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· Private foundation
JOHN R FLANAGAN CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
This foundation does not accept unsolicited requests — it funds preselected organizations.
$1.7M
Granted FY2024
11
Grants
2
Communities
$950k
Largest
01What you fund
0171% classified
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.
Recreation & Sports$6.0MFood & Nutrition$475kHuman Services$411kCivil Rights$121kPhilanthropy$100kHealth$50kEducation$39kOther$2.9M
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
chartiable
2023
—
Words distinctive to each year’s grant purposes (TF-IDF) · event-driven terms in cyan.
03FY2024 · 11 grants
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k4 grants · $105k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $400k
- $250k+2 grants · $1.2M
$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$40M
Total assets
Largest grants
- NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$950,000
- NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL FOUNDATION$250,000
- GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY$150,000
- GAD'S HILL$100,000
- FRIENDS OF APOSTLE ISLAND$50,000
- METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES$50,000
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD BRIDGE$50,000
- WASHBURN CLUB$30,000
- FRIENDS OF NACHUSA$25,000
- FEMMEBOUGHT COMMUNITY NFP$25,000
- RECREATION AND FITNESS RESOURCES$25,000
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:
Your human-services grants (FY20–24, $411k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13% — the area typically sits at 12%. 85% of those 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.
88%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$8.8M · 10 repeat orgs$1.2M to everyone else
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +52% since the first grant, against +28% for the ones you funded once.
10 repeat relationships — 9 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Re-uppedFunded once
Organizations
10
11
Total granted
$8.8M
$1.1M
Median revenue growth · since first grant
+52%
+28%
Still filing today
60%
27%
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $80k went to new ones.
RenewedFirst-time
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
Recreation & SportsHuman ServicesFood & NutritionCivil RightsPhilanthropyEducationOther
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
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY5× · 2020–2024 · $5.9M · revenue +33%
GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY4× · 2020–2024 · $475k · revenue +97%- MFMETROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES5× · 2020–2024 · $350k · revenue +192%
Funded once
- UFUSA FOR UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR REFUGEESone grant, 2022 · $250k
- MCMERCY CORPSone grant, 2022 · $250k
- DUDUKE UNIVERSITY CONC ACCOUNTone grant, 2022 · $198k
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
North Chicago Community Partners
Education
2
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
3
Metropolitan Family Services DuPage
Metropolitan Family Services DuPage's mission is to provide and mobilize the services needed to strengthen families and communities.
—
4
Chicago's Environmental Fund
—
5
Chicago Crime Commission
Through advocacy and collaboration, we aim to reduce crime and improve public safety, focusing on initiatives like criminal justice reform, violence prevention, and robust support for law enforcement.
Crime & Legal
6
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
7
Gastro Intestinal Research Foundation
The GI Research Foundation works to treat, prevent, and cure digestive diseases. In collaboration with the physicians and scientists at the University of Chicago Digestive Diseases Center, we fund innovative clinical and laboratory…
Health
8
Northern Illinois Medical Center
To provide quality health care services with innovative and responsible use of resources and promote wellness for the mchenry county area.
Health
9
Columbia College Chicago
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
Education
10
North Central College
We are a diverse community of learners dedicated to preparing students to be curious, engaged, ethical, and purposeful citizens and leaders in local, national and global contexts.
Education
11
Presence Chicago Hospitals Network
To improve the health and well-being of all people in the communities we serve.
Human Services
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 Family Forum Inc and the most unlike its peers is Greater Chicago Food Depository. 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
10 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.
1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
9/10
Grew since you first funded
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Recreation & Sports$5,950,000Other$2,903,321Food & Nutrition$475,000Human Services$410,500Civil Rights$121,000Philanthropy$100,000Health$50,000Education$38,850
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.
- Who funds NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY ↗
- Who funds METROPOLITAN FAMILY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds FEMMEBOUGHT COMMUNITY NFP ↗
- Who funds DULUTH-SUPERIOR AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE ↗
- Who funds CORE COMMUNITY RESOURCES ↗
- Who funds THE NEIGHBORHOOD BRIDGE ↗
- Who funds RECREATION AND FITNESS RESOURCES ↗
- Who funds FAMILY FORUM INC ↗
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 set of overlaps that mostly run through you, not between each other.
Donor Advised Charitable Giving IncCA6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →
Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
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 JOHN R FLANAGAN CHARITABLE 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
- Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service — 100% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–24
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: FEMMEBOUGHT COMMUNITY NFP.
Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk
Financial management
insufficient risk
Limited financial data in public filings.
Track record & reputation
medium risk
3 years of Form 990 filings, still active.
Legal standing
low risk
US 501(c)(3); EIN 850865618 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 FEMMEBOUGHT COMMUNITY NFP, 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
- Awaiting reportFinancial stability— Runway not derivable from filings.
- On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue contracted over the period.
- WatchReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 97% of their budget — load-bearing; a dependency Plinth would track.
- 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 John R Flanagan Charitable Foundation?
Find your warmest path to John R Flanagan Charitable Foundation 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