· Private foundation
Geraldine & Roland Ford Foundation
Its FY2025 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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k8 grants · $15k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $17k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $51k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| EPWORTH CHURCH ASSOCIATION | $51,000 |
| FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $16,500 |
| SAINT ANDREW SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN | $3,500 |
| SAMARITANS PURSE | $2,000 |
| READING POWER | $1,000 |
| MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY | $1,000 |
| MOORINGS PRESBYERIAN CHURCH | $1,000 |
| GORTON COMMUNITY CENTER | $1,000 |
| LAKE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $250 |
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 (FY17–25, $14k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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.
17 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 9 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CHCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY9× · 2017–2025 · $221k · revenue +37%
- GCGorton Community Center8× · 2017–2025 · $14k · revenue +158%
- RPREADING POWER INC5× · 2018–2025 · $3k · revenue +166%
Funded once
- ASACTS SCHOOL OF FRONTIER MISSIONSone grant, 2019 · $10k
- NMNORTHWESTERN MEDICINE LAKE FOREST HOSPITAL ONCOLOGYone grant, 2017 · $5k
- FOFRIENDS OF LAKE FOREST PARKS & REC FOUNDATIONone grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue -87%
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.
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management's mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development.
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.
Provide post-secondary education leading to a baccalaureate degree. Program service expenditures are made in conjunction with the operation of a liberal arts college spread over 107 acres with approximately 63 educational and support…
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…
To expand equitable health care and healthy living in Cook County and champion solutions through funding, education and advocacy.
To solicit and collect donations for the preservation and restoration of lakewood's natural resources, including its landscape, trees, gardens and lake, and its historic monuments, markers and buildings, and for related educational…
Eastern national promotes the public's understanding and support of america's national parks and other public trust partners by providing quality educational experiences, products and services.
Standing with our neighbors, Lakeshore Legal Aid fights poverty and injustice through advocacy and by providing meaningful and dignified access to the legal system.
Our mission is conserving West Michigans ecologically critical land. We protect land by creating public nature preserves, providing support to communities and local governments in creating natural areas, and helping private landowners…
Glacial Lakes Conservancy, as a land trust, is a nonprofit organization that, as part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisitions.
NORTHWEST COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE follows the mission of Endeavor Health. The mission of Endeavor Health is to "help everyone in our communities be their best." Central to this mission is a commitment to providing clinical programs and…
The chicago public education fund (the fund) is a nonprofit organization that improves public schools in chicago by investing in the talented educators who lead them.
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 33 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 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Gorton Community Center ↗
- Who funds SAMARITAN'S PURSE ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF LAKE FOREST PARKS & REC FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff ↗
- Who funds READING POWER INC ↗
- Who funds Endeavor Health Clinical Operations ↗
- Who funds THE LAKE COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GENEVA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Leadership Institute ↗
- Who funds LAKE FOREST OPEN LANDS ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds ELAWA FARM FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NORTHERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Chicago Community Trust ↗
- Who funds SARAH'S CIRCLE ↗
- Who funds American Heart Association 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: Clarks Fork Foundation · Butler Family Foundation · John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation D/B/A Schreiber Philanthropy · The Chicago Community Trust · Hunter Family Foundation · Little Orchard Foundation · Hunting Foundation · Fletcher Family Foundation · Garrett Family Foundation · CMB Foundation · Hedberg Foundation Inc · Red Bird Hollow Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Geraldine & Roland Ford Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Geraldine & Roland Ford Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Geraldine & Roland Ford Foundation?
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