Nonprofit Directory

Waukesha County Community Foundation Nonprofit Directory

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Directory sponsored by WaterStone Bank

The Waukesha County Community Foundation is pleased to provide a comprehensive guide to IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organizations located in Waukesha, Milwaukee, and Washington Counties.

This unique, local resource is made possible by WaterStone Bank through its endowment at WCCF, established in 2002 to ensure the bank’s ability to continually give back to the communities it serves.

WaterStone Bank’s community contributions help the bank achieve its mission and demonstrate a strong commitment to being a good corporate citizen and neighbor.

This directory allows you to:

  • Explore nonprofits in your community
  • Understand an organization’s financial health over time
  • Find organizations by cause area
  • Assess the leadership composition and compensation
  • Analyze an organization’s programs, operations, and impact

Use the search tools below to find and learn about area nonprofits:

Nonprofit Directory FAQ

Click on a question to reveal its answer. Have more questions? Email info@waukeshafoundation.org or call (262) 513-1861.

The levels are assigned according to how much information is voluntarily provided to GuideStar by the nonprofit about their organization.

GuideStar gathers initial data from the IRS, which collects that data from all organizations throughout the country via tax forms. Nonprofits can then provide additional information to GuideStar to raise their profile level.

For instance, Bronze level requires basic information such as the mission statement, description of programs, and geographic region served.

Platinum requires the addition of further data and explanation of finances, goals and strategies, and progress and results (as determined by the nonprofit).

They comprise the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE), a system designed to categorize the central purposes and causes of nonprofits organizations, which, as defined by the IRS, are exempt from paying taxes on their income.

For more information about the NTEE, visit the National Center for Charitable Statistics website.

These are different categories of tax-exempt organizations that are listed in the tax code, primarily in the 501(c) section. In other words, these are the categories the IRS uses to determine the particular legal and tax status of any nonprofit.

The bulk of nonprofits are categorized as 501(c)(3) organizations, which are public charities and private foundations. For more on how the IRS defines “charitable purposes,” visit this page on the IRS website.

The Waukesha County Community Foundation Nonprofit Directory is intended to serve donors and nonprofits in our area, so the database is limited to the three Wisconsin counties with nonprofit organizations that serve Waukesha County.

Nationwide searches, however, can be done through GuideStar’s main, publicly available database.

First, as always, check your spelling when doing searches!

But second, it’s possible the organization you’re looking for is a subsidiary of a larger parent organization. If the subsidiary isn’t registered with the IRS – the primary source of data in this directory – as an independent nonprofit organization located in our area but instead operates under the legal tax status of a parent organization headquartered elsewhere, they won’t appear in this directory.

Third, if the organization you’re looking for is a church or other religious organization, it’s possible they are not officially registered with the IRS.

Churches and other religious organizations that meet the standards of other tax-exempt organizations automatically receive tax-exempt status without having to register with the IRS. This means churches don’t have the burdens of paperwork that other nonprofits do, but it also means the IRS doesn’t necessarily have publicly available data on these churches unless they decide themselves to register with the IRS.

As discussed in the question and answer above, if you can’t find an organization you’re looking for in our directory, try searching GuideStar’s national database.