· Private foundation
Brewer Family Foundation
Its FY2017 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
82% of Brewer Family Foundation’s FY2017 grant dollars went to Evanston Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2017 names 5 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2017
- Under $10k9 grants · $28k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $55k
- $250k+1 grant · $373k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Evanston Community Foundation | $372,877 |
| Golden Apple Foundation for Excelle | $25,000 |
| Washington Lee University | $20,000 |
| Bunker Labs | $10,000 |
| Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute | $5,000 |
| McGaw YMCA | $5,000 |
| Amigos de las Americas - Chicago No | $2,500 |
| Youth Opportunity United | $2,500 |
| The Host Foundation | $2,500 |
| Housing Options for Mentally Ill | $2,500 |
| James Moran Center | $2,500 |
| The Salvation Army | $2,500 |
| The Forrest E Pikey Powell Foundati | $2,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–17, $5k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
5 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 5 of the 13 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Brewer Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Brewer Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Brewer Family’s filings →