· Private foundation
Enchanted Backpack
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k121 grants · $574k
- $10k–50k36 grants · $477k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HELP AGENCY OF THE FOREST INC SOZO KIDS | $41,221 |
| WINGS | $25,496 |
| FILL A HEART 4 KIDS | $23,687 |
| COLLEGE OF LAKE COUNTY | $19,610 |
| CHICAGO HOPE ACADEMY | $19,525 |
| SCOTT MIDDLE SCHOOL | $17,774 |
| SAINT SABINA CATHOLIC CHURCH | $14,381 |
| THE ENDELEO INSTITUTE INC | $13,142 |
| AMERICAN RED CROSS | $12,353 |
| Individual grant recipient | $12,269 |
| OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS | $12,216 |
| Individual grant recipient | $11,873 |
| ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO | $11,708 |
| Individual grant recipient | $11,497 |
| JOSEPH BRENNEMANN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL | $11,486 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–24, $595k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 63% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +32% since the first grant, against +30% for the ones you funded once.
197 repeat relationships — 95 still active in FY2024, 102 since wound down; 60 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, 56% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $462k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- TTTHE THRESHOLDS5× · 2020–2024 · $84k · revenue +46%
- ANAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches5× · 2020–2024 · $63k · revenue +38%
- PAPUBLIC ACTION TO DELIVER SHELTER INC D/B/A HESED HOUSE5× · 2020–2024 · $60k · revenue +81%
Funded once
- CCCHICAGO CHESED FUNDone grant, 2023 · $55k · revenue 0%
- GNGIVE N KINDgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $54k · revenue +87%
- FSFLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN STATE COLLEGEone grant, 2022 · $26k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Child Link provides foster care, family counseling, and therapy services to Chicago area adolescents who are at risk of homelessness. Child Link also refers adolescents to other agencies that are able to provide additional resources and…
To enhance the quality of life for children and families by inspiring hope and empowerment and growth within all whom we serve.
Shelter's mission is to end the cycle of child abuse by providing a comprehensive network of support to children, their families, and our community to create safe, health, and nurturing homes.
Providing academic support to children experiencing homelessness in Chicago and providing resources and services to families experiencing homelessness in Chicago.
House of Good Shepherd serves with love and compassion women and children affected by domestic violence by offering a safe place with opportunities for emotional, educational and spiritual growth, giving hope and continued support for a…
Friends of the children - chicago has a mission of impacting generational change by empowering youth who are facing the greatest obstacles through relationships with professional mentors - 12+ years, no matter what. 92% go on to enroll in…
In 34 cities across five countries, covenant house builds bridges to hope for young people facing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. we meet their immediate needs for food, clothing, protection, and medical and mental health…
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…
Chh honors every person's right to a home and health care, by bridging the housing and health care systems, to improve the lives of chicagoans experiencing homelessness.
Christopher house is a family of schools that helps children and families succeed in school, the workplace, and life. through our unique and innovative approach, we are effectively closing the opportunity gap through a continuum of…
To build a secure and hopeful today so children facing health issues and poverty succeed tomorrow.
Caritas family solutions strengthens the social and emotional well-being of individuals and families in order to create healthy relationships, loving homes and strong communities.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Connections for the Homeless Inc and the most unlike its peers is Cast Water Safety Foundation. 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 36 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 5% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
121 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. 121 of the 587 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds FILL A HEART 4 KIDS ↗
- Who funds THE THRESHOLDS ↗
- Who funds American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC ACTION TO DELIVER SHELTER INC D/B/A HESED HOUSE ↗
- Who funds PRIMO CENTER FOR WOMEN & CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO CHESED FUND ↗
- Who funds GIVE N KIND ↗
- Who funds ST JOSEPH SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds Impacting Veterans Lives Inc dba Midwest Veterans Closet ↗
- Who funds A SAFE HAVEN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE ENDELEO INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds Metropolitan Family Services ↗
- Who funds LAKE COUNTY CRISIS CENTER ↗
- Who funds MANO A MANO FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds HOUSING FORWARD ↗
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.
Open a dossier: United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Lavin Family Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · WP & HB White Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Helen V Brach Foundation · Greater Chicago Food Depository · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Carol Bernick Family Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · The Community Foundation for Ocala Marion County Inc
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 Enchanted Backpack 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Peaceful Paths Inc — 39% of income from government
- United Way Miami Inc — 23% of income from government
- Marion County Children's Alliance Inc — 13% of income from government
- Created Gainesville Inc — 9% of income from government
- Arnette House Inc — 7% of income from government
- United Way of Marion County Inc — 4% of income from government
- United Way of North Central Florida Inc — 3% of income from government
- Westjax Outreach Inc Community Health Outreach — 2% of income from government
- The Pearl Project Inc — 2% of income from government
- Cradles to Crayons Inc — 2% of income from government
- Pace Center for Girlsinc — 2% of income from government
- Shalom Orlando Inc — 2% of income from government
- The Shelter for Abused Women & Children Inc — 2% of income from government
- The United Way of Lee County Inc — 1% of income from government
- Heart of Florida United Way Inc — 0% of income from government
- Youth Haven Inc — 0% of income from government
- Marion Senior Services Inc — 0% of income from government
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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Enchanted Backpack?
Find your warmest path to Enchanted Backpack 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.