Wahlin Foundation Inc.

The Wahlin Foundation is a small, family-run corporate foundation — the philanthropic arm of Stoughton Trailers, LLC — governed by a board of Wahlin family members (Donald D. Wahlin, CEO/Director; William D. Wahlin, Margaret W. Blanchard, Kathryn W. Schieldt, Daniel D. Wahlin, all Directors at nominal $500/meeting compensation) with day-to-day operations run by Executive Director Betsy (Elizabeth W.) McClimon, the only paid staff member ($66,141 in FY2023). There is no online portal, no published deadline, and no LOI form — the stated process is a downloadable PDF Grant Application, but the foundation explicitly says it 'will consider unsolicited requests, however all requests may not be invited to complete the Grant Application,' meaning a phone call or email to McClimon functions as the real first gate. First-time applicants should not treat this as a competitive open RFP; treat it as a relationship-first, geography-first funder. The single hardest eligibility filter is location: funding goes 'primarily' to communities in and around Stoughton Trailers manufacturing plants — overwhelmingly Stoughton, WI (51 of 56 recent grantees), with a handful of grants following the company's footprint into TX, MO, and MN. Organizations without a direct tie to a plant community are unlikely to be invited past the inquiry stage regardless of mission fit. The grantee list shows the board strongly favors established, familiar local institutions over new organizations — Friends of Stoughton Youth Center (5 grants, $321,760), Mandt Community Center (3 grants, $253,560), WMC Foundation (3 grants, $125,000), and St. Ann Church and School (3 grants, $109,500) each received repeat, multi-year support. Scholarship funding is a secondary but consistent priority, running through a fixed set of institutions (UW-Whitewater, UW-Milwaukee, Blackhawk Technical College, Madison College) rather than open individual applications. The 2023 UW-Whitewater partnership ($125,000 for scholarships plus a $10,000/year endowed faculty fellowship) shows the foundation is willing to commit to larger, multi-year institutional partnerships when the fit (workforce pipeline for Stoughton Trailers' own hiring needs) is strong — a signal that framing a request around local workforce or community infrastructure benefit to the company's employee base can resonate.

FY2023 (most recent filed 990): grants paid $402,766 against total giving of $480,988 (the gap covers officer compensation and administrative costs of $68,641), on total assets of $5,393,269 and total revenue of $1,159,753 — almost entirely net investment income ($1,147,892). Critically, the foundation received $0 in new contributions in FY2023, FY2022, and FY2021, and only $75 in FY2021 before that — the last real capital injections from Stoughton Trailers were $1,055,500 (2015) and $1,000,000 (2014). The foundation now runs as a self-funding endowment off investment returns rather than fresh corporate cash, which explains steady but not explosive growth in giving. Total giving has climbed from $149,386 (2013) to $331,442 (2019) to $480,988 (2023) — roughly a 3.2x increase over a decade, with growth notably accelerating post-2019 (+88% in four years) as the asset base compounded from $2.95M (2013) to $5.39M (2023). Per the platform's grant-size analysis (22 recent grants sampled), the typical award is small: median $5,000, average $12,443, range $1,000–$100,000. Looking at the fuller 56-grant/multi-year grantee history (total $1,186,845, average $21,194 per relationship — note this figure reflects cumulative multi-grant totals per organization, not single awards), a clear bimodal pattern emerges: capital/facilities grants run large ($16,666–$100,000+ per gift — kitchen remodels, roof replacements, an ice resurfacer, building expansions), while scholarships, annual-campaign, and program-support gifts run small ($1,000–$10,000). Geographically, 51 of 56 tracked grantees (91%) are Wisconsin-based, concentrated in Stoughton and Dane County, with the remainder split across Texas (2), Missouri (2), and Minnesota (1) — almost entirely university scholarship recipients rather than new program grants. There is no visible health/education/human-services quota; instead giving clusters around a small, loyal roster of community anchor institutions (youth centers, senior centers, churches, hospitals, VFW, United Way) that get renewed support year after year.

All five peers sit within roughly $2,000 of Wahlin's $5,820,384 in assets, making this a genuinely comparable cohort by size, though the platform's data bundle does not carry giving totals, focus-area detail, or application processes for the peers — only Wahlin's underlying 990 filings and enriched web profile provide that depth. What distinguishes Wahlin within this tier is transparency and specificity: its restrictions, geographic mandate, and named Executive Director are all publicly documented, whereas the peer foundations (three of which show no listed website in this dataset) appear to operate with minimal or no public-facing grant information, typical of small, closely-held family foundations of this size. Grant seekers should assume peers in this asset tier are likely even harder to reach cold than Wahlin, reinforcing that a direct, relationship-based approach — not a portal search — is the standard playbook at this scale.

The most recent substantiated public grant activity is the $200,000 gift to Stoughton Hospital Foundation on February 2, 2024, funding construction of a 56,000+ square-foot Medical Outpatient Building that opened in spring 2025 and now houses specialty clinics and the Stoughton Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine department — Executive Director Betsy McClimon publicly framed the gift as recognition of the value of quality local healthcare. Before that, the foundation's highest-profile move was the January 2023 partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Business and Economics: a joint $125,000 gift with parent company Stoughton Trailers, LLC funding 50 student scholarships (ten $1,500 awards annually over five years) in supply chain management and business fields, plus creation of the Wahlin Foundation Distinguished Fellowship in Supply Chain, a $10,000 annual stipend for a qualifying faculty member. Going further back, the foundation's 2019 scholarship cycle awarded $21,000 combined to six graduating seniors from Stoughton-area high schools, evidence of a long-running annual scholarship tradition. No web-searchable news, press release, or announcement specific to 2025 or 2026 grantmaking was found during this research — the foundation does not appear to issue routine press coverage for its many smaller annual grants (scholarships, United Way campaign gifts, youth center support), reserving PR only for its largest capital commitments. Leadership has been stable: Elizabeth (Betsy) W. McClimon has served as Treasurer/Director and Executive Director across all recent filing years, with compensation rising from $51,547 to $66,141, and the Wahlin family board (Donald, William, Daniel, Margaret, Kathryn) has shown no turnover in the years captured in this data.

Do not lead with a cold-submitted application form — call or email Executive Director Betsy McClimon (608-873-2582, betsy@stoughton-trailers.com) first with a two- or three-sentence description of your project and its connection to a Stoughton Trailers, LLC plant community. The foundation states plainly that it reviews unsolicited requests but does not invite every one of them to complete the full Grant Application, so this initial contact functions as the real screening gate. Lead your pitch with geography, not mission — the single strongest filter in this foundation's giving history is physical proximity to a Stoughton Trailers manufacturing plant (overwhelmingly Stoughton/Dane County, WI, with smaller footprints reflected in Texas, Missouri, and Minnesota grants). A compelling program with no tie to a plant community is very unlikely to get past the first phone call. Time your ask to match what they actually fund: capital and facilities projects (roof replacement, kitchen remodel, equipment, building expansion) have received the largest single grants ($16,666–$253,560 in cumulative funding to organizations like Mandt Community Center and Friends of Stoughton Youth Center) — bring a real project budget, contractor estimates, and a defined funding gap. Smaller recurring needs (scholarships, annual campaigns, program support) are funded in the $1,000–$10,000 range and seem to flow through an established short list of local institutions (UW-Whitewater, UW-Milwaukee, Blackhawk Technical College, Madison College, United Way of Dane Co.) — a first-time scholarship applicant should expect a longer on-ramp before being added to that rotation. Since there is no stated deadline or grant cycle published anywhere in this research, submit well ahead of your actual funding need and expect the family board (which meets periodically, not on a fixed public calendar) to take time to review. Common mistakes to avoid: submitting a generic form-letter application with no reference to Stoughton Trailers or its plant communities; asking for lobbying or election-related funding (explicitly excluded); and treating this like a national foundation with an online portal — it is a lean, two-person-operated (one paid, five volunteer-board) family foundation that responds better to a direct, personal, locally-grounded relationship than to a polished but impersonal proposal.