· Private foundation
Empty Bowls Cook County
Its FY2023 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, FY2021 to 2023.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Great Lunch | $6,000 |
| Step-Up ChildCare | $5,000 |
| North Point | $5,000 |
| Oshki Ogimaag Community School | $5,000 |
| Birch Grove Community School | $5,000 |
| Birch Grove Community School | $5,000 |
| Ruby's Pantry | $5,000 |
| YMCA | $5,000 |
| YMCA | $5,000 |
| Empty Bowls CC-MN | $4,671 |
| Cook County Community Education | $4,000 |
| YMCA | $4,000 |
| Cook County Council on Aging | $3,500 |
| Cooperation Station Day Care | $3,000 |
| Cook County Public Health & Human Services | $3,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY21–23, $7k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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.
16 repeat relationships: 15 still active in FY2023, 1 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $18k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BGBIRCH GROVE COMMUNITY SCHOOL3× · 2021–2023 · $17k · revenue +56%
- VPViolence Prevention Center3× · 2021–2023 · $4k · revenue +50%
- SMSAWTOOTH MOUNTAIN CLINIC INC2× · 2022–2023 · $3k · revenue +17%
Funded once
- ZLZOAR LUTHERAN CHURCHone grant, 2022 · $5k
- WFWee Folk Child Careone grant, 2021 · $3k
- NPNorthwoods Playschool LLCone grant, 2021 · $2k
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.
Chicago Hope runs a food pantry twice a week that serves over 100 families. The organization is working toward the furtherance of wrap around services.
To provide at least 2 days of food to needy families and people.
To expand equitable health care and healthy living in Cook County and champion solutions through funding, education and advocacy.
Public service community radio station.
To provide congregate meals, home delivered meals, transportation, and information and assistance to senior citizens of washington county, illinois.
The organization operates congregate and home delivered meal programs in suburban cook, grundy, will and kendall counties under contracts and grants with age option and ageguide (formerly northeastern illinois area agency on aging(neil)).…
Provide home delivered meals and congregated meals for area senior citizens
The forest preserves of cook county are an integral part of our community and contribute to our quality of life. our forest preserves play an important role in helping to protect water and air quality, as well as habitat for wildlife. they…
The North Scott Food Pantry provides food for people in need. Clients receive enough food for about one week and are allowed to get food every 28 days. There were 721 visits to our food pantry in 2025.
How this is measured
9 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. 9 of the 32 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 BIRCH GROVE COMMUNITY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds GREAT LUNCH ↗
- Who funds COOK COUNTY COUNCIL ON AGING ↗
- Who funds Ruby's Heart ↗
- Who funds NORTH POINT INC ↗
- Who funds Empty Bowls CC-MN ↗
- Who funds Violence Prevention Center ↗
- Who funds SAWTOOTH MOUNTAIN CLINIC INC ↗
- Who funds Care Partners of Cook County ↗
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: Lloyd K Johnson Foundation · Northland Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Empty Bowls Cook County funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Empty Bowls Cook County. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Empty Bowls Cook County?
Find your warmest path to Empty Bowls Cook County 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 Empty Bowls Cook County’s filings →