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Donna Van Eekeren Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Donna Van Eekeren 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.

$1.0M
Granted FY2025still arriving
13
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$500k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0197% 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$2.2MHealth$130kScience & Tech$75kHuman Services$25kAnimals$20kHousing & Shelter$5kOther$0
02FY2025 · 13 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $6k
  • $10k–50k8 grants · $175k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
  • $250k+2 grants · $800k
$25,000
Median grant
4
States reached
$279k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
The Old Globe$500,000
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO$300,000
San Diego State University Research Foundation$50,000
WHAMNOW INC$35,000
AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM$25,000
San Diego Museum of Art$25,000
WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC$25,000
Chicago Public Media Inc$25,000
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance$20,000
Chicago Academy of Sciences$10,000
The Chicago Lighthouse$10,000
City House Inc$5,000
Flossmoor Foundation for History and Arts Inc$500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $120k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 8% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%WHAMNOW INC: $50k → 9%WHAMNOW INC: $35k → 9%AccessCircles Inc: $25k → 9%The Chicago Lighthouse: $10k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.9M · 10 repeat orgs$606k to everyone else

10 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
4

Total granted

$1.9M
$36k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+3%
+7%

Still filing today

100%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 45% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $570k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationAnimalsHousing & ShelterHealthOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • LO
    Lyric Opera of Chicago
    4× · 2022–2025 · $755k · revenue +3%
  • WI
    WHAMNOW INC
    2× · 2022–2025 · $85k · revenue +92%
  • SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION SDSU RESEARCH FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2025 · $75k · revenue +17%

Funded once

  • AI
    ACCESSCIRCLES INC
    one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue -91%
  • IP
    Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -2%
  • CS
    CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue +7%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
San Diego Opera Association

Mission: the mission of san diego opera is to deliver exceptional performances and exciting, accessible programs to diverse audiences, focusing on community partnerships, and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice. as…

Arts & Culture
2
Chicago Sun-Times Media Inc

Chicago sun-times serves the public interest by strengthening the well-being of our local communities and our democracy through independent local journalism.

—
3
Music and Dance Theater Chicago Inc
Arts & Culture
4
Museum of Arts and Design

To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.

Arts & Culture
5
Chicago Theatre Group Inc

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…

Arts & Culture
6
Chicago Opera Theater

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.

Arts & Culture
7
The Santa Fe Opera

To further the operatic art form by presenting ensemble performances of the highest quality in a varied repertoire of new as well as rarely performed and standard works, to ensure excellence of opera's future through its apprentice…

Arts & Culture
8
The Chicago Philharmonic Society

To excite, engage, and transform diverse audiences with the beauty and power of music.

Arts & Culture
9
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
10
Chicago Maritime Museum

Operation of a nautical history museum.

—
11
Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc

The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University ("The Auditorium"), an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, is committed to presenting the finest in international, cultural, community and educational programming to Chicago and to the…

Arts & Culture
12
Los Angeles Opera Company

To serve the public by producing world-class opera that preserves, promotes and advances the art form while embodying the diversity, spirit and artistic sensibility unique to los angeles. we envision an engaged and enlightened community in…

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Chicago Public Media Inc; the most unlike its peers is Foundation for the Preservation of Flossmoor History. 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

19 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 19 of the 20 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
19/19
Grantees still filing
9/19
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Lyric Opera of Chicago: $755,000 · Arts & CultureLyric Opera of ChicagoWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC: $720,000 · Arts & CultureWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INCTHE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM: $75,000 · Arts & Culture+8 more: $131,500 · Arts & Culture+8 moreThe Old Globe: $500,000 · OtherThe Old GlobeWHAMNOW INC: $85,000 · Human ServicesACCESSCIRCLES INC: $25,000 · Human ServicesTHE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED: $10,000 · Human ServicesSAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION SDSU RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $75,000 · EducationCHICAGO ARTS PARTNERSHIPS IN EDUCATION: $20,000 · EducationPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $35,000 · HealthZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO: $20,000 · AnimalsCITY HOUSE - DELRAY BEACH INC: $5,000 · Housing & Shelter
Arts & Culture$1,681,500Other$500,000Human Services$120,000Education$95,000Health$35,000Animals$20,000Housing & Shelter$5,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLyric Opera of Chicago: $755,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC: $720,000 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetWHAMNOW INC: $85,000 over 2y, 10% of budgetSAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION SDSU RESEARCH FOUNDATION: $75,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM: $75,000 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetCHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC: $45,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetOLD GLOBE THEATRE: $35,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $35,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART: $25,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetACCESSCIRCLES INC: $25,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetCHICAGO ARTS PARTNERSHIPS IN EDUCATION: $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE CHICAGO LIGHTHOUSE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetIllinois Philharmonic Orchestra: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHWEST INDIANA SYMPHONY SOCIETY INC: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budget
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.

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.

Ncrc Community Develo…Morgan Stanley Global…National Philanthropi…The Blackbaud Giving …Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Ncrc Community Development Fund IncDC12.9× affinity4 shared granteesties to 6 of 6Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Donna Van Eekeren Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Donna Van Eekeren Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    3get 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 · 0–50%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Donna Van Eekeren Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Donna Van Eekeren 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.

    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 20 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

    Play a game based on Donna Van Eekeren’s filings →

    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