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Foundation Dossiers

Illinois · Private foundation

John R Sommer Foundation

Its FY2021 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$3k
Granted FY2020
15
Grants FY2020
15
Organizations funded FY2020
100%
First-time grantees FY2020
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2020
$200
Largest grant, FY2020
$734
Organizations funded a year
10 to 15
FY2017 to FY2020
States reached, FY2020
1
Total assets, FY2020
$48k
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2020, 100% of the organizations John R Sommer Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 100% of its grant dollars.

The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY202015$3k100%
FY201710$22kn/a
96% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2020.

Recreation & Sports$19kHuman Services$3kHealth$1kCommunity Improvement$800Public Benefit$734Arts & Culture$150Religion$150Youth Development$100Other$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2020, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
The Bowlers to Veterans Link$18,12712%
Angels Community Clinic Inc$1,00011%
Vetsroll Inc$73410%
Children's Miracle Network$25010%

Plus 21 recipients with no EIN on record ($6k), not named here.

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About John R Sommer Foundation

How much does John R Sommer Foundation give?
John R Sommer Foundation reported 15 grants totaling $3,411 in its FY2020 IRS filing. It funded between 10 and 15 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2020.
What does John R Sommer Foundation fund?
By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2020, its largest causes are Recreation & Sports (74%), Human Services (12%), Health (6%).
Who are John R Sommer Foundation's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2017 to FY2020: The Bowlers to Veterans Link ($18k), Angels Community Clinic Inc ($1k), Vetsroll Inc ($734).
Does John R Sommer Foundation fund new organizations?
In FY2020, 100% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does John R Sommer 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.
Where is John R Sommer Foundation based?
John R Sommer Foundation is based in IL.

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 25 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 2020, released 2020. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2021) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2020, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

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More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
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$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