· Private foundation
Joseph & Bessie Feinberg 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k41 grants · $176k
- $10k–50k36 grants · $831k
- $50k–250k20 grants · $1.7M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NORTHWESTERN FEINBERG SCHOOL OF MEDICINE | $225,000 |
| WEST COAST SPORTS MEDICINE FOUNDATION | $205,000 |
| LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE COMPANY | $115,000 |
| COLLABORACTION THEATRE | $105,000 |
| FRIENDS OF ELNET | $100,000 |
| ECHOES OF HOPE | $100,000 |
| DOVETAIL PROJECT | $100,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $100,000 |
| IMAGINE ENGLEWOOD IF | $75,382 |
| TIMELINE THEATRE | $60,000 |
| KING'S CARE FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| COMMUNITYHEALTH | $50,000 |
| JEWISH UNITED FUND | $50,000 |
| GIRLS 4 SCIENCE | $50,000 |
| HERITAGE RETREATS | $50,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $1.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +34% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.
149 repeat relationships: 84 still active in FY2025, 65 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $253k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- FOFRIENDS OF ELNET6× · 2020–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +60%
The National Public Housing Museum5× · 2020–2025 · $980k · revenue +117% · 48% of their budget- CFCONNECTIONS FOR THE HOMELESS INC6× · 2020–2025 · $800k · revenue +124%
Funded once
- FSFEINBERG SCHOOL OF MEDICINEone grant, 2023 · $225k
- NFNORTHWESTERN FEINBERG SCHOOL OF MEDICINE BATTLE DISCRETIONARYone grant, 2021 · $200k
- LALEGAL ACTION CHICAGO LLCone grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue +1%
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.
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.
Connecting and amplifying the power of individuals to build a just, equitable, and inclusive city.
A better chicago is changing how chicago fights poverty by investing in bold ideas that create opportunity for our youth.
Live Free Illinois is a statewide organization partnering with over 120 congregations and directly impacted individuals to build safer more equitable communities across Illinois. Operating at the intersection of criminal justice reform and…
Chicago Votes is a non-partisan, non-profit organization building a more inclusive democracy by putting power in the hands of young Chicagoans. We're engaging and developing a new generation of leaders by opening the doors of government,…
Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness (CCH) builds community power and advances racial equity through organizing, advocacy, legal assistance, and education to prevent and end homelessness because housing is a human right.
To promote public appreciation, understanding and support of the humanities through festivals and educational programs.
The Chicago Refugee Coalition is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated ot the alleviation of human suffering through innovative partnerships, advocacy and community empowerment.
To achieve parity in economic opportunity for people of color by advancing multiracial leadership in corporate governance, expanding the talent pipline for executive-level management, and growing minority businesses.
Cinema/Chicago, the non-profit 501(c)(3) presenting organization of the Chicago International Film Festival, enriches the community through year-round programming devoted to international and independent cinema. We strengthen communication…
How this is measured
127 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. 127 of the 248 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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.
- Who funds FRIENDS OF ELNET ↗
- Who funds The National Public Housing Museum ↗
- Who funds CONNECTIONS FOR THE HOMELESS INC ↗
- Who funds Imagine Englewood If NFP ↗
- Who funds JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO ↗
- Who funds International Neighborhood Collaborative ↗
- Who funds BETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE NIGHT MINISTRY ↗
- Who funds The People's Music School ↗
- Who funds GIRLS 4 SCIENCE ↗
- Who funds IGNITE ↗
- Who funds READER INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY JOURNALISM INC ↗
- Who funds LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE COMPANY ↗
- Who funds YOUNG CHICAGO AUTHORS ↗
- Who funds WINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC ↗
- Who funds COLLABORACTION THEATRE CO ↗
- Who funds NOURISHING HOPE ↗
- Who funds Albany Park Theater Project ↗
- Who funds COVENANT HOUSE ILLINOIS INC ↗
- Who funds CHICAGO PUBLIC MEDIA INC ↗
- Who funds Erikson Institute ↗
- Who funds Chicago Heightening Opportunity and Potential for ↗
- Who funds LADIES OF VIRTUE ↗
- Who funds Injustice Watch NFP ↗
- Who funds La Rabida Children's Hospital ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Polk Bros Foundation Inc · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · Robert R McCormick Foundation · Circle of Service Foundation · Field Foundation of Illinois · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · The Joyce Foundation · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · The Pierce Family Charitable Foundation · Reva and David Logan Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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