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Plinth

· Private foundation

Craig and Donna Bernfield 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.

$5k
Granted FY2024still arriving
1
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20192024.

Recreation & Sports$538kInternational$475kYouth Development$363kHousing & Shelter$250kEducation$200kPhilanthropy$155kFood & Nutrition$23kHuman Services$10kOther$0
02FY2024 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$5,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$385k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
BRUCE C ABRAMS FOUNDATION$5,000
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 (FY19–22, $373k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%GOODFOUNDATION: $10k → 17%A BETTER CHICAGO: $325k → 14%A BETTER CHICAGO: $38k → 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.

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.

72%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.4M · 7 repeat orgs$537k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +57% since the first grant, against +17% for the ones you funded once.

7 repeat relationships — 1 still active in FY2024, 6 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
5

Total granted

$1.4M
$537k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+57%
+17%

Still filing today

71%
60%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesInternationalEducationPhilanthropyOther

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

  • AB
    A Better Chicago
    2× · 2020–2022 · $363k · revenue +76%
  • CC
    Chicago Cubs Charities
    2× · 2020–2021 · $288k · revenue +142%
  • University of Chicago
    4× · 2019–2022 · $200k · revenue +25%

Funded once

  • COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS INC
    one grant, 2020 · $250k · revenue +17%
  • KD
    KEVIN DURANT CHARITY
    one grant, 2020 · $250k
  • SHARE OUR STRENGTH
    one grant, 2020 · $23k · revenue -44%

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
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

Federation amplifies our collective strength to make the world a better place for everyone. we assist people in need, impact chicagoans of all faiths; support israel and the jewish people worldwide; respond swiftly to crises; cultivate…

Philanthropy
2
The Chicago Innovation Foundation
Philanthropy
3
Northern Illinois University Foundation

The niu foundation's mission is to energize and connect the private sector with the niu community to secure and steward resources that support the future and growth of niu.

Education
4
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
5
Loyola University of Chicago

We are chicago's jesuit, catholic university - a diverse community seeking god in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.

Education
6
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
7
The Chicago Scholars Foundation

Chicago scholars is transforming the leadership landscape of our city by resolving the fundamental barriers to success for academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities.

Education
8
Students Run Chicago
Health
9
The Chicago Community Trust

Building on 100 years of commitment to the Chicago region, The Chicago Community Trust mobilizes people, ideas, organizations and resources to advance opportunity for all Chicagoans.

Philanthropy
10
Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

Jcrc-ny builds relationships to advance the values, interests and security of the new york jewish community and to create a more interconnected new york for all.

Civil Rights
11
American Jewish Committee

AJC's mission is to enhance the wellbeing of the Jewish people and Israel, and to advance human rights and democratic values in the United States and around the world. In pursuit of this mission, AJC advances democratic principles, fights…

Civil Rights
12
Junior Achievement of Chicago

To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy

International

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Entertainment Industry Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

9 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 13 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
6/9
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Chicago Cubs Charities — $287,500 · OtherChicago Cubs CharitiesCOALITION FOR THE HOMELESS INC — $250,000 · OtherCOALITION FOR THE HOMELESS INCKEVIN DURANT CHARITY — $250,000 · OtherKEVIN DURANT CHARITYFRIENDS OF ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES — $175,000 · OtherFRIENDS OF ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCESBRUCE C ABRAMS FOUNDATION — $35,000 · Other+2 more — $26,600 · OtherA Better Chicago — $362,500 · Human ServicesA Better Chicago+1 more — $10,000 · Human ServicesAMERICAN ISRAEL EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC — $300,000 · InternationalAMERICAN ISRAEL …University of Chicago — $200,000 · EducationUniversity …ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY FOUNDATION — $100,000 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $20,000 · Philanthropy
Other$1,024,100Human Services$372,500International$300,000Education$200,000Philanthropy$120,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetA Better Chicago — $362,500 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetAMERICAN ISRAEL EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC — $300,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetChicago Cubs Charities — $287,500 over 2y, 11% of budgetCOALITION FOR THE HOMELESS INC — $250,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetUniversity of Chicago — $200,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSHARE OUR STRENGTH — $23,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $20,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetGOOD PLUS FOUNDATION INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Craig and Donna Bernfield 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
202122232425
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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 13 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

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