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Jerrold Ruskin Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Jerrold Ruskin Foundation Inc

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.

$200k
Granted FY2025still arriving
53
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$43k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$591kReligion$216kEducation$103kPhilanthropy$102kRecreation & Sports$44kHealth$41kCivil Rights$37kInternational$33kOther$0
02FY2025 · 53 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k47 grants · $73k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $127k
$500
Median grant
6
States reached
$534k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
AM SHALOM$43,170
JEWISH UNITED FUND$30,000
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY$21,000
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE$12,350
HOPE CHICAGO$10,000
BAYIT BRIGADE AMERICA$10,000
CLEARBROOK$9,500
MONTRESSO ART FOUNDATION$8,708
THE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK$7,580
US HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM$5,100
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY - PRITZKER SCHOOL OF LAW$5,000
AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE - JACOB BLAUSTEIN BUILDING$5,000
SPERTUS INSTITUTE$4,900
THE EMBER FOUNDATION$3,500
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART CHICAGO$2,770
02The need
03

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:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $21k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 88% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CITY KIDS CAMP: $600 → 13%THE VILLAGE CHICAGO: $100 → 14%SWIMMING WITH A MISSION INC: $250 → 7%SWIMMING WITH A MISSION INC: $250 → 7%SWIMMING WITH A MISSION INC: $100 → 7%TRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER: $500 → 8%TRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER: $450 → 8%TRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER: $350 → 8%TRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER: $250 → 8%TRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER: $250 → 8%CLEARBROOK: $10k → 14%CLEARBROOK: $7k → 14%CHICAGO CHESED FUND: $100 → 14%CJE SENIOR LIFE: $500 → 14%CJE SENIOR LIFE: $300 → 14%CJE SENIOR LIFE: $225 → 14%COUNCIL FOR JEWISH ELDERLY: $200 → 14%JCC CHICAGO: $80 → 14%JCC CHICAGO: $39 → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

NH
IL
WI
NY
MA
IN
OH
NJ
CT
RI
CA
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NM
KS
TN
NC
DC
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.1M · 63 repeat orgs$75k to everyone else

63 repeat relationships: 36 still active in FY2025, 27 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

63
70

Total granted

$1.1M
$52k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
+17%

Still filing today

59%
53%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $23k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthArts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationInternationalPhilanthropyOther
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
    6× · 2020–2025 · $101k · revenue +13%
  • TA
    THE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK
    6× · 2020–2025 · $26k · revenue +53%
  • Northwestern University
    6× · 2020–2025 · $22k · revenue +33%

Funded once

  • PF
    PARKS FOUNDATION OF HIGHLAND PARKgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $18k · revenue +433%
  • BR
    BETEL ROMANIAN BAPTIST CHURCH
    one grant, 2022 · $7k
  • TA
    THE ARTS OF LIFE INC
    one grant, 2024 · $5k · 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.

1
The Jewish Museum

The mission of the jewish museum is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and jewish culture. see schedule o for more information.

Arts & Culture
2
New York University

Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.

Education
3
Institute for Advanced Study - Louis Bamberger & Mrs Felix Fuld Foundation

The institute for advanced study (the institute) is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. see schedule o.

Science & Tech
4
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc

The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…

Health
5
University of Chicago

The mission of the university of chicago has been to sustain at the highest level of excellence, the communication of knowledge, the creation of knowledge and the fostering of a dynamic community of scholars and students.

Education
6
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The children's hospital of philadelphia, the oldest hospital in the united states dedicated exclusively to pediatrics, strives to be the world leader in the advancement of health care for children by integrating excellent patient care,…

Health
7
The Adler Planetarium

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…

Arts & Culture
8
New York Genome Center Inc

Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.

Health
9
University of Chicago Medical Center

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…

Health
10
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
11
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
12
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Leadership in the prevention, treatment, and cure of cancer through excellence, vision and cost effectiveness in patient care, outreach programs, research, and education.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Crohn's & Colitis Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Rebecca Kutchins Fund. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

87 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 87 of the 154 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
86/87
Grantees still filing
55/87
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO-MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY: $424,818 · OtherCOLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO-MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHYAM SHALOM: $157,141 · OtherAM SHALOMHOPE CHICAGO INC: $95,000 · OtherHOPE CHICAGO INCMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY: $84,393 · OtherMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY+110 more: $152,167 · Other+110 moreJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $100,500 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UNIT…PARKS FOUNDATION OF HIGHLAND PARK: $18,000 · PhilanthropyPARKS FOUND…+5 more: $1,400 · PhilanthropyTHE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK: $26,052 · Arts & CultureThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $14,600 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $11,863 · Arts & CultureRAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION: $6,807 · Arts & CultureTHE ARTS OF LIFE INC: $5,000 · Arts & Culture+8 more: $3,185 · Arts & CultureBayit Brigade: $25,000 · InternationalAMERICAN FRIENDS OF ALYN HOSPITALINC: $3,363 · InternationalFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: $2,575 · InternationalAMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM: $1,750 · InternationalJEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC: $1,450 · InternationalBIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION: $1,250 · International+3 more: $1,018 · InternationalNorthwestern University: $21,500 · Recreation & SportsCAMP YOUNG JUDAEA MIDWEST INC: $1,500 · Recreation & SportsCLEARBROOK: $16,100 · Human ServicesTRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER INC: $1,800 · Human ServicesCOUNCIL FOR JEWISH ELDERLY: $1,225 · Human Services+5 more: $1,519 · Human ServicesANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $20,250 · Civil Rights
Other$913,519Philanthropy$119,900Arts & Culture$67,507International$36,406Recreation & Sports$23,000Human Services$20,644Civil Rights$20,250

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: $100,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetHOPE CHICAGO INC: $95,000 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetTHE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK: $26,052 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetBayit Brigade: $25,000 over 2y, 2.5% of budgetNorthwestern University: $21,500 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: $20,250 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPARKS FOUNDATION OF HIGHLAND PARK: $18,000 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetCLEARBROOK: $16,100 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: $14,600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE EMBER FOUNDATION: $12,200 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART: $11,863 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetRAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION: $6,807 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ARTS OF LIFE INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF ALYN HOSPITALINC: $3,363 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION INC: $2,600 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: $2,575 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetART ENCOUNTER: $2,530 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetTHE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER INC: $1,800 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM: $1,750 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY: $1,747 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCAMP YOUNG JUDAEA MIDWEST INC: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetJEWISH NATIONAL FUND (KEREN KAYEMETH LEISRAEL) INC: $1,450 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO: $1,300 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION: $1,250 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHERN INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC: $1,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCOUNCIL FOR JEWISH ELDERLY: $1,225 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWORLD WILDLIFE FUND INC: $1,100 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY: $1,050 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNETWORK FOR GOOD: $1,030 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetMDRC: $1,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDIGESTIVE HEALTH FOUNDATION: $800 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetST BALDRICK'S FOUNDATION INC: $750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMuseum of Modern Art: $750 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetSWIMMING WITH A MISSION INC: $600 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSPECIAL OLYMPICS ILLINOIS: $500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetZETA BETA TAU FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetROCKFORD FAMILY PLANNING FOUNDATION INC: $500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN FOUNDATION: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget112 EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetCANCER WELLNESS CENTER: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFidelitone Employee Charity: $500 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetSIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER INC: $350 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetCYSTIC FIBROSIS FOUNDATION: $350 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMichael Rolfe Pancreatic Cancer Foundation: $300 over 3y, 0.0% of budget
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.

  • Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
  • Who funds HOPE CHICAGO INC ↗
  • Who funds THE ART CENTER OF HIGHLAND PARK ↗
  • Who funds Bayit Brigade ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE ↗
  • Who funds PARKS FOUNDATION OF HIGHLAND PARK ↗
  • Who funds CLEARBROOK ↗
  • Who funds The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ↗
  • Who funds THE EMBER FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ↗
  • Who funds RAVINIA FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds THE ARTS OF LIFE INC ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF ALYN HOSPITALINC ↗
  • Who funds CROHN'S & COLITIS FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES ↗
  • Who funds ART ENCOUNTER ↗
  • Who funds THE CHICAGO BAR FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds TRI-CON CHILD CARE CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM ↗
  • Who funds CHICAGO HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ↗

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 …Circle of Service Fou…The Chicago Community…First Bank Chicago Fo…AbbVie FoundationRosslevee Charitable …Highland Park Communi…Kovler Family Foundat…United Way of Metropo…Arthur J Gallagher Fo…John D and Catherine …YEA Highland Park Inc
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan ChicagoIL31.9× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Circle of Service Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · First Bank Chicago Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · Rosslevee Charitable Foundation · Highland Park Community Foundation · Kovler Family Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Arthur J Gallagher Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · YEA Highland Park Inc

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 Jerrold Ruskin Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Jerrold Ruskin Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 0%
  • Hebrew Senior Life Inc: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
22report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 154 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Jerrold Ruskin’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