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Greenleaf Avenue Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Greenleaf Avenue 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.

$73k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$2.7MRecreation & Sports$1.1MHuman Services$1.0MPhilanthropy$697kReligion$330kHealth$53kArts & Culture$45kScience & Tech$38kOther$0
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k3 grants · $2k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $21k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
$1,000
Median grant
5
States reached
$227k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
OPEN BOOKS LTD$50,000
JEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND$20,938
DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS USA INC$1,000
SAVE THE CHILDREN FEDERATION INC$500
OXFAM AMERICA$350
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–20, $1.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HOUSING & SERVICES: $250 → 20%BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HOUSING & SERVICES: $250 → 20%PLEASANT LAKE PARKER POND ASSOCIATION: $1k → 7%PLEASANT LAKE PARKER POND ASSOCIATION: $1k → 7%FAMILY SERVICE OF GLENCOE: $750 → 14%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $100 → 14%FAMILY SERVICE OF GLENCOE: $750 → 14%AMERICAN RED CROSS: $100 → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $300k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $300k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $200k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $200k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $100k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $100k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $50k → 14%CHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $50k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
MN
IL
WI
NY
MA
OH
CT
RI
CA
VA
AR
NC
DC
AL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 24% of Greenleaf Avenue Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

Greenleaf Avenue Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 31% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

72%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.9M · 64 repeat orgs$1.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +24% since the first grant, against +20% for those funded once.

64 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 60 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

64
16

Total granted

$3.9M
$1.5M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%
+20%

Still filing today

81%
44%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationInternationalArts & CultureEnvironmentHuman ServicesHealthOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • Northwestern University
    4× · 2018–2021 · $1.1M · revenue +33%
  • AF
    American Friends of Tel Aviv Univ
    4× · 2018–2021 · $840k · revenue +4%
  • OB
    OPEN BOOKS LTD
    5× · 2018–2025 · $400k · revenue +36%

Funded once

  • CS
    CHICAGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2019 · $1.0M
  • PS
    PARK SYNAGOGUE
    one grant, 2021 · $300k
  • CC
    CARLETON COLLEGEgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $50k · revenue +39%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
2
University of New Haven

The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…

Education
3
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
4
United States Naval Institute

Provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.

—
5
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
6
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
7
Manhattanville University

To educate students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community.

Education
8
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
9
National Association of College and University Attorneys

To advance the practice of higher education attorneys for the benefit of the institutions they serve.

—
10
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
11
Aacsb International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business

Aacsb international provides quality assurance of business school programs, the latest in business education intelligence, thought leadership, and learning and development services.

Education
12
American Astronomical Society

The american astronomical society (aas), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in north america. the basic objective of the aas is to promote the advancement of astronomy and closely related branches of…

Science & Tech
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Make-a-Wish Foundation of Illinois Inc; the most unlike its peers is Pleasant Lake Parker Pond Assoc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

66 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 66 of the 84 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
13
Early backer (in before they grew)
63/66
Grantees still filing
52/66
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CHICAGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $1,000,000 · OtherCHICAGO STATE UNIVERSITY FOU…PARK SYNAGOGUE: $300,000 · OtherPARK SYNAGOGUETHE LILLIAN AND BETTY RATNER SCHOOL: $58,750 · Other+48 more: $159,530 · Other+48 moreCHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $1,300,000 · Human ServicesCHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANC…+5 more: $4,400 · Human ServicesNorthwestern University: $1,120,000 · Recreation & SportsNorthwestern Univers…American Friends of Tel Aviv Univ: $840,000 · InternationalAmerican Friend…+7 more: $9,270 · InternationalJEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND: $622,238 · PhilanthropyJEWISH FEDERA…THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION: $75,000 · PhilanthropyTHE CLEVELAND…+1 more: $600 · PhilanthropyOPEN BOOKS LTD: $400,000 · EducationOPEN BOOKS…CARLETON COLLEGE: $50,000 · EducationCARLETON C…UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $50,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY…THE RATNER SCHOOL: $23,750 · Education+6 more: $18,900 · EducationPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $25,000 · HealthMILESTONES AUTISM RESOURCES: $10,000 · HealthHANNA PERKINS SCHOOL: $5,000 · HealthALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $2,000 · Health+1 more: $500 · Health
Other$1,518,280Human Services$1,304,400Recreation & Sports$1,120,000International$849,270Philanthropy$697,838Education$542,650Health$42,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCHICAGO LITERACY ALLIANCE: $1,300,000 over 4y, 19% of budgetNorthwestern University: $1,120,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Friends of Tel Aviv Univ: $840,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF CLEVELAND: $622,238 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetOPEN BOOKS LTD: $400,000 over 5y, 6.2% of budgetTHE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION: $75,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCARLETON COLLEGE: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBulletin of the Atomic Scientists: $24,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetTHE RATNER SCHOOL: $23,750 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetLOOKINGGLASS THEATRE COMPANY: $15,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetGMILUTH CHASODIM (THE HEBREW FREE LOAN ASSOCIATION): $12,500 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetAMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY: $10,300 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR ARTS-INSPIRED LEARNING: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetMILESTONES AUTISM RESOURCES: $10,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetSHAKER SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $7,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetHANNA PERKINS SCHOOL: $5,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCSU LAW ALUMNI ASSOCIATION: $4,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $3,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMALTA CONFERENCES FOUNDATION: $3,000 over 2y, 3.1% of budgetHILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPLEASANT LAKE PARKER POND ASSOC: $2,000 over 2y, 5.8% of budgetAMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & SCIENCES: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSEEDS OF PEACE INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLESLIE SHANKMAN SCHOOL CORPORATION: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPortland Museum of Art: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC: $2,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTREE OF LIFE FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetFAMILY SERVICE OF GLENCOE: $1,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSave The Children Federation Inc: $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCHILDREN'S HUNGER FUND: $1,320 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: $1,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetHumane World for Animals Inc: $1,200 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetOXFAM-AMERICA INC: $1,050 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetWriters Theatre Inc: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLINCOLN SCHOOL: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLET'S GET READY INC: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFULCRUM POINT NEW MUSIC PROJECT: $1,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetLAKES ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION: $1,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSTUDENT U: $900 over 2y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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.

James and Susan Ratne…Ronald and Deborah Ra…Jewish Federation of …The Horowitz Ratner F…Jewish Federation of …The Cleveland Foundat…The Albert B & Audrey…John D and Catherine …Samuel H & Maria Mill…The Chicago Community…The Barbara and Abrah…The Daniel and Genevi…
James and Susan Ratner Family FoundationOH28.4× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: James and Susan Ratner Family Foundation · Ronald and Deborah Ratner Family Foundation · Jewish Federation of Cleveland · The Horowitz Ratner Family Foundation · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · The Cleveland Foundation · The Albert B & Audrey G Ratner Family Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Samuel H & Maria Miller Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · The Barbara and Abraham Miller Family Foundation · The Daniel and Genevieve Ratner Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Greenleaf Avenue Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Greenleaf Avenue Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Save the Children Federation Inc: 30% of income from government
  • American Academy of Arts & Sciences: 3% of income from government
  • Oxfam-America Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
19report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Greenleaf Avenue Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Greenleaf Avenue 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 84 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Greenleaf Avenue’s filings →

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 endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home