· Private foundation
Edith Marie Appleton Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $5k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE GOODMAN THEATRE | $50,000 |
| JOHN DAVID MOONEY FDN | $30,000 |
| THE SWEDISH AMERICAN FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| NATIONAL CAMBODIAN HERITAGE MUSEUM | $2,500 |
| BINDHOUSE INC | $1,000 |
| THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION | $1,000 |
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 (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 99% 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
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +52% since the first grant, against -19% for those funded once.
9 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
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 FY2024, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $15k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CTCHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC6× · 2019–2024 · $300k · revenue +52%
- JDJOHN DAVID MOONEY FOUNDATION6× · 2019–2024 · $167k · revenue +336% · 96% of their budget
- LOLEAGUE OF CHICAGO THEATRES3× · 2019–2022 · $7k · revenue +236%
Funded once
- UCUKRAINIAN CONGRESS COMMITTEE OF AMERICAone grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue -75%
- WSWEST SAN GABRIEL VALLEY YMCAone grant, 2019 · $2k
- TATHE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUMone grant, 2020 · $1k · revenue -19%
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.
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.
The Chicago Parks Foundation is a separate 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that also serves as the strategic partner for the coordination of fundraising and charitable resources for the Chicago Park District.
League of chicago theatres foundation supports the work of league of chicago theatres through grantmaking and fundraising.
Operation of a nautical history museum.
American Blues Theater is an Ensemble of artists committed to producing new and classic diverse stories that ask the question: What does it mean to be American?
Airlines for america (a4a) vigorously advocates for america's airlines as models of safety, customer service, and environmental responsibility; and as the indispensable network that drives our nation's economy and global…
The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.
Lincoln park zoo is dedicated to connecting people with nature by providing a free, family-oriented wildlife experience in the heart of chicago and by advancing the highest quality of animal care, horticulture, education, science and…
The Chicago History Museum strives to be a destination for learning, inspiration, and civic engagement. Through dynamic exhibitions, tours, programs, digital resources, and special events, the Museum connects people to Chicago's history…
Chicago Film Archives is a regional archive dedicated to identifying, collecting, preserving, and providing access to films that represent the Midwest.
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.
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…
How this is measured
13 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. 13 of the 27 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.
- Who funds CHICAGO THEATRE GROUP INC ↗
- Who funds JOHN DAVID MOONEY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNITED SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS OF ILLINOIS INC ↗
- Who funds BUTTERNUT-FRANKLIN LAKES FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds SwedishAmerican Health Foundation ↗
- Who funds LEAGUE OF CHICAGO THEATRES ↗
- Who funds UKRAINIAN CONGRESS COMMITTEE OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds NORTHWOODS ANIMAL SHELTER ↗
- Who funds THE BARACK OBAMA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE AMERICAN WRITERS MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds THE AOPA FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE MORTON ARBORETUM ↗
- Who funds BLOOD CANCER UNITED INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Edith Marie Appleton Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Edith Marie Appleton Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Edith Marie Appleton Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Edith Marie Appleton 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.
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