· Private foundation
Herbert C Wenske 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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k11 grants · $42k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $80k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| JEWISH UNITED FUND | $25,000 |
| LES TURNER ALS FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| NORTH SHORE CONGREGATION ISRAEL | $15,000 |
| A SAFE PLACE | $10,000 |
| JEWISH NATIONAL FUND | $10,000 |
| A SILVER LINING FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| ELYSSA'S MISSION | $5,000 |
| ANN & ROBERT H LURIE CHILDRENS HOSPITAL OF CHICAGO FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC | $5,000 |
| ILLINOIS HOLOCAUST MUSEUM | $5,000 |
| US HOLOCAUST MUSEUM | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $3,000 |
| COMMUNITY PARTNERS FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING | $2,500 |
| THE CHICAGO CENTER | $2,500 |
| AUTISM SPEAKS | $2,500 |
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 (FY20–20, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% 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 +33% since the first grant, against +2% for the ones you funded once.
16 repeat relationships — 11 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 4 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, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $16k 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
- JUJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO6× · 2020–2025 · $139k · revenue +13%
- EMElyssas Mission NFP5× · 2020–2025 · $25k · revenue +99%
- TUThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum4× · 2020–2025 · $13k · revenue +36%
Funded once
- RFRAVINIA FOUNDATIONone grant, 2024 · $25k
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue +24%- GHGESHER HUMAN SERVICESgraduatedone grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue +36%
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.
Our mission at the university of chicago medicine is to provide superior health care through rigorous research, innovative education, and comprehensive care and healing. in partnership with our colleagues, we pursue life-changing…
Federation amplifies our collective strength to make the world a better place for everyone. we assist people in need, impact chicagoans of all faiths; support israel and the jewish people worldwide; respond swiftly to crises; cultivate…
As a member of sinai health system, mount sinai hospital medical center's mission is to improve the health of the individuals and communities it serves by providing comprehensive medical, surgical, pediatric, psychiatric, and intensive…
To transform lives.
Ann & robert h. lurie children's hospital of chicago is dedicated to the health and well-being of all children. as the pediatric teaching facility for northwestern university feinberg school of medicine, this commitment drives us to be a…
The adler planetarium ('adler') is a not-for-profit cultural institution whose mission is to connect people to the universe and each other under the sky we all share. it aspires to be the world's premier center for engaging in astronomy…
To improve the lives of people affected by epilepsy through education, advocacy, research, and connection.
Northwestern memorial healthcare is an integrated healthcare system, consisting of multiple hospitals (including northwestern memorial hospital, an academic medical center) and networks of physicians and healthcare professionals, where the…
Leadership in the prevention, treatment, and cure of cancer through excellence, vision and cost effectiveness in patient care, outreach programs, research, and education.
To provide with compassion and dedication superior quality health care and rehabilitation for adults and to directly or indirectly coordinate arrangements and provision for comprehensive health care and social support services to frail…
Association house's mission is to advance each person's full participation in the life of their families, communities, and society. since 1899, we have served a vibrant, multicultural community. we used a trauma informed, culturally…
Jewish family services of greenwich (jfs) is a nonprofit social service agency dedicated to strengthening individuals and families in fairfield and new london counties. jfs provides behavioral health counseling, food security programs,…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is After School Matters Inc and the most unlike its peers is Special Kids Network Inc. 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 39 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% 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.
21 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. 21 of the 47 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
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 JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds JEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC ↗
- Who funds Elyssas Mission NFP ↗
- Who funds Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation ↗
- Who funds The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗
- Who funds A SILVER LINING FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LAKE COUNTY CRISIS CENTER ↗
- Who funds NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC ↗
- Who funds RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds AFTER SCHOOL MATTERS INC ↗
- Who funds GESHER HUMAN SERVICES ↗
- Who funds AUTISM SPEAKS INC ↗
- Who funds BRIGHT STAR COMMUNITY OUTREACH CORP ↗
- Who funds UNITED CEREBRAL PALSY INC ↗
- Who funds Magdalene House Chicago Inc ↗
- Who funds THE HEKTOEN INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE ↗
- Who funds American Brain Tumor Association ↗
- Who funds CANCER WELLNESS CENTER ↗
- Who funds COUNCIL FOR JEWISH ELDERLY ↗
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: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · The Chicago Community Trust · Sedge Plitt Charitable Trust III · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · National Philanthropic Trust · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · American Online Giving Foundation 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 Herbert C Wenske Foundation 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 or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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.