· Private foundation
Deering Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k1 grant · $5k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $55k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $945k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| JAMES D DANIELSON FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| GIBBET HILL FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| THE DANIELSON FOUNDATION | $200,000 |
| NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - DEERING LIBRARY FUND | $115,000 |
| DEERING ESTATE FOUNDATION | $115,000 |
| VIZCAYA MUSEUM AND GARDENS TRUST INC - GENERAL OPERATING | $115,000 |
| NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY | $30,000 |
| ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO - LUMINARY | $25,000 |
| GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY | $5,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 97% of its 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
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
10 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- VMVIZCAYA MUSEUM AND GARDENS TRUST INC6× · 2020–2025 · $675k · revenue +323%
- TDTHE DEERING ESTATE FOUNDATION INC6× · 2020–2025 · $650k · revenue +35%
NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY INC6× · 2020–2025 · $180k · revenue +25%
Funded once
MAUI FOOD BANK INCgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $20k · revenue +138%- NUNORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - BIENEN SCHOOL OF MUSICone grant, 2022 · $5k
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.
7 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. 7 of the 12 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 Deering Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Deering Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Vizcaya Museum and Gardens Trust Inc: 3% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Deering Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Deering 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.
Play a game based on Deering’s filings →