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Plinth
Foundation Dossiers
Plinth

· Private foundation

JR and Katie Berger Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$366k
Granted FY2024still arriving
26
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$250k
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
01What you fund
0193% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.

Philanthropy$572kEducation$184kArts & Culture$109kReligion$70kHealth$34kInternational$19kYouth Development$14kAnimals$8kOther$0
02FY2024 · 26 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k20 grants · $33k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $83k
  • $250k+1 grant · $250k
$1,800
Median grant
8
States reached
$4.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Jewish United Fund$250,000
Sixpoint$25,000
Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School$20,000
Truman Library Institute$15,000
Anshe Emet Synagogue$13,350
Wolcott College Prep$10,000
ARK$5,400
Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago$5,000
High Jump$5,000
Chabad at UIC$3,600
Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation$2,500
US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)$2,000
Herzl Camp$1,800
Sharsheret$1,000
Dignitas Ukraine Inc$1,000
02The need
03

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 (FY22–23, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Somerville Homeless Coalition: $500 → 8%Commit 2 Change: $1k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
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 linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

Which US states your grants reach

WA
MN
IL
NY
MA
NJ
CA
CO
MO
KS
SC
DC
AL
TX
FL

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 — 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.

82%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$873k · 42 repeat orgs$193k to everyone else

42 repeat relationships — 19 still active in FY2024, 23 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

42
57

Total granted

$873k
$134k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+17%
+24%

Still filing today

62%
53%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 84% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $60k went to new ones.

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

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

’20’21’22’23’24
EducationArts & CultureInternationalHealthEnvironmentFood & NutritionOther

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

  • JU
    JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
    5× · 2020–2024 · $533k · revenue +13%
  • TL
    THE LATIN SCHOOL OF CHICAGO
    3× · 2020–2022 · $45k · revenue +24%
  • HJ
    HIGH JUMP
    5× · 2020–2024 · $43k · revenue +21%

Funded once

  • CB
    CONGREGATION BENE SHALOM-HEBREW ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF
    one grant, 2020 · $25k
  • JF
    Jewish Federation of Greater KC
    one grant, 2023 · $18k
  • FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES
    one grant, 2023 · $12k · revenue -33%

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
Chicago Historical Society

The Chicago History Museum strives to be a destination for learning, inspiration, and civic engagement. Through dynamic exhibitions, tours, programs, digital resources, and special events, the Museum connects people to Chicago's history…

Arts & Culture
2
Chicago Public Education Fund

The chicago public education fund (the fund) is a nonprofit organization that improves public schools in chicago by investing in the talented educators who lead them.

Education
3
Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute

The chicago psychoanalytic institute transforms the lives of individuals, families and communities, using psychoanalytic knowledge to help them grow and thrive.

Social Science
4
Kipp Chicago Schools

The team at kipp chicago schools is guided by a simple, yet powerful mission: to create a network of excellent schools in chicago that teach our students the character and academic skills necessary to succeed in college and beyond, and to…

Education
5
Columbia College Chicago

The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.

Education
6
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

The Chicago School educates the next generation of change-makers in innovative theory and culturally competent practice to strengthen the integrated health of individuals, organizations, and communities.

Education
7
True Chicago
Arts & Culture
8
Junior Achievement of Chicago

To inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy

International
9
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management

Lake Forest Graduate School of Management's mission is to bring the real world to business education and leadership development.

—
10
The Chicago Scholars Foundation

Chicago scholars is transforming the leadership landscape of our city by resolving the fundamental barriers to success for academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities.

Education
11
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
12
The University of Chicago Charter School Corporation

To Prepare Students for Success in Four-Year Colleges.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is After School Matters Inc and the most unlike its peers is Chicago Cred Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 36 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%4%<5yr13%9%5–10yr18%17%10–20yr15%16%20–35yr14%17%35–55yr22%36%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%3%<5yr13%1%5–10yr18%2%10–20yr15%7%20–35yr14%11%35–55yr22%76%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 4% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/70
the rest of the field
12%
8,891/72,289

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

62 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 62 of the 106 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
62/62
Grantees still filing
42/62
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

JEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $532,622 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGOANSHE EMET SYNAGOGUE — $27,982 · OtherANSHE EMET SYNAGOGUECONGREGATION BENE SHALOM-HEBREW ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF — $25,162 · OtherCONGREGATION BENE SHALOM-HE…Illinois Holocaust Museum — $25,000 · OtherIllinois Holocaust MuseumJewish Federation of Greater KC — $18,000 · OtherJewish Federation of Greate…US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) — $17,000 · OtherUS Holocaust Memorial Museu…Northwestern Memorial Foundation — $15,000 · OtherNorthwestern Memorial Found…Lurie Children's Hospital — $10,000 · OtherWolcott College Prep — $10,000 · OtherARK — $9,700 · Other+60 more — $102,648 · Other+60 moreTHE LATIN SCHOOL OF CHICAGO — $45,000 · EducationTHE LATIN SCHOOL …HIGH JUMP — $42,500 · EducationHIGH JUMPSIXPOINT INC — $25,000 · EducationSIXPOINT INCBERNARD ZELL ANSHE EMET DAY SCHOOL — $20,000 · EducationBERNARD ZELL ANSH…THE HARRY S TRUMAN LIBRARY INSTITUTE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS — $18,500 · EducationTHE HARRY S TRUMA…+7 more — $14,850 · Education+7 moreThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — $50,000 · Arts & CultureKenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry — $5,100 · Arts & CultureCHICAGO POLICE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION — $4,000 · Arts & CultureFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $2,500 · Arts & Culture+5 more — $6,615 · Arts & CultureFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES — $11,500 · InternationalISRAEL EMERGENCY ALLIANCE — $5,000 · InternationalWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC — $1,000 · InternationalDignitas Ukraine Inc — $1,000 · InternationalAMERICAN FRIENDS OF ISRAELI NAVY SEALS INC — $1,000 · International+1 more — $500 · InternationalPlanned Parenthood of Illinois — $4,500 · HealthPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC — $3,000 · HealthRepro TLC — $1,000 · HealthSharsheret Inc — $1,000 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc — $500 · Health+1 more — $250 · HealthBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO — $7,000 · Youth DevelopmentTHE MENOMONEE CLUB — $1,000 · Youth DevelopmentRole Model Movement Inc (NFP) — $1,000 · Youth Development
Philanthropy$532,622Other$260,492Education$165,850Arts & Culture$68,215International$20,000Health$10,250Youth Development$9,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $532,622 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — $50,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE LATIN SCHOOL OF CHICAGO — $45,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetHIGH JUMP — $42,500 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetSIXPOINT INC — $25,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetBERNARD ZELL ANSHE EMET DAY SCHOOL — $20,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE HARRY S TRUMAN LIBRARY INSTITUTE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS — $18,500 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES — $11,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF CHICAGO — $7,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetKenneth C Griffin Museum of Science and Industry — $5,100 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetEVERGREEN CLIMATE INNOVATIONS — $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetISRAEL EMERGENCY ALLIANCE — $5,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPlanned Parenthood of Illinois — $4,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO POLICE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION — $4,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION — $4,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION — $3,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC — $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChiArts Foundation — $3,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ASPEN INSTITUTE INC — $3,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY — $2,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Cred Inc — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHIRE360 — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF COLORADO FOUNDATION — $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSHEDD AQUARIUM SOCIETY — $2,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetXS Tennis and Education Foundation — $2,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO — $2,050 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES — $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHICAGO YOUTH PROGRAMS INC — $2,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetEQUAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $1,989 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHERZL CAMP ASSOCIATION INC — $1,800 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNO SHAME ON U INC — $1,800 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetGREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY — $1,750 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSESAME WORKSHOP — $1,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetREFUGEEONE — $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChicago Children's Museum — $1,300 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPAWS CHICAGO — $1,100 over 2y, 0.0% of budget626 LANDMARK FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetRepro TLC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetWORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE HAROLD GRINSPOON FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAFTER SCHOOL MATTERS INC — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMIT-2-CHANGE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetTHE MENOMONEE CLUB — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetErikson Institute — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDignitas Ukraine Inc — $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSharsheret Inc — $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

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 tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Chicago Community…Jewish Federation of …Arie and Ida Crown Me…Circle of Service Fou…John D and Catherine …Arkes Family Foundati…Polk Bros Foundation …The Bluhm Family Foun…The Pritzker Pucker F…United Way of Metropo…Jordan and Jean Neren…The Fogelson Foundati…
The Chicago Community TrustIL27.1× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Chicago Community Trust · Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Circle of Service Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Arkes Family Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · The Bluhm Family Foundation · The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Jordan and Jean Nerenberg Family Foundation · The Fogelson Foundation

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 organization JR and Katie Berger Family 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
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 31%
  • Somerville Homeless Coalition Inc — 31% of income from government
  • Sharsheret Inc — 4% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
3get 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 · 0–40%
typical government reliance, FY20–25

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 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 106 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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 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