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· Private foundation

Illinois Tool Works Foundation

Its FY2022 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$9.5M
Granted FY2021
70
Grants FY2021
3
States reached
$5.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead

Read this first · the figures below need context

60% of Illinois Tool Works Foundation’s FY2022 grant dollars went to The Blackbaud Giving Fund, not to grantees.

Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2022 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2021, the last year Illinois Tool Works Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 63 organizations, $9M. It is dated, not current.

Organizations named directly on the return

72
’20
63
’21
2
’22

Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.

01What you fund
0199% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2022.

Philanthropy$17MEducation$3.6MArts & Culture$1.6MYouth Development$1.1MHealth$890kAnimals$275kHuman Services$123kPublic Benefit$120kOther$0
02FY2021 · 70 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k8 grants · $48k
  • $10k–50k42 grants · $702k
  • $50k–250k14 grants · $1.9M
  • $250k+6 grants · $6.8M
$20,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNITED WAY OF METRO CHICAGO INC$4,985,345
SCHOLARSHIP AMERICA$552,040
RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER$450,000
LAWNDALE EDUCATIONAL AND REGIONAL NETWORK CHARTER SCHOOL$300,000
P33$300,000
NAVY PIER INC$250,000
THE JOFFREY BALLET$225,000
SHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY$215,000
KIDS FIRST CHICAGO$200,000
NOBLE NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS$198,500
NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP CORP$193,280
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO$192,500
ARBOGAST PERFORMING ARTS CENTER$166,667
FIELD MUSEUM$160,000
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO$75,000
02The need
03

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:

Your human-services grants (FY20–21, $236k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 96% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%OMNI YOUTH SERVICES: $5k → 8%OMNI YOUTH SERVICES INC: $5k → 8%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $25k → 14%YWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $25k → 14%METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES: $10k → 14%METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES: $10k → 14%AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS: $25k → 14%MISERICORDIA HOME: $10k → 14%CENTER ON HALSTED: $10k → 14%A BETTER CHICAGO: $15k → 14%A BETTER CHICAGO: $15k → 14%MISERICORDIA HOME: $10k → 14%SALUTE INC: $10k → 14%PADS TO HOPE INC: $600 → 14%SALUTE INC: $10k → 14%UCAN: $25k → 14%UCAN: $25k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein 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 — 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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$19M · 59 repeat orgs$1.4M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +34% since the first grant, against +21% for the ones you funded once.

59 repeat relationships — 59 still active in FY2021, 0 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call). Read against FY2021, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

59
17

Total granted

$19M
$940k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%
+21%

Still filing today

95%
82%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2022, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesAnimalsYouth DevelopmentFood & NutritionOther

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

  • NM
    National Merit Scholarship Corporation
    3× · 2020–2022 · $602k · revenue +34%
  • RU
    Rush University Medical Center
    2× · 2020–2021 · $500k · revenue +30%
  • KF
    KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $400k · revenue +13%

Funded once

  • CC
    CHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2020 · $500k
  • Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation
    one grant, 2020 · $300k · revenue -13%
  • FF
    FRESH FILMSgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $55k · revenue +418%

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
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education
2
Chicago Public Education Fund

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.

Education
3
The University of Chicago Charter School Corporation

To Prepare Students for Success in Four-Year Colleges.

Education
4
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

The Chicago School educates the next generation of change-makers in innovative theory and culturally competent practice to strengthen the integrated health of individuals, organizations, and communities.

Education
5
Children's Museum of Oak Park

To spark curiosity and creativity in all young children through positive, play-based learning experiences.

Arts & Culture
6
Kipp Chicago Schools

The team at kipp chicago schools is guided by a simple, yet powerful mission: to create a network of excellent schools in chicago that teach our students the character and academic skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond, and to…

Education
7
Music and Dance Theater Chicago Inc
Arts & Culture
8
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce

The chicagoland chamber of commerce combines the power of people, with our legacy of leadership and business advocacy, to drive a dynamic economy. we focus on delivering value for our members, making chicagoland a world-class place to live…

—
9
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
10
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.

Social Science
11
Chicago Opera Theater

Chicago opera theater expands the tradition of opera as a living art form by engaging lovers of music and storytelling through innovative experiences, predominantly of new and rarely performed works.

Arts & Culture
12
Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University Inc

The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University ("The Auditorium"), an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, is committed to presenting the finest in international, cultural, community and educational programming to Chicago and to the…

Arts & Culture

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Kids First Chicago for Education and the most unlike its peers is The Adler Planetarium. 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 44 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%0%<5yr14%3%5–10yr18%12%10–20yr17%24%20–35yr15%24%35–55yr16%37%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%0%<5yr14%2%5–10yr18%25%10–20yr17%58%20–35yr15%5%35–55yr16%10%55yr+

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 16% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/80
the rest of the field
16%
5,000/31,430

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.

04the grantee network

78 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. 78 of the 88 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
7
Early backer (in before they grew)
78/78
Grantees still filing
57/78
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC — $10,891,579 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INCTHE BLACKBAUD GIVING FUND — $5,183,040 · PhilanthropyTHE BLACKBAUD GIVING FUNDSCHOLARSHIP AMERICA — $1,581,204 · OtherSCHOLARSHIP AME…P33 INC — $600,000 · OtherP33 INCCHICAGO COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $500,000 · OtherCHICAGO COMMUNI…+36 more — $808,100 · Other+36 moreNational Merit Scholarship Corporation — $602,344 · EducationNational Me…KIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION — $400,000 · EducationKIDS FIRST …NOBLE NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS — $379,100 · EducationNOBLE NETWO…Lawndale Educational and Regional Network Charter School — $350,000 · EducationLawndale Ed…AFTER SCHOOL MATTERS INC — $216,666 · EducationAFTER SCHOO…Accelerate Institute — $150,000 · EducationAccelerate …THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO — $100,000 · EducationBig Shoulders Fund — $100,000 · EducationCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE — $100,000 · Education+9 more — $210,000 · Education+9 moreTHE ARBOGAST PERFORMING ARTS CENTER — $333,334 · Arts & CultureNAVY PIER INC — $250,000 · Arts & CultureTHE JOFFREY BALLET — $250,000 · Arts & CultureFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $170,000 · Arts & CultureFRESH FILMS — $55,000 · Arts & CultureHOLOCAUST MEMORIAL FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC — $50,000 · Arts & CultureWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $50,000 · Arts & CultureTHE ADLER PLANETARIUM — $50,000 · Arts & CultureCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER — $50,000 · Arts & Culture+13 more — $240,000 · Arts & CultureRush University Medical Center — $500,000 · HealthAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation — $300,000 · HealthJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO — $385,000 · InternationalSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY — $225,000 · AnimalsChicago Zoological Society — $30,000 · AnimalsPAWS CHICAGO — $10,000 · AnimalsLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $10,000 · Animals
Philanthropy$16,074,619Other$3,489,304Education$2,608,110Arts & Culture$1,498,334Health$800,000International$385,000Animals$275,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetUNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC — $10,891,579 over 3y, 6.1% of budgetTHE BLACKBAUD GIVING FUND — $5,183,040 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetNational Merit Scholarship Corporation — $602,344 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetRush University Medical Center — $500,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetKIDS FIRST CHICAGO FOR EDUCATION — $400,000 over 2y, 5.5% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF CHICAGO — $385,000 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetNOBLE NETWORK OF CHARTER SCHOOLS — $379,100 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLawndale Educational and Regional Network Charter School — $350,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetTHE ARBOGAST PERFORMING ARTS CENTER — $333,334 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetAnn & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago Foundation — $300,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetNAVY PIER INC — $250,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE JOFFREY BALLET — $250,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY — $225,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetAFTER SCHOOL MATTERS INC — $216,666 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $170,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetAccelerate Institute — $150,000 over 2y, 3.5% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO — $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBig Shoulders Fund — $100,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCIVIC CONSULTING ALLIANCE — $100,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY — $70,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $70,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFRESH FILMS — $55,000 over 1y, 8.9% of budgetHOLOCAUST MEMORIAL FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC — $50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetYWCA METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSTART EARLY — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUCAN — $50,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ADLER PLANETARIUM — $50,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetCHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER — $50,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetChicago Symphony Orchestra — $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO — $30,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSKILLS FOR CHICAGO — $30,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetA Better Chicago — $30,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetChicago Zoological Society — $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE POSSE FOUNDATION INC — $30,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMUSIC INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO — $25,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches — $25,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLIVING LANDS & WATERS — $20,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetCHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetKenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Youth Centers — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetEdward Foundation — $20,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetYOUTH & OPPORTUNITY UNITED INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.2% of budgetHUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO — $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetMISERICORDIA HOME — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NEWBERRY LIBRARY — $20,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetMetropolitan Family Services — $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO SINFONIETTA INC — $20,000 over 2y, 0.8% of budget
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.

Circle of Service Fou…Polk Bros Foundation …The Chicago Community…Arie and Ida Crown Me…Robert R McCormick Fo…John D and Catherine …Motorola Solutions Fo…The Canning FoundationThe Blackbaud Giving …The Robert Thomas Bob…Dr Scholl FoundationLloyd a Fry Foundation
Circle of Service FoundationIL41.5× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Circle of Service Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The Chicago Community Trust · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Robert R McCormick Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Motorola Solutions Foundation · The Canning Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation · Dr Scholl Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation

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 Illinois Tool Works 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.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%3%6%10%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    21report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    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: 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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Illinois Tool Works Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Illinois Tool Works 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 88 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 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