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Plinth

· Private foundation

Dunham Fund

Its FY2020 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$3.7M
Granted FY2020
54
Grants FY2020
2
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0196% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2020.

Education$4.1MArts & Culture$2.0MPhilanthropy$1.1MCommunity Improvement$1.1MHuman Services$931kHealth$850kReligion$261kFood & Nutrition$251kOther$0
02FY2020 · 54 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2020

  • Under $10k14 grants · $56k
  • $10k–50k19 grants · $449k
  • $50k–250k19 grants · $1.9M
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.3M
$29,062
Median grant
2
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Paramount Arts Centre$1,000,000
NORTH CENTRAL COLLEGE$250,000
AURORA EAST EDUC FOUNDATION$231,500
COMM FND OF THE FOX RIVER VALLEY$212,000
QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE$130,000
ROSARY HIGH SCHOOL$125,000
BATAVIA ARTISTS ASSN-WATER STREET S$121,882
FOREFRONT$120,106
ASSN FOR IND DEVELOPMENT$115,000
SUICIDE PREVENTION SERVICES$103,000
Advance Illinois$100,000
AURORA UNIVERSITY$100,000
Serenity House$90,000
MARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY$82,000
MUTUAL GROUND$75,000
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 (FY17–20, $1.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 2% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%SERENITY HOUSE FOUNDATION: $256k → 7%BLESSINGS IN A BACKPACK INC: $25k → 14%360 Youth Services: $30k → 7%Little Friends Inc: $10k → 7%QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE: $223k → 8%QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE: $130k → 8%QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE: $30k → 8%ASSN FOR IND DEVELOPMENT: $115k → 8%MARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY: $82k → 8%MUTUAL GROUND: $75k → 8%MARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY: $37k → 8%MARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY: $28k → 8%MUTUAL GROUND: $25k → 8%ASSOCIATION OF INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT: $18k → 8%ASSN FOR IND DEVELOPMENT: $17k → 8%MADDIE'S MITTEN MARCH: $5k → 8%MUTUAL GROUND: $4k → 8%MARKLUND CHARITIES: $252k → 8%HESED HOUSE: $3k → 8%TRICITY FAMILY SERVICES: $50k → 8%TRICITY FAMILY SERVICES: $25k → 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.

62%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$7.0M · 42 repeat orgs$4.4M to everyone else

42 repeat relationships — 38 still active in FY2020, 4 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2020 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

42
58

Total granted

$7.0M
$4.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+47%
+49%

Still filing today

62%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2020, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $387k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’19’20
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’19’20
Human ServicesEducationArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentHealthFood & NutritionOther

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

  • PA
    PARAMOUNT ARTS CENTRE
    2× · 2017–2020 · $1.5M · revenue +145% · 54% of their budget
  • NC
    North Central College
    3× · 2017–2020 · $725k · revenue +22%
  • QC
    QUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE INC
    3× · 2017–2020 · $383k · revenue +397% · 28% of their budget

Funded once

  • AP
    A PLUS FOUNDATION FOR THE WEST AURORA SCHOOLS
    one grant, 2017 · $625k
  • AE
    AURORA EAST EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $553k · revenue +208%
  • ST
    SEIZE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $500k · 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
Childrens Advocacy Center of East Central Illinois

To assist children who have been victims of abuse

Crime & Legal
2
Kids Above All Illinois

Helping chicagoland's at-risk children and their families build, achieve and sustain better lives.

—
3
A Better Chicago

A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.

Human Services
4
Rimland Services Nfp

Provide community-based residential housing to adults with autism and/or severe developmental disabilities. also provide developmental training and other supports to this same population.

Human Services
5
Chicago Children's Advocacy Center

The chicago children's advocacy center unites public, private, and community partners to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of abused children.

Crime & Legal
6
Alternatives Inc

Alternatives, inc.'s mission is to facilitate personal development,strengthen family relationships and enhance the community's well being. serving over 3,000 youth and families annually, the organization offers a range of counseling and…

Health
7
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
8
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.

Social Science
9
Children's Home & Aid Society of Ill

Founded in 1883, brightpoint (formerly known as children's home & aid) is a leading statewide organization supporting families so children can thrive.

Human Services
10
Children's Advocates for Change

Children's advocates for change was organized to improve the lives of children in illinois by bringing about significant changes public policies and programs for children through research, policy analysis and advocacy, public education and…

Human Services
11
Rockford University

To educate men & women to lead responsible lives by means of a curriculum grounded in liberal arts learning and complemented and extended by professional and practical experience, through the total academic and co-curricular experience,…

Education
12
Abilities Plus

To promote opportunities that result in independence and active decision making for people with disabilities and their families.

Employment

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Little Friends 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.

Your grantees are a median of 39 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr18%21%10–20yr17%21%20–35yr14%41%35–55yr16%18%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value20%0%<5yr14%0%5–10yr18%22%10–20yr17%13%20–35yr14%39%35–55yr16%27%55yr+

The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% 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 15% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/67
the rest of the field
15%
5,790/38,591

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

62 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. 62 of the 117 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.

8
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
21
Early backer (in before they grew)
61/62
Grantees still filing
48/62
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

A PLUS FOUNDATION FOR THE WEST AURORA SCHOOLS — $625,452 · OtherA PLUS FOUNDATION FOR THE WEST AURORA SCHOOLSAURORA EAST EDUC FOUNDATION — $456,500 · OtherAURORA EAST EDUC FOUNDATIONA FND FOR W AURORA SCHLS — $327,000 · OtherA FND FOR W AURORA SCHLSFOX VALLEY UNITED WAY — $322,500 · OtherFOX VALLEY UNITED WAYCOMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS — $250,000 · OtherROSARY HIGH SCHOOL — $250,000 · OtherCOMM FND OF THE FOX RIVER VALLEY — $235,000 · OtherPRESENCE MERCY MEDICAL CENTER — $200,000 · Other+74 more — $2,459,948 · Other+74 moreNorth Central College — $725,000 · EducationNorth Central Coll…AURORA EAST EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $552,500 · EducationAURORA EAST EDUCAT…AURORA UNIVERSITY — $195,000 · EducationAURORA UNIVERSITYWAUBONSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $100,000 · EducationADVANCE ILLINOIS NFP — $100,000 · EducationTHE GLORIA J TAYLOR FOUNDATION — $77,500 · Education+5 more — $138,000 · Education+5 morePARAMOUNT ARTS CENTRE — $1,525,000 · Arts & CulturePARAMOUNT ARTS CEN…BATAVIA ARTISTS ASSOCIATION NFP INC WATER STREET STUDIOS — $191,782 · Arts & CultureBATAVIA ARTISTS AS…SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INTERACTIVE CENTER Scitech Fox Valley STEM Programs — $66,000 · Arts & Culture+3 more — $74,923 · Arts & CultureQUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE INC — $383,000 · Human ServicesQUAD COUNTY U…ADVANCED RESOURCE RECOVERY CORPORATION NFP — $255,500 · Human ServicesADVANCED RESO…MARKLUND CHARITIES — $252,000 · Human ServicesMARKLUND CHAR…ASSOCIATION FOR INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT — $150,000 · Human ServicesASSOCIATION F…MARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY INC — $147,000 · Human ServicesMARIE WILKINS…MUTUAL GROUND INC — $104,000 · Human ServicesMUTUAL GROUND…TRICITY FAMILY SERVICES — $75,000 · Human Services+5 more — $73,000 · Human ServicesFOREFRONT — $369,682 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE FOX RIVER VALLEY — $303,097 · PhilanthropySEIZE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION — $500,000 · Community ImprovementTRIPLE THREAT MENTORING INC — $132,000 · Youth DevelopmentSIMPLY DESTINEE — $57,500 · Youth Development+1 more — $2,000 · Youth Development
Other$5,126,400Education$1,888,000Arts & Culture$1,857,705Human Services$1,439,500Philanthropy$672,779Community Improvement$500,000Youth Development$191,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetPARAMOUNT ARTS CENTRE — $1,525,000 over 2y, 54% of budgetNorth Central College — $725,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetSEIZE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION — $500,000 over 1y, 20% of budgetQUAD COUNTY URBAN LEAGUE INC — $383,000 over 3y, 28% of budgetFOREFRONT — $369,682 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetFOX VALLEY UNITED WAY — $322,500 over 3y, 17% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF THE FOX RIVER VALLEY — $303,097 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetADVANCED RESOURCE RECOVERY CORPORATION NFP — $255,500 over 1y, 98% of budgetMARKLUND CHARITIES — $252,000 over 1y, 5.3% of budgetAURORA UNIVERSITY — $195,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBATAVIA ARTISTS ASSOCIATION NFP INC WATER STREET STUDIOS — $191,782 over 2y, 27% of budgetASSOCIATION FOR INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT — $150,000 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetMARIE WILKINSON FOOD PANTRY INC — $147,000 over 3y, 3.0% of budgetTRIPLE THREAT MENTORING INC — $132,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetINDIVIDUAL ADVOCACY GROUP INC — $125,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMUTUAL GROUND INC — $104,000 over 3y, 2.7% of budgetWAUBONSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $100,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetWOMEN'S BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER — $100,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetADVANCE ILLINOIS NFP — $100,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetFOX VALLEY HANDS OF HOPE INC — $94,000 over 2y, 8.2% of budgetTHE GLORIA J TAYLOR FOUNDATION — $77,500 over 2y, 8.0% of budgetCENTER FOR HEALTHCARE INNOVATION — $76,000 over 1y, 48% of budgetNORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK — $75,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetVNA Health Care — $75,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTRICITY FAMILY SERVICES — $75,000 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetSCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY INTERACTIVE CENTER Scitech Fox Valley STEM Programs — $66,000 over 2y, 13% of budgetSPECTRIOS INSTITUTE FOR LOW VISION — $60,873 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetSIMPLY DESTINEE — $57,500 over 3y, 34% of budgetPRAIRIE STATE LEGAL SERVICES INC — $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetFOX VALLEY PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATION — $50,000 over 2y, 30% of budgetINDIAN PRAIRIE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION — $36,000 over 1y, 7.4% of budgetCASA KANE COUNTY — $34,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetDUPAGE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM — $31,423 over 1y, 0.7% of budget360 YOUTH SERVICES — $30,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetFOX VALLEY PARK FOUNDATION — $27,000 over 3y, 40% of budgetBLESSINGS IN A BACKPACK INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBREAKING FREE INC — $22,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetANDERSON ANIMAL SHELTER — $20,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetTHE NEIGHBOR PROJECT — $15,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetTHE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetGIRLS ON THE RUN - CHICAGO INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetLITTLE FRIENDS INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGiant Steps Illinois Inc — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE JOFFREY BALLET — $10,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFOUNDATIONS INC — $6,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRush Copley Foundation — $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetAURORA AREA INTERFAITH FOOD PANTRY — $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMansio Montessori of Geneva Ltd — $2,000 over 1y, 0.3% 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 FoundationThe Bersted FoundationFox Valley United WayThe Dupage Community …Inc Mental Health All…The Rich FoundationUnited Way of Metropo…Northwestern Memorial…Juvenile Protective A…Naperville Rotary Cha…The Chicago Community…
Community Foundation of the Fox River ValleyIL85.2× affinity39 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 Foundation · The Bersted Foundation · Fox Valley United Way · The Dupage Community Foundation · Inc Mental Health Alliance · The Rich Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Group · Juvenile Protective Association of Aurora Illinois · Naperville Rotary Charities 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 Fund 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%3%13%28%50%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
    21report 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 Fund?

    Find your warmest path to Dunham Fund 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 117 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 2020, released 2020. 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