Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

Dunham Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$3.4M
Granted FY2024still arriving
45
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$673k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0198% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2021–2024.

Human Services$2.3MEducation$2.3MCommunity Improvement$2.0MPhilanthropy$1.9MHealth$1.9MArts & Culture$1.3MFood & Nutrition$725kReligion$428kOther$0
02FY2024 · 45 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k19 grants · $75k
  • $10k–50k11 grants · $177k
  • $50k–250k11 grants · $1.3M
  • $250k+4 grants · $1.8M
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$87M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
THE WONG FOUNDATION$673,000
Community Foundation of Fox River V$545,675
Quad County Urban League$350,000
Paramount Arts Centre$250,000
Individual grant recipient$226,000
Wayside Cross Ministries$210,000
Forefront$208,068
Women's Business Development Center$150,000
Aurora Interfaith Food Pantry$100,000
Aurora University$100,000
Dominican Literacy Center$100,000
Mutual Ground$75,000
Batavia Foundation for Education Ex$70,000
Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry Inc$60,000
MUSICIANS ENDURING LEGACY ORGANIZAT$50,000
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 (FY21–24, $2.8M) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 1% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Metropolitan Family Services: $175k → 7%360 Youth Services: $60k → 7%Family Focus: $25k → 14%360 Youth Services: $25k → 7%Community Support Services: $5k → 14%Community Support Services: $5k → 14%Community Support Services: $5k → 14%Quad County Urban League: $1.1M → 8%Quad County Urban League: $350k → 8%Quad County Urban League: $65k → 8%Quad County Urban League: $30k → 8%DVSA COMMUNITIES: $5k → 8%Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry Inc: $5k → 8%Mutual Ground: $85k → 8%Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry Inc: $83k → 8%Mutual Ground: $75k → 8%Mutual Ground: $75k → 8%Mutual Ground: $75k → 8%Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry Inc: $60k → 8%Association for Individual Developm: $30k → 8%ESSE Adult Day Services: $25k → 8%TriCity Family Services: $102k → 8%Association for Individual Developm: $15k → 8%TriCity Family Services: $100k → 8%Association for Individual Developm: $15k → 8%Marklund: $75k → 8%Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry Inc: $8k → 8%ESSE Adult Day Services: $5k → 8%TriCity Family Services: $10k → 8%THE JOSHUA TREE COMMUNITY: $10k → 8%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.

71%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$10M · 42 repeat orgs$4.1M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +43% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.

42 repeat relationships — 28 still active in FY2024, 14 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

42
39

Total granted

$10M
$3.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+43%
+16%

Still filing today

69%
59%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 69% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.1M went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesEducationArts & CultureFood & NutritionCivil RightsHealthOther

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

  • QC
    QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE INC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +207% · 34% of their budget
  • PA
    PARAMOUNT ARTS CENTRE
    4× · 2021–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +109% · 66% of their budget
  • F
    FOREFRONT
    4× · 2021–2024 · $589k · revenue +81%

Funded once

  • VH
    VNA Health Care
    one grant, 2022 · $1.6M · revenue +17%
  • MF
    Metropolitan Family Servicesgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $175k · revenue +89%
  • IA
    INDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY GROUP INCgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $125k · revenue +61%

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
Center for Family Services

Administering an array of critical, intensive therapeutic interventions and/or facilitation services to emotionally and behaviorally disturbed clients for whom DCFS is legally responsible in order to stabilize their traditional or home of…

Human Services
2
Illinois Institute for Children

Providing Social Services to Families including Child Care

Human Services
3
Illinois Partners for Human Service

Illinois Partners for Human Service's primary activities are (1) strengthening human services in communities throughout Illinois by building a unified human services sector; (2) working with leaders, the public, and others engaged in the…

Human Services
4
United Way of Illinois

Strengthen United Way movement in Illinois

Philanthropy
5
Illinois Self-Advocacy Alliance

The Illinois Self-Advocacy Alliance is a statewide network of self-advocates, self-advocacy groups, and allies in Illinois. We support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to develop self-advocacy skills so they…

Civil Rights
6
Childrens Advocacy Center of East Central Illinois

To assist children who have been victims of abuse

Crime & Legal
7
Dayone Pact

Dayone pact is committed to assisting individuals with disabilities live engaged and meaningful lives through independent service coordination.

—
8
The Arc of Illinois

The Arc of Illinois is committed to empowering persons with disabilities to achieve full participation in community life through informed choices.

—
9
Austin Special Chicago

To provide for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

Education
10
Illinois Fiscal Policy Council
Public Benefit
11
The Illinois Center for Autism

Educating and serving children and adults with autism to achieve their highest level of independence within their home, family and community.

Human Services
12
Central Illinois Agency On Aging Inc

Central illinois agency on aging believes in the independence and dignity of older persons, and that each older person should be empowered to exert control over their own life & have access to needed services. we do planning, program…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Support Services Inc and the most unlike its peers is Fox Valley Patriotic Organization. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyChristian Missionary Organi…Family Philanthropic Founda…Youth Development ProgramsChild & Family Support Serv…Performing Arts Education &…Disability & Recovery Suppo…
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 43 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%3%<5yr14%7%5–10yr18%21%10–20yr17%13%20–35yr14%36%35–55yr16%21%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr18%13%10–20yr17%6%20–35yr14%50%35–55yr16%32%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 16% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/66
the rest of the field
16%
5,235/33,343

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

60 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 60 of the 98 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.

6
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
14
Early backer (in before they grew)
59/60
Grantees still filing
41/60
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

VNA Health Care — $1,575,000 · OtherVNA Health CareCommunity Foundation of Fox River V — $1,254,025 · OtherCommunity Foundation of Fox River VSerenity House — $1,250,000 · OtherSerenity HouseWAYSIDE CROSS MINISTRIES — $383,150 · OtherWOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER — $375,000 · OtherMARMION ACADEMY — $340,000 · OtherROSARY HIGH SCHOOL — $340,000 · Other+55 more — $1,875,608 · Other+55 moreQUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE INC — $1,595,000 · Human ServicesQUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAG…MUTUAL GROUND INC — $310,000 · Human ServicesMUTUAL GROUND INCTRICITY FAMILY SERVICES — $212,000 · Human ServicesTRICITY FAMILY SERVICE…Metropolitan Family Services — $175,000 · Human ServicesMetropolitan Family Se…MARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY INC — $155,000 · Human ServicesMARIE WILKINSON FOOD P…ILLINOIS JOINING FORCES FOUNDATION — $110,000 · Human Services+8 more — $305,000 · Human Services+8 moreTHE WONG CENTER FOR EDUCATION — $673,000 · EducationTHE WONG C…FOX VALLEY PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATION — $204,000 · EducationFOX VALLEY…AURORA UNIVERSITY — $150,000 · EducationAURORA UNI…ADVANCE ILLINOIS NFP — $50,000 · EducationLewis University — $50,000 · EducationNorth Central College — $50,000 · Education+4 more — $92,000 · Education+4 morePARAMOUNT ARTS CENTRE — $1,061,000 · Arts & CulturePARAMOUNT…BATAVIA ARTISTS ASSOCIATION NFP INC WATER STREET STUDIOS — $119,118 · Arts & CultureBATAVIA A…+3 more — $40,700 · Arts & CultureFOREFRONT — $589,309 · PhilanthropyAURORA AREA INTERFAITH FOOD PANTRY — $250,000 · Food & NutritionNORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK — $190,000 · Food & NutritionFOX VALLEY FOOD FOR HEALTH INC — $100,000 · Food & Nutrition+1 more — $5,000 · Food & NutritionCASA KANE COUNTY — $172,000 · Civil RightsINDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY GROUP INC — $125,000 · Civil Rights
Other$7,392,783Human Services$2,862,000Education$1,269,000Arts & Culture$1,220,818Philanthropy$589,309Food & Nutrition$545,000Civil Rights$297,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetQUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE INC — $1,595,000 over 4y, 34% of budgetVNA Health Care — $1,575,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetPARAMOUNT ARTS CENTRE — $1,061,000 over 4y, 66% of budgetFOREFRONT — $589,309 over 4y, 2.3% of budgetWOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER — $375,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetMUTUAL GROUND INC — $310,000 over 4y, 2.0% of budgetAURORA AREA INTERFAITH FOOD PANTRY — $250,000 over 2y, 3.2% of budgetTRICITY FAMILY SERVICES — $212,000 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetFOX VALLEY PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATION — $204,000 over 2y, 38% of budgetNORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK — $190,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetMetropolitan Family Services — $175,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCASA KANE COUNTY — $172,000 over 2y, 5.0% of budgetMARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY INC — $155,000 over 4y, 3.2% of budgetFOX VALLEY HANDS OF HOPE INC — $152,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetAURORA UNIVERSITY — $150,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetINDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY GROUP INC — $125,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBATAVIA ARTISTS ASSOCIATION NFP INC WATER STREET STUDIOS — $119,118 over 1y, 20% of budgetILLINOIS JOINING FORCES FOUNDATION — $110,000 over 2y, 19% of budgetFOX VALLEY FOOD FOR HEALTH INC — $100,000 over 3y, 11% of budget360 YOUTH SERVICES — $85,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetSUICIDE PREVENTION SERVICES INC — $80,000 over 2y, 11% of budgetMARKLUND CHILDRENS HOME — $75,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBatavia Historical Society — $75,000 over 1y, 77% of budgetIllinois Action for Children — $75,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetASSOCIATION FOR INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT — $60,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE NEIGHBOR PROJECT — $59,500 over 4y, 2.2% of budgetAMERICAN WOMEN FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING — $59,000 over 1y, 19% of budgetFOX VALLEY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY — $56,055 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetANDERSON ANIMAL SHELTER — $50,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetADVANCE ILLINOIS NFP — $50,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetLewis University — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorth Central College — $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFOX VALLEY PARK FOUNDATION — $47,000 over 4y, 13% of budgetVALLEY SHELTERED WORKSHOP — $43,900 over 2y, 9.5% of budgetIllinois Bar Foundation — $40,000 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetDiamond Youth Foundation — $34,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetECUMENICAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE ELDERLY INC — $30,000 over 2y, 3.1% of budgetSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INTERACTIVE CENTER Scitech Fox Valley STEM Programs — $25,200 over 1y, 31% of budgetMARIE WILKINSON CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER — $25,000 over 1y, 31% of budgetJENNINGS TERRACE INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetFAMILY FOCUS LEGACY — $25,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetAURORA EAST EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $22,000 over 3y, 11% of budgetNORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS FINISHING TRADES INSTITUTE — $20,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetCOMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES INC — $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetElyssas Mission NFP — $13,845 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetPIGMENT INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION — $13,000 over 3y, 6.1% of budgetCHANGING CHILDREN'S WORLDS FOUNDATION — $12,250 over 3y, 2.1% of budgetGiant Steps Illinois 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.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Community Foundation …Dunham FundFox Valley United WayThe Bersted FoundationNorthwestern Memorial…McGowan Gin Rosica Fa…The Rich FoundationThe Dupage Community …Juvenile Protective A…Inc Mental Health All…Hansen-Furnas Foundat…The Chicago Community…
Community Foundation of the Fox River ValleyIL74.9× affinity34 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley · Dunham Fund · Fox Valley United Way · The Bersted Foundation · Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Group · McGowan Gin Rosica Family Foundation Inc · The Rich Foundation · The Dupage Community Foundation · Juvenile Protective Association of Aurora Illinois · Inc Mental Health Alliance · Hansen-Furnas Foundation Inc · The Chicago Community Trust

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Dunham 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    19report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Dunham Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Dunham 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 98 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

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines