Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

Cless Family 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.

$2.8M
Granted FY2024still arriving
26
Grants FY2024still arriving
5
States reached
$667k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0197% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.

Health$8.4MEducation$4.2MPhilanthropy$1.3MYouth Development$1.2MHuman Services$450kArts & Culture$285kHousing & Shelter$200kScience & Tech$150kOther$0
02FY2024 · 26 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $8k
  • $10k–50k12 grants · $205k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $500k
  • $250k+5 grants · $2.1M
$50,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$20M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SCHWAB CHARITABLE$667,176
STAND UP TO CANCER$502,292
GLENVIEW YOUTH SERVICES$425,000
DUKE UNIVERSITY$250,000
NORTHLIGHT THEATRE$250,000
ETHS EDUCATION FOUNDATION$100,000
NORTHSHORE HOSPITALS FOUNDATION$100,000
THE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE$50,000
STUTTERING FOUNDATION$50,000
FOUNDATION 65$50,000
PROVENANCE PRECISION MEDICINE FOUNDATION$50,000
CHICAGO ENGINEER'S FOUNDATION$50,000
BOOKS & BREAKFAST$50,000
HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP$25,000
YOUTH & OPPORTUNITY UNITED$25,000
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–24, $635k) 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 your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%MISERICORDIA FOUNDATION: $25k → 14%MISERICORDIA FOUNDATION: $10k → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP: $50k → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP: $25k → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP: $25k → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP: $25k → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP: $25k → 14%HONOR FLIGHT CHICAGO CORP: $50 → 14%CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE: $50k → 14%CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE: $50k → 14%CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE: $50k → 14%CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE: $50k → 14%THE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE: $50k → 14%MCGAW YMCA: $90k → 14%MCGAW YMCA: $35k → 14%MCGAW YMCA: $30k → 14%MCGAW YMCA: $25k → 14%MCGAW YMCA: $20k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

ID
IL
IN
CA
MD
TN
NC
TX
FL

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$15M · 39 repeat orgs$605k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +33% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.

39 repeat relationships — 22 still active in FY2024, 17 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

39
14

Total granted

$15M
$557k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%
0%

Still filing today

67%
36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $48k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationHuman ServicesHealthPhilanthropyFood & NutritionArts & CultureOther

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

  • EH
    Endeavor Health Clinical Operations
    5× · 2020–2024 · $5.9M · revenue +25%
  • DUKE UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2021–2024 · $800k · revenue +1%
  • ES
    EVANSTON SCHOLARS
    4× · 2020–2023 · $325k · revenue +85%

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $175k
  • NF
    NSSRA FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue -21%
  • GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY
    one grant, 2020 · $75k · revenue +17%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Chicago Public Education Fund

The chicago public education fund (the fund) is a nonprofit organization that improves public schools in chicago by investing in the talented educators who lead them.

Education
2
Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare Group

The elmhurst memorial healthcare group follows the mission of endeavor health (f/k/a ns-ee holdings). the mission of endeavor health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." central to this mission is a commitment to…

—
3
Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare

Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
4
Edward Hospital

Edward Hospital follows the mission of Endeavor Health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
5
The Chicago Innovation Foundation
Philanthropy
6
The Richard H Driehaus Foundation
Philanthropy
7
Naperville Psychiatric Ventures

Naperville psychiatric ventures follows the mission of endeavor health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

Health
8
Edward Foundation

Edward foundation follows the mission of endeavor health to "help everyone in our communities be their best."

—
9
Gastro Intestinal Research Foundation Inc

The GI Research Foundation works to treat, prevent, and cure digestive diseases. In collaboration with the physicians and scientists at the University of Chicago Digestive Diseases Center, we fund innovative clinical and laboratory…

Health
10
North Shore Health Care Foundation

To expand equitable health care and healthy living in Cook County and champion solutions through funding, education and advocacy.

Health
11
Evans Scholars Foundation - Northern Illinois

Educational

Education
12
Endeavor Health Medical Group

Endeavor Health Medical Group (EHMG) follows the mission of Endeavor Health. The mission of Endeavor Health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." Central to this mission is a commitment to providing clinical programs and…

Health

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Connections for the Homeless Inc and the most unlike its peers is Stuttering Foundation of America. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 30 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%6%<5yr14%9%5–10yr18%26%10–20yr17%20%20–35yr15%20%35–55yr15%20%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%6%<5yr14%3%5–10yr18%13%10–20yr17%55%20–35yr15%8%35–55yr15%15%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 6% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/38
the rest of the field
15%
5,694/37,898

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.

04the grantee network

36 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. 36 of the 58 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.

5
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
35/36
Grantees still filing
22/36
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Endeavor Health Clinical Operations — $5,880,961 · HealthEndeavor Health Clinical OperationsBRAIN TUMOR RESEARCH CHARITY — $885,563 · HealthBRAIN TUMOR RESEARCH CHARITY+1 more — $75,000 · HealthETHS EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $1,020,000 · OtherETHS EDUCATION FOUNDATIONGLENVIEW YOUTH SERVICES — $775,000 · OtherGLENVIEW YOUTH SERVICESTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS — $475,000 · OtherTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UN…YOUTH & OPPORTUNITY UNITED INC — $375,000 · OtherYOUTH & OPPORTUNITY UNITED INCStuttering Foundation of America — $275,000 · OtherStuttering Foundation of Americ…STUPID STRONG CHARITABLE FOUNDATION — $250,000 · OtherSTUPID STRONG CHARITABLE FOUNDA…Individual grant recipient — $175,000 · OtherLINCOLN PARK PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL — $165,000 · Other+28 more — $1,127,031 · Other+28 moreDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC — $1,221,289 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHA…STAND UP TO CANCER — $752,292 · PhilanthropySTAND UP TO CANCE…EVANSTONSKOKIE DISTRICT 65 EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (FOUNDATION 65) — $430,000 · PhilanthropyEVANSTONSKOKIE DI…Glenbrook High School Foundation — $100,000 · Philanthropy+1 more — $85,000 · PhilanthropyDUKE UNIVERSITY — $800,000 · EducationDUKE UNIVE…EVANSTON SCHOLARS — $325,000 · EducationEVANSTON S…BOOKS AND BREAKFAST — $225,000 · EducationBOOKS AND …DEBRA GELFAND CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION — $140,000 · EducationDEBRA GELF…+3 more — $95,000 · Education+3 moreTHE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED — $250,000 · Human ServicesYoung Mens Christian Assoc McGaw Inc — $200,000 · Human ServicesHonor Flight Chicago Corp — $150,000 · Human ServicesMISERICORDIA FOUNDATION — $35,000 · Human ServicesNORTHLIGHT THEATRE INC — $270,000 · Arts & CultureEVANSTON ART CENTER — $15,000 · Arts & CultureCONNECTIONS FOR THE HOMELESS INC — $200,000 · Housing & Shelter
Health$6,841,524Other$4,637,031Philanthropy$2,588,581Education$1,585,000Human Services$635,000Arts & Culture$285,000Housing & Shelter$200,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetEndeavor Health Clinical Operations — $5,880,961 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC — $1,221,289 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBRAIN TUMOR RESEARCH CHARITY — $885,563 over 2y, 96% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY — $800,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSTAND UP TO CANCER — $752,292 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetEVANSTONSKOKIE DISTRICT 65 EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (FOUNDATION 65) — $430,000 over 5y, 40% of budgetYOUTH & OPPORTUNITY UNITED INC — $375,000 over 5y, 3.5% of budgetEVANSTON SCHOLARS — $325,000 over 4y, 15% of budgetStuttering Foundation of America — $275,000 over 5y, 4.7% of budgetNORTHLIGHT THEATRE INC — $270,000 over 3y, 2.5% of budgetTHE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED — $250,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBOOKS AND BREAKFAST — $225,000 over 5y, 11% of budgetYoung Mens Christian Assoc McGaw Inc — $200,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetCONNECTIONS FOR THE HOMELESS INC — $200,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetHonor Flight Chicago Corp — $150,000 over 5y, 3.5% of budgetDEBRA GELFAND CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION — $140,000 over 4y, 47% of budgetRose-Hulman Institute of Technology — $140,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNSSRA FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 13% of budgetGlenbrook High School Foundation — $100,000 over 2y, 69% of budgetEvanston Community Foundation — $85,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetProvenance Precision Medicine Foundation — $75,000 over 2y, 18% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $75,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChildcare Network of Evanston — $65,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetGlenview Education Foundation — $60,000 over 1y, 57% of budgetTHE WINNETKA PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION — $50,000 over 2y, 22% of budgetMISERICORDIA FOUNDATION — $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEVANSTON REBUILDING WAREHOUSE — $35,000 over 3y, 0.6% of budgetJAMES B MORAN CENTER FOR YOUTH ADVOCACY — $30,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetFRIENDS OF LINCOLN PARK HIGH SCHOOL — $25,000 over 1y, 19% of budgetWARREN W CHERRY PRESCHOOL — $25,000 over 2y, 1.6% of budgetIDAHO HORSE THERAPY INC — $20,000 over 2y, 7.3% of budgetEVANSTON ART CENTER — $15,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetTHE RECYCLERY COLLECTIVE — $7,500 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetSARA SCHOTTENSTEIN FOUNDATION — $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
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.

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.

Evanston Community Fo…The Kellcie FundThe Chicago Community…Finnegan Family Found…John D and Catherine …Northwestern Universi…Elizabeth Beidler Tis…Lewis-Sebring Family …AbbVie FoundationFrancis Beidler Found…Frankel Family Founda…Magnetar Capital Foun…
Evanston Community FoundationIL30.4× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Evanston Community Foundation · The Kellcie Fund · The Chicago Community Trust · Finnegan Family Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Northwestern University · Elizabeth Beidler Tisdahl Foundation · Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · Francis Beidler Foundation · Frankel Family Foundation · Magnetar Capital 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 Cless Family 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 58 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home