How much does James and Lesley Anixter Foundation give?

James and Lesley Anixter Foundation reported 19 grants totaling $146,600 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 16 and 22 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does James and Lesley Anixter Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (60%), Religion (11%), Health (7%).

Who are James and Lesley Anixter Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago ($596k), Jewish Council for Youth Services ($67k), Am Shalom ($51k).

Does James and Lesley Anixter Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 24% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does James and Lesley Anixter Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as James and Lesley Anixter Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Highland Park Community Foundation, First Bank Chicago Foundation.

Where is James and Lesley Anixter Foundation based?

James and Lesley Anixter Foundation is based in IL.

James and Lesley Anixter Foundation

James and Lesley Anixter Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

James and Lesley Anixter 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.

$147k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$100k

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Philanthropy$610kReligion$115kHealth$75kYouth Development$74kArts & Culture$57kInternational$46kCrime & Legal$11kHuman Services$9kOther$0

02FY2025 · 19 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k18 grants · $47k
$50k–250k1 grant · $100k

$2,000

Median grant

States reached

$430k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO	$100,000
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTERS - CHICAGO WOMEN'S BOARD	$6,000
RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION	$6,000
JEWISH COUNCIL FOR YOUTH SERVICES	$6,000
AM SHALOM	$5,500
FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES	$5,000
JEWISH FEDERATION OF PALM BEACH	$2,300
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM	$2,000
FRIENDS OF ELNET	$2,000
NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS SOCIETY	$2,000
ANIXTER CENTER - CHICAGO HEARING SOCIETY DIVISION	$2,000
CAMP GAN ISRAEL	$1,800
GPF FOUNDATION	$1,000
NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC	$1,000
HELPING HANDS NETWORK	$1,000

02The need

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 92% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

Where the work is directed

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

About 100% of James and Lesley Anixter Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 92% of the giving stays in IL; by stated purpose, 0%.

James and Lesley Anixter Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$946k · 27 repeat orgs$54k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +36% since the first grant, against +3% for those funded once.

27 repeat relationships: 12 still active in FY2025, 15 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$946k

$42k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+36%

+3%

Still filing today

70%

43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $13k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthEducationArts & CulturePhilanthropyInternationalYouth DevelopmentOther

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

JU
JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
9× · 2017–2025 · $596k · revenue +13%
JC
JEWISH COUNCIL FOR YOUTH SERVICES
9× · 2017–2025 · $67k · revenue +24%
FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES
4× · 2019–2025 · $23k · revenue +115%

Funded once

IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2019 · $5k
DE
DON'T EVER GIVE UP INC
one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -14%
JF
JCCC FOUNDATION
one grant, 2021 · $4k · revenue +3%

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.

The Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation

The jonsson cancer center foundation is the single most important vehicle for raising private funds for cancer research at ucla and plays a key role in advancing cancer treatments and care. please see schedule o for additional information.

—

The Jewish Fund

The jewish fund is organized and operates exclusively for charitable, educational, and religious purposes. the fund's primary activities are: supporting a jewish health care mission in the greater detroit area and michigan; promotion of…

Philanthropy

American Friends of Hebrew University Inc

Support the hebrew univ. of jerusalem, israel's foremost center of higher edu. & research.

International

Jewish Communal Fund

To facilitate and promote philanthropy through donor advised funds.

Philanthropy

Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation

The samuel waxman cancer research foundation (the "foundation") funds innovative research to bring faster cures to patients. in addition to supporting ongoing collaborative research in specific cancers, our scientists are investigating the…

—

Minneapolis Jewish Federation

Minneapolis jewish federation is a nonprofit organization that promotes a culture of philanthropy, leverages resources to meet local and global jewish needs, and facilitates community planning to ensure a thriving and secure future.

Philanthropy

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Committed to exceptional healthcare quality for all and actively engaged with our community, einstein drives scientific discovery and educates compassionate leaders in health and science.

Education

Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Long island jewish medical center is part of the northwell health ("northwell"), which strives to improve the health of the communities it serves and is committed to providing the highest quality clinical care; educating the current and…

Health

The Lieber Institute Inc

The mission of the institute is to translate basic genetic and molecular mechanisms of schizophrenia and related developmental brain disorders into clinical advances that change the lives of affected individuals. it is catalyzing a new…

Health

Hillels of Illinois Endowment Foundation

The foundation was established exclusively for the benefit of and to carry out the purposes of the jewish federation of metropolitan chicago, a not-for-profit organization.

Education

Jaeb Center for Health Research Foundation Inc

Our mission is to expand scientific knowledge and improve public health by designing and conducting world-class clinical trials and epidemiologic research.

Unclassified

Leonard and Diane Sherman Family Foundation

The foundation is organized to foster, promote, support, develop, encourage and maintain the broad charitable, educational and/or religious purpose of, the jewish federation of metropolitan chicago, and the foundation as authorized in…

Philanthropy

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County Inc; the most unlike its peers is Uptown Music Theater of Highland Park. 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

42 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. 42 of the 71 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

40/42

Grantees still filing

26/42

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Philanthropy$607,450Other$235,550Youth Development$68,700International$31,500Arts & Culture$23,900Health$22,905Education$21,300

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.

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.

Jewish Federation of Metropolitan ChicagoIL26.8× affinity11 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Highland Park Community Foundation · First Bank Chicago Foundation · The Bill Bass Foundation · Kovler Family Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · YEA Highland Park Inc · Goodman Family Fund · Sam I Am Foundation · Jerrold Ruskin Foundation Inc · Healthcare Foundation of Highland Park · Mills Family Charitable 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 James and Lesley Anixter Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from James and Lesley Anixter Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%

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.

Play a game based on James and Lesley Anixter’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