or program launches, the most useful "recent activity" signal remains the multi-year renewal pattern in the grant data itself — the foundation's top recipients (Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, UW Foundation, UWM Research Foundation, Hunger Task Force) each show three consecutive years of level or near-level funding through the most recent data available, indicating continuity rather than a strategic reset.

There is no online application, portal, or published RFP — the IRS filing states applications should go directly to the foundation's contact (listed as % Janet Hoehnen) at 111 E. Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1800, Milwaukee, WI 53202, phone (414) 276-3400. Because the schoenleber.org domain no longer belongs to the foundation, do not rely on any web search result claiming to show an official online form — mail or phone is the only verified channel. The hard deadline is August 31 of each year; given the foundation's small, all-volunteer director board (three uncompensated trustees handling review personally), submit well before the deadline rather than at the wire, since there is no staff to triage a late crush of requests. State of Wisconsin organizations are explicitly preferred per the foundation's own restriction language — out-of-state applicants (aside from the rare Michigan exception seen in the grant history, tied to a specific conservancy) face a materially harder path and should lead with a strong Wisconsin-impact argument if applying at all. Keep the ask general-purpose: every grant in the available history is coded "GENERAL" rather than tied to a restricted program, so proposals framed as flexible/operating support are more consistent with past behavior than narrowly scoped project asks. Calibrate the ask size to your organization's track record with the foundation — first-time, unsolicited requests in the data cluster at $2,500-$10,000 (e.g., Boys & Girls Club of Kenosha $5,000, Milwaukee Homeless Veterans $10,000), while the $50,000-$75,000+ grants all belong to multi-year repeat relationships with major Milwaukee institutions (UW, Marquette, Milwaukee Symphony). The most common mistake for a funder like this is treating it like a large institutional foundation with a formal review cycle — with three volunteer directors and no communications staff, a concise one-to-two-page letter outlining the organization, the specific use of funds, and a clear Wisconsin community connection will land better than a full grant-proposal packet with attachments. If possible, identify a warm connection: the shared office address with Milwaukee law/wealth-management tenants suggests director networks matter, and a referral or introduction from an existing grantee's board member is a realistic way to get noticed given the absence of any public intake process.