· Private foundation
Alben F & Clara G Bates Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k136 grants · $425k
- $10k–50k18 grants · $298k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE - CHICAGO | $28,000 |
| OCEAN REEF CHAPEL FOUNDATOIN INC | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| OCEAN REEF CULTURAL CENTER | $20,000 |
| ELMHURST MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ASSN | $20,000 |
| ELMHURST HERITAGE FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| ELMHURST UNIVERSITY | $20,000 |
| GENEVA LAKE WATER SAFETY COMMITTEE | $17,000 |
| ELMHURST FAMILY YMCA | $15,500 |
| MCLEAN HOSPITAL | $15,000 |
| AMERICAN THEATRE WING | $15,000 |
| BAPTIST HEALTH FOUNDATION | $13,500 |
| TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC | $13,000 |
| LOYOLA CARDINAL BERNADINE CENTER | $10,500 |
| NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $237k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 87% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +43% since the first grant, against +40% for the ones you funded once.
238 repeat relationships — 131 still active in FY2024, 107 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $106k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- EHElmhurst Heritage Foundation8× · 2017–2024 · $165k · revenue +73% · 54% of their budget
- EUELMHURST UNIVERSITY8× · 2017–2024 · $165k · revenue +43%
TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC7× · 2018–2024 · $108k · revenue +354%
Funded once
- NMNORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITALone grant, 2017 · $20k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $14k
- PPPlanned Parenthood of Illinoisgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $12k · revenue +64%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Rainforest trust saves endangered wildlife and protects our planet by creating rainforest reserves through partnerships, community engagement, and donor support.
Lincoln park zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of chicago and by advancing the highest quality of animal care, horticulture, education, science and…
The purpose of the water research foundation (wrf) is a definitive research organization to advance the science of all things water to better meet the evolving needs of its subscribers and the water sector. to engage exclusively in…
To promote public health, safety, and welfare through the improvement of the quality and quantity of drinking water and the development and furtherance of understanding of the problems relating thereto.
Advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all. the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its science family of journals,…
To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.
Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.
The union of concerned scientists puts rigorous, independent science into action, developing solutions and advocating for a healthy, safe, and just future.
See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…
To sustain, restore, and enhance the nation's fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.
Friends of the earth strives for a more healthy and just world by defendng the environment and human health while advancing social and economic justice by conducting research and education, transforming the economy so it protects the…
American gas association's (the association) mission is to develop and advocate for informed, innovative, and durable policy that fulfills our nation's energy needs, environmental aspirations and economic potential. we are committed to…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Partnership With Children Inc and the most unlike its peers is Unite Nationwide for Cops Under Fire Foundation Aka Uncuff the Innocent. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 36 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.8% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
226 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 226 of the 378 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Elmhurst Heritage Foundation ↗
- Who funds ELMHURST UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds OCEAN REEF CULTURAL CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds TRIANGLE LAND CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds Geneva Lake Water Safety Committee Inc ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR RESEARCH ON SCHIZOPHRENIA AND DEPRESSION ↗
- Who funds LAKE GENEVA FRESH AIR ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds KEYS CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds National Alopecia Areata Foundation ↗
- Who funds UNITE NATIONWIDE FOR COPS UNDER FIRE FOUNDATION AKA UNCUFF THE INNOCENT ↗
- Who funds KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HUDSON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DUPAGE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds ORACLE SCHOOLS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN THEATRE WING INC ↗
- Who funds HCS FAMILY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds GENEVA LAKE CONSERVANCY INC ↗
- Who funds VASSAR COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE HEARTLAND INC ↗
- Who funds OCEAN REEF MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds OCEAN REEF COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds HOLY FAMILY MINISTRIES ↗
- Who funds SAFE HAVEN FOR CATS ↗
- Who funds Chicago Zoological Society ↗
- Who funds SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Dupage Community Foundation · Otzen Family Foundation Incorporated · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · The Anna Emery Hanson Charitable Foundation 1 · Ec Styberg Foundation Inc · Dean L & Rosemarie Buntrock Foundation · A G Cox Charity Trust Xxxxx9001 · John & Linda Anderson Charitable Foundation · The Allyn Foundation Inc · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Geary Rimmer Vincent Wolf Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Alben F & Clara G Bates Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Kristi House Inc — 49% of income from government
- Christopher Reeve Foundation — 49% of income from government
- Florida Keys Childrens Shelter Inc — 19% of income from government
- The Trustees of the Smith College — 1% of income from government
- Sea Turtle Conservancy — 1% of income from government
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc — 0% of income from government
- Shriners Hospitals for Children — 0% of income from government
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Alben F & Clara G Bates Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Alben F & Clara G Bates Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.