How much does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation give?

James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation reported 52 grants totaling $3,172,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 43 and 45 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (26%), Education (21%), Health (14%).

Who are James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: New Moms Inc ($590k), Planned Parenthood of Illinois ($530k), The Thresholds ($435k).

Does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 7% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family 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 P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Lloyd a Fry Foundation.

Foundation Dossiers

Illinois · Private foundation

James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family 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.

$3.2M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 52
Grants FY2025: 43
Organizations funded FY2024: 7%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $55,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $250,000
Organizations funded a year: 43 to 45; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 6
Total assets, FY2025: $33M
Applications: Preselected organizations only; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 7% of the organizations James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 1% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureEducationHealthYouth DevelopmentCivil RightsHuman ServicesOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	51	$3.1M	22%
FY2024	43	$1.7M	7%
FY2023	45	$1.5M	42%
FY2022	43	$1.0M	5%
FY2021	45	$1.0M	11%
FY2020	45	$1.2M	16%
FY2019	45	$981k	13%
FY2018	43	$1.0M	21%

95% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Arts & Culture$3.3MEducation$2.7MHealth$1.8MHuman Services$1.3MHousing & Shelter$745kPublic Benefit$538kPhilanthropy$437kEmployment$360kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
New Moms Inc	$590,000	9	2%
Planned Parenthood of Illinois	$530,000	3	0%
The Thresholds	$435,000	9	0%
Start Early	$435,000	9	0%
Shattered Globe Theatre	$415,000	9	19%
Theatre Aspen	$409,420	9	2%
New Teacher Center	$400,000	9	0%
Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching	$380,000	9	1%
Deborah's Place	$370,000	9	1%
La Casa Norte	$340,000	9	1%

Show all 69 grantees

All grantees of James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
New Moms Inc	$590,000	9	2%
Planned Parenthood of Illinois	$530,000	3	0%
The Thresholds	$435,000	9	0%
Start Early	$435,000	9	0%
Shattered Globe Theatre	$415,000	9	19%
Theatre Aspen	$409,420	9	2%
New Teacher Center	$400,000	9	0%
Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching	$380,000	9	1%
Deborah's Place	$370,000	9	1%
La Casa Norte	$340,000	9	1%
The Cara Program	$330,000	9	0%
Chicago Shakespeare Theater	$325,000	9	0%
Catholic Charities Inc	$280,000	6	n/a
Chicago Jesuit Academy	$280,000	9	n/a
Lutheran Child and Family Services of Illinois	$255,000	8	0%
Chicago Theatre Group Inc	$250,000	5	0%
826chi Inc	$227,500	8	13%
Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation	$227,500	9	1%
Chicago Public Media Inc	$225,000	5	0%
Midwest Access Coalition	$215,000	9	8%
Repro TLC	$215,000	9	5%
The Barack Obama Foundation	$200,000	1	n/a
Breakthrough Urban Ministries Inc	$140,000	3	0%
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago	$140,000	3	0%
Crossroads Fund Inc	$135,000	4	1%
Marwen Foundation Inc	$130,000	6	1%
Ingenuity Incorporated Chicago	$125,000	3	2%
American Blues Theater Nfp	$125,000	3	5%
Little Black Pearl Workshop	$115,000	3	1%
Thrive Counseling Center	$110,000	3	1%
Lyric Opera of Chicago	$100,000	1	0%
Smart Policy Works	$100,000	4	3%
Gilloury Institute	$95,000	5	1%
University of St Thomas	$90,000	8	0%
English in Action	$85,000	9	2%
American Library Association	$75,000	1	n/a
The Voter Participation Center	$70,000	4	0%
Timeline Theatre Company	$60,000	6	0%
Panorama Global	$50,000	1	n/a
Reader Institute for Community Journalism Inc	$50,000	2	1%
Chicago Public Library Foundation	$50,000	1	n/a
Merit School of Music	$37,500	5	0%
The Climate Center	$37,500	5	0%
The Leadership Conference Education Fund Inc	$32,500	2	0%
The Learning Center House of Connections	$30,000	3	4%
The American Writers Museum	$25,000	1	1%
All Voting Is Local	$20,000	1	0%
Connections for Abused Women and Their Children	$10,000	2	0%
Forefront	$9,312	6	0%
Justice Outside	$8,000	3	0%
Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago	$7,500	3	0%
Daily Acts Organization	$7,500	3	0%
Botanical Bus	$5,500	2	5%
Chicago Opera Theater	$5,000	1	n/a
Mercy Housing Lakefront	$5,000	1	0%
Greater Chicago Food Depository	$5,000	1	0%
St Luke and St Bernadine Parish	$5,000	1	n/a
Young Life	$5,000	2	0%
Housing Forward	$5,000	1	0%
The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Inc	$5,000	2	0%
Movement Strategy Center	$2,500	1	0%
The Mosaic Project	$2,500	1	0%
Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project	$2,500	1	0%
LandPaths	$2,500	1	0%
Girlventures	$2,500	1	0%
The Ceres Community Project	$2,500	1	0%
Beyond Hunger	$2,500	1	0%
NAMI Chicago	$2,500	1	0%
Court Theatre Fund	$1,000	1	n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 32 recipients with no EIN on record ($2.9M), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 60.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

John D and Catherine T Macarthur FoundationIL36× affinity17 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Ncrc Community Development Fund Inc · Circle of Service Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · The Allstate Foundation · Field Foundation of Illinois · Robert R McCormick 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.

Compare James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation with peer funders

About James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation

How much does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation give?: James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation reported 52 grants totaling $3,172,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 43 and 45 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (26%), Education (21%), Health (14%).
Who are James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: New Moms Inc ($590k), Planned Parenthood of Illinois ($530k), The Thresholds ($435k).
Does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 7% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family 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 P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Lloyd a Fry Foundation.
Where is James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation based?: James P and Brenda S Grusecki Family Foundation is based in IL.