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· Public charity
HFS CHICAGO SCHOLARS
To support the educational aspirations of economically disadvantaged but academically motivated chicago inner-city youth.
$442k
Granted FY2024
28
Grants
1
Communities
$45k
Largest
01What you fund
01
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 79% of HFS CHICAGO SCHOLARS’s grantee dollars go to organizations outside the IRS cause taxonomy (common for large international and research funders), so a chart would be mostly “unclassified” and misrepresent the portfolio.
02beneath the categories
Past the labels — and the year it shifted
Beneath the NTEE codes, this is what the grant descriptions actually say.
…and in their own words, year by year
2019
—
2020
—
2021
—
2022
—
2023
—
2024
francis
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 28 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k15 grants · $97k
- $10k–50k13 grants · $303k
$9,900
Median grant
1
States reached
$4.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
- FENWICK HIGH SCHOOL$45,000
- CHICAGO HOPE ACADEMY$41,076
- ST LAURENCE HIGH SCHOOL$38,200
- DE LA SALLE INSTITUTE$33,200
- ST IGNATIUS COLLEGE PREP$32,250
- LOYOLA ACADEMY$18,405
- CRISTO REY JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL$16,850
- FRANCIS W PARKER SCHOOL$16,400
- NAZARETH ACADEMY$14,200
- UNIV OF CHICAGO LAB SCHOOL$13,800
- MOTHER MCAULEY LIBERAL ARTS HIGH SC$11,900
- TRINITY HS$11,750
- DE PAUL COLLEGE PREP$10,050
- HOLY TRINITY HIGH SCHOOL$9,900
- IC CATHOLIC PREP$8,650
02The need
04
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.
show:
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 11%. 97% of your dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
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; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
03Your edge
repeat funding
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.
97%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$2.8M · 39 repeat orgs$82k to everyone else
39 repeat relationships — 24 still active in FY2024, 15 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
39
7
Total granted
$2.8M
$59k
Still filing today
18%
0%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 94% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
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
- FHFENWICK HIGH SCHOOL7× · 2018–2024 · $298k · revenue +196%
- CHCHICAGO HOPE ACADEMY7× · 2018–2024 · $153k · revenue +21%
- TLTHE LATIN SCHOOL OF CHICAGO6× · 2019–2024 · $63k · revenue +23%
Funded once
- MHMARIST HIGH SCHOOLone grant, 2023 · $20k
- SIST IGNATIUS SUMMER SCHOOLone grant, 2020 · $10k
- FPFRANCIS PARKERone grant, 2022 · $8k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
04Your field
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.
1
Saint Paul School
The purpose of St. Paul's School is to provide a learning experience of high academic standards for pre-school through 8th grade in a Christian environment where the children can develop their intellectual abilities and sense of individual…
—
2
The Cambridge School
Operate a classical school from pre-K through 12th grade education.
Education
3
Park Century School
To empower bright children with learning differences to reach their academic and personal potential.
Education
4
Providence Academy
College-prep school with a comprehensive core-knowledge curriculum.
Education
5
Berwick Academy
Berwick academy, founded in 1791, is dedicated to promoting virtue and useful knowledge among the rising generations.
Education
6
Washington School Principals Education
Support k-12 education for pupils and professional development to principals in wa state.
—
7
Phillips Exeter Academy
Education
8
American Academy in Rome
See schedule othe american academy in rome is a residential institute for advanced work in the arts and humanities.
International
9
St Hope Academy
Revitalize inner-city communities through public education, civic leadership, economic development, and arts enrichment
Human Services
10
The Collegiate School
See schedule o to create a diverse and inclusive community of learners committed to a challenging and supportive educational experience that will foster the intellectual, moral, emotional, and physical development of each student.
Education
11
Chinquapin Preparatory School
Chinquapin provides a high-quality college-preparatory education to able and motivated youth from under-resourced communities and schools in the greater Houston area. Chinquapin is accredited by TAAPS Texas Alliance of Accredited Private…
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12
Lake Forest College
Lake Forest College is a National Residential Liberal Arts College, accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Education
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Providence St Mel School and the most unlike its peers is Francis W Parker School. 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 80 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
Closures · last 5 years
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% of the field you don’t fund.
orgs you fund
0.0%0/22
the rest of the field
14%
4,320/31,488
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.
05the grantee network
9 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2018–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
8/9
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Other$2,307,098Education$618,161
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.
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.
Irish Fellowship Educational &IL29.1× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Irish Fellowship Educational & · The Chicago Community Trust · Helen V Brach Foundation · The Cuneo Foundation · Charles W & Patrica S Bidwill Foundati · Wp & Hb White Foundation · Baxter International Foundation · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · Baird Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · AbbVie Foundation · Daniel P Haerther Charitable Trust
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 organisation HFS CHICAGO SCHOLARS 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.
2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
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. 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.
05Through Plinth
Through Plinth
Your grantmaking, live and operational
This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: FENWICK HIGH SCHOOL.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
low risk
~27 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 7 filed years.
Track record & reputation
low risk
7 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 3.0× since.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 364480419 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.
Governance
Live in Plinth
Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.
Compliance & sanctions
Live in Plinth
OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.
Program capacity
Live in Plinth
Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.
Live · Plinth’s real DD engine
Run the actual assessment on FENWICK HIGH SCHOOL, cold from public data.
Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.
Post-award monitoring · continuous checks
- On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 27 months of cash on hand.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
- On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 7% of their budget — diversified.
- Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.
What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.
Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing
Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro
How do I get to Hfs Chicago Scholars?
Find your warmest path to Hfs Chicago Scholars through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.
Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.
More from the funding graph
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars pass through an intermediary
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
Strange bedfellows
the named clusters of US funding
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home
State money flows
the interactive map of money crossing state lines