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Illinois · Private foundation

David and Barbara Whitwam 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.

$80k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
3
Grants FY2025
3
Organizations funded FY2024
0%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$25,000
Largest grant, FY2025
$50,000
Organizations funded a year
3 to 10
FY2019 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$826k
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 0% of the organizations David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 0% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 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
PhilanthropyHealthHuman ServicesOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving3$80k33%
FY20243$26k0%
FY20234$51k50%
FY20226$86k33%
FY20216$106k17%
FY20207$99k43%
FY201910$97kn/a
95% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$165kReligion$125kPhilanthropy$115kEducation$40kCommunity Improvement$35kHealth$25kHuman Services$23kHousing & Shelter$3kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2019 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Christ Lutheran Church$125,0003n/a
United Way of Southwest Michigan$115,00061%
Artis-Naples Inc$90,00040%
Silver Beach Shadowland$50,0001n/a
Cornerstone Alliance$35,00070%
Lake Michigan College Foundation$26,00022%
The Morgridge Institute Foundation Inc$25,00010%
Lakeshore Excellence Foundation$13,50024%
Homes for Our Troops Inc$3,00010%
Readiness Center Inc$1,00010%

Plus 9 recipients with no EIN on record ($60k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUnited Way of Southwest Michigan: $115,000 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetArtis-Naples Inc: $90,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetCornerstone Alliance: $35,000 over 7y, 0.3% of budgetLake Michigan College Foundation: $26,000 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetThe Morgridge Institute Foundation Inc: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLakeshore Excellence Foundation: $13,500 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetHomes for Our Troops Inc: $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetReadiness Center Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 8.

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.

Berrien Community Foundation IncMI17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Berrien Community Foundation Inc · The Marzke Family Foundation · 1st Source Bank Foundation Inc Xxx-Xx-Xxxx · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation?

Find your warmest path to David and Barbara Whitwam 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.

About David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation

How much does David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation give?
David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation reported 3 grants totaling $80,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 3 and 10 organizations a year over FY2019 to FY2024.
What does David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2019 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (30%), Religion (23%), Philanthropy (21%).
Who are David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2019 to FY2025: Christ Lutheran Church ($125k), United Way of Southwest Michigan ($115k), Artis-Naples Inc ($90k).
Does David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Berrien Community Foundation Inc, The Marzke Family Foundation, 1st Source Bank Foundation Inc Xxx-Xx-Xxxx.
Where is David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation based?
David and Barbara Whitwam Foundation is based in IL.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 19 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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