· Private foundation
David a and Edith F Demar Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k21 grants · $26k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $30k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| STREETWISE | $20,000 |
| JUF | $10,000 |
| MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $4,360 |
| THE CLARE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION | $3,000 |
| JCC CHICAGO | $1,000 |
| MESULAM CENTER FOR COGNITIVE | $1,000 |
| SOAR | $1,000 |
| CAMP CHI | $1,000 |
| SPECIAL GIFTS THEATRE | $1,000 |
| SPERTUS INSTITUTE | $1,000 |
| HUNGER RESOURCE NETWORK | $1,000 |
| CJE SENIORLIFE | $1,000 |
| CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $1,000 |
| FRANCES W PARKER SCHOOL | $800 |
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 (FY17–25, $29k) 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 its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 9% of David a and Edith F Demar Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 99% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 91%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +34% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.
33 repeat relationships: 17 still active in FY2025, 16 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 70% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $17k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- MOMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART7× · 2017–2025 · $29k · revenue +0%
- JCJewish Community Centers of Chicago5× · 2021–2025 · $16k · revenue +34%
Northwestern University7× · 2017–2025 · $15k · revenue +41%
Funded once
- UMUNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF ARLINGTOone grant, 2020 · $10k
- FFUMCAHone grant, 2021 · $3k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2018 · $500
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Presenting free high-quality classical music performances and music education experiences in the Chicago metropolitan area for people of all ages and degrees of musical awareness so they can experience how music enriches life.
We believe in the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric Opera of Chicago exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance the…
Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.
The chicago theatre group is committed to producing both classic and contemporary works giving full voice to a wide range of artists and visions. by dedicating itself to three guiding principles - quality, equity, and community - the…
To promote public appreciation, understanding and support of the humanities through festivals and educational programs.
The chicago high school for the arts (chiarts) develops the next generation of diverse, artistically promising scholar-artists through intensive pre-professional training in the arts, combined with a comprehensive college preparatory…
The Chicago School educates the next generation of change-makers in innovative theory and culturally competent practice to strengthen the integrated health of individuals, organizations, and communities.
Cedille Chicago, NFP is devoted to the activity of producing and marketing recordings of classical music by Chicago-area musicians and composers.
Chicago Sinfonietta is a professional orchestra dedicated to modeling and promoting diversity, inclusion, and both racial and cultural equity in the arts through the universal language of symphonic music. Our core values are built around…
How this is measured
28 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. 28 of the 54 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.
- Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ↗
- Who funds STREETWISE ↗
- Who funds Jewish Community Centers of Chicago ↗
- Who funds Northwestern University ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL FOR JEWISH ELDERLY ↗
- Who funds THE CLARE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Chicago Symphony Orchestra ↗
- Who funds SPECIAL GIFTS THEATRE INC CO ELISE LARSEN ↗
- Who funds HUNGER RESOURCE NETWORK ↗
- Who funds Francis W Parker School ↗
- Who funds SOUNDS GOOD CHOIR NFP ↗
- Who funds THE RYAN LICHT SANG BIPOLAR FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Support Our Aging Religious Inc ↗
- Who funds STREETERVILLE ORGANIZATION OF ACTIVE RESIDENTS ↗
- Who funds WARREN W CHERRY PRESCHOOL ↗
- Who funds GRANT PARK ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Storycatchers ↗
- Who funds JEWISH COUNCIL FOR YOUTH SERVICES ↗
- Who funds Erikas Lighthouse A Beacon of Hope for Adolescent Depression ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Circle of Service Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Gs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund for Wealth Management Inc · American Endowment Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization David a and Edith F Demar Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from David a and Edith F Demar Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on David a and Edith F Demar’s filings →