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· Private foundation

Kovler Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$5.6M
Granted FY2024still arriving
191
Grants FY2024still arriving
19
States reached
$2.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

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

Education$7.6MHealth$6.0MRecreation & Sports$5.0MPhilanthropy$3.4MArts & Culture$1.5MHuman Services$1.2MAnimals$823kInternational$383kOther$0
02FY2024 · 191 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k140 grants · $382k
  • $10k–50k37 grants · $567k
  • $50k–250k9 grants · $851k
  • $250k+5 grants · $3.8M
$3,000
Median grant
19
States reached
$35M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Eisenhower Medical Center$2,008,149
The University of Chicago$770,223
Chicago Parks Foundation$400,000
PCD Foundation$353,333
Jewish United Fund of Metro Chicago$281,000
Prostate Cancer Foundation$220,000
Invest For Kids Inc$175,000
Teach for America$100,000
American Israel Education Foundatio$100,000
US Holocaust Memorial Museum$55,500
Northwestern Mem Hospital-Kovler Ce$50,000
Joffrey Ballet$50,000
Museum of Contemporary Art$50,000
Milken Institute$50,000
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab$40,000
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 (FY20–24, $1.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 97% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%Loaves Fishes Community Services: $8k → 7%Shalom Tikvah: $13k → 11%Loaves Fishes Community Services: $8k → 7%Shalom Tikvah: $13k → 11%Loaves Fishes Community Services: $4k → 7%Shalom Tikvah: $13k → 11%Loaves Fishes Community Services: $4k → 7%Shalom Tikvah: $10k → 11%Loaves Fishes Community Services: $4k → 7%Shalom Tikvah: $10k → 11%Al Otro Lado: $10k → 11%Baltimore Hunger Project: $4k → 11%Al Otro Lado: $10k → 11%Baltimore Hunger Project: $4k → 11%Al Otro Lado: $10k → 11%Baltimore Hunger Project: $4k → 11%Baltimore Hunger Project: $4k → 11%Baltimore Hunger Project: $4k → 11%FarmLink Project: $4k → 14%FarmLink Project: $4k → 14%Brigid Alliance: $3k → 17%Night Ministry: $3k → 14%Night Ministry: $3k → 14%UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago: $2k → 14%Family Focus: $4k → 14%YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago: $3k → 14%YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago: $3k → 14%YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago: $3k → 14%YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago: $3k → 14%YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago: $3k → 14%Support Advocates for Women: $5k → 14%Support Advocates for Women: $3k → 14%Support Advocates for Women: $3k → 14%Family Focus: $4k → 14%Family Focus: $4k → 14%Share Our Spare: $4k → 14%Share Our Spare: $3k → 14%Share Our Spare: $3k → 14%Support Advocates for Women: $5k → 14%Support Advocates for Women: $5k → 14%Night Ministry: $3k → 14%Night Ministry: $3k → 14%Night Ministry: $3k → 14%Invest For Kids Inc: $175k → 14%Invest For Kids Inc: $175k → 14%Invest For Kids Inc: $171k → 14%Invest For Kids Inc: $150k → 14%Invest For Kids Inc: $145k → 14%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

NH
MN
IL
NY
MA
OR
IN
OH
PA
CT
CA
CO
MO
KY
VA
MD
AZ
TN
SC
DC
LA
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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$25M · 196 repeat orgs$581k to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +35% since the first grant, against +33% for the ones you funded once.

196 repeat relationships — 169 still active in FY2024, 27 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

196
45

Total granted

$25M
$417k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+35%
+33%

Still filing today

74%
87%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $164k 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 & CultureHealthHuman ServicesInternationalPhilanthropyOther

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

  • University of Chicago
    5× · 2020–2024 · $5.9M · revenue +52%
  • CP
    CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION
    4× · 2021–2024 · $4.9M · revenue +15% · 36% of their budget
  • EM
    Eisenhower Medical Center
    4× · 2020–2024 · $2.1M · revenue +66%

Funded once

  • UW
    UNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC
    one grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue -50%
  • AF
    AMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM
    one grant, 2023 · $70k · revenue -51%
  • MT
    McCallum Theatre
    one grant, 2022 · $45k

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
Columbia College Chicago

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

Education
2
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
3
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
4
Junior Achievement of Chicago

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

International
5
Uchicago Medicine Network Inc

Uchicago medicine network, inc. supports and encourages health and human service by providing support, directly or indirectly to ingalls memorial hospital, the university of chicago medical center, and other related tax-exempt…

Health
6
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.

—
7
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
8
The University of Chicago Charter School Corporation

To Prepare Students for Success in Four-Year Colleges.

Education
9
National Opinion Research Center

See schedule onorc at the university of chicago conducts research and data science on critical societal issues to guide decision-making and the development of programs and public policy. our experts identify relationships and trends, and…

Social Science
10
The Chicago Bar Foundation

The chicago bar foundation brings the legal community together through advocacy, funding, and innovation to improve access to justice for people in need and to make the legal system more fair, equitable, and effective.

Education
11
Children's Museum of Oak Park

To spark curiosity and creativity in all young children through positive, play-based learning experiences.

Arts & Culture
12
Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Inc

Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…

Community Improvement

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Illinois Humanities Council Inc and the most unlike its peers is Homes for Heroes Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyHealth Access Advocacy and …Environmental Conservation …Cancer Support ServicesDance Arts OrganizationsJewish Community Organizati…Community FoundationsChristian Youth CampsFaith-Based Social ServicesImmigrant Worker SupportChild Abuse Advocacy Servic…Food Banks and PantriesAnimal Rescue and ShelterPublic Library OperationsMilitary Veterans SupportDomestic Violence ServicesElementary Literacy TutoringCommunity College Foundatio…Christian Missionary Organi…School District FoundationsWomen & Girls Leadership De…Faith-Based Liberal Arts Co…Youth Sports ProgramsOrchestra and Ensemble Perf…Community Arts CentersLocal History MuseumsIndependent K-12 SchoolsUnited Way AffiliatesCommunity Foundations
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.

Your grantees are a median of 35 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number18%3%<5yr13%5%5–10yr18%15%10–20yr15%27%20–35yr14%30%35–55yr22%20%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value18%0%<5yr13%1%5–10yr18%25%10–20yr15%22%20–35yr14%6%35–55yr22%47%55yr+

The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 0% 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%0/214
the rest of the field
12%
8,891/72,145

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

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

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 2017–2026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 205 of the 264 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
43
Early backer (in before they grew)
203/205
Grantees still filing
148/205
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

University of Chicago — $5,880,436 · EducationUniversity of ChicagoTeach for America Inc — $500,000 · EducationTeach for America IncACADEMY FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL — $400,000 · Education+21 more — $731,500 · Education+21 moreCHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION — $4,900,000 · Recreation & SportsCHICAGO PARKS FOUNDAT…+5 more — $97,000 · Recreation & SportsJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $1,803,500 · PhilanthropyJEWISH UNITED FUND…DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC — $1,138,165 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHAR…PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION — $870,000 · PhilanthropyPROSTATE CANCER FO…+10 more — $456,000 · Philanthropy+10 moreEisenhower Medical Center — $2,111,149 · HealthEisenhower Medica…PCD KS FOUNDATION — $1,323,333 · HealthPCD KS FOUNDATIONRehabilitation Institute of Chicago — $200,000 · Health+17 more — $434,750 · Health+17 moreLurie Children's Foundation — $301,000 · OtherLurie Children'…Northwestern Mem Hospital-Kovler Ce — $150,000 · OtherDIGESTIVE HEALTH FOUNDATION — $150,000 · OtherLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $794,562 · OtherLINCOLN PARK ZO…+100 more — $2,269,330 · Other+100 moreMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART — $388,496 · Arts & CultureThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — $270,750 · Arts & CulturePALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM — $159,000 · Arts & CultureTHE JOFFREY BALLET — $152,500 · Arts & CultureChicago Children's Museum — $70,000 · Arts & CultureINTONATION MUSIC WORKSHOP — $70,000 · Arts & CultureWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $50,000 · Arts & Culture+12 more — $138,000 · Arts & CultureInvest for Kids Inc — $816,000 · Human ServicesShalom Tikvah Inc — $57,500 · Human Services+12 more — $184,000 · Human Services
Education$7,511,936Recreation & Sports$4,997,000Philanthropy$4,267,665Health$4,069,232Other$3,664,892Arts & Culture$1,298,746Human Services$1,057,500

Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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 budgetUniversity of Chicago — $5,880,436 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION — $4,900,000 over 4y, 36% of budgetEisenhower Medical Center — $2,111,149 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetJEWISH UNITED FUND OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO — $1,803,500 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetPCD KS FOUNDATION — $1,323,333 over 5y, 35% of budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC — $1,138,165 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION — $870,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetInvest for Kids Inc — $816,000 over 5y, 9.3% of budgetLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY — $794,562 over 4y, 0.7% of budgetTeach for America Inc — $500,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetACADEMY FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL — $400,000 over 4y, 1.6% of budgetMUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART — $388,496 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — $270,750 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetFrancis W Parker School — $246,500 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetRehabilitation Institute of Chicago — $200,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPALM SPRINGS ART MUSEUM — $159,000 over 5y, 0.6% of budgetTHE JOFFREY BALLET — $152,500 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetDIGESTIVE HEALTH FOUNDATION — $150,000 over 3y, 4.2% of budgetROBIN HOOD FOUNDATION — $128,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetDESERT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $102,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF ILLINOIS INC — $100,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetTHE MILKEN INSTITUTE — $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN ISRAEL EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetUNITED WAY OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO INC — $100,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLEGACY CHARTER SCHOOL — $91,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetIMERMAN ANGELS — $87,500 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC — $80,250 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE — $80,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetALEXS LEMONADE STAND FOUNDATION — $70,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetChicago Children's Museum — $70,000 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetINTONATION MUSIC WORKSHOP — $70,000 over 5y, 2.6% of budgetAMERICAN FRIENDS OF MAGEN DAVID ADOM — $70,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $60,000 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES — $58,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetShalom Tikvah Inc — $57,500 over 5y, 6.4% of budgetProvidence St Mel School — $50,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetBETTER GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION INC — $50,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetPUBLICOLOR INC — $50,000 over 4y, 0.4% of budgetWINDOW TO THE WORLD COMMUNICATIONS INC — $50,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE DRAGONFLY FOUNDATION — $45,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetErikson Institute — $44,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetLYNN SAGE BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION — $40,350 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetCHICAGO CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER — $40,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetALZHEIMER'S DISEASE & RELATED DISORDERS ASSOCIATION INC — $40,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTHE CHICAGO SCHOLARS FOUNDATION — $40,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetTHE FIRST TEE OF CHICAGO FOUNDATION — $40,000 over 5y, 0.7% of budgetChicago Youth Centers — $40,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetJEWISH FEDERATION OF PALM SPRINGS AND DESERT AREA — $36,250 over 4y, 0.7% 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.

Jewish Federation of …Circle of Service Fou…The Chicago Community…Polk Bros Foundation …Arie and Ida Crown Me…Jarvis FoundationSacks Family Foundati…John D and Catherine …Lloyd a Fry FoundationThe Robert Thomas Bob…United Way of Metropo…Imc Chicago Charitabl…
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan ChicagoIL69.3× affinity39 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 · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Arie and Ida Crown Memorial · Jarvis Foundation · Sacks Family Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Lloyd a Fry Foundation · The Robert Thomas Bobins Foundation · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · Imc Chicago Charitable 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 Kovler 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 · 40%6%23%51%90%your share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 35%
  • Joslin Diabetes Center Inc — 35% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
4get no government money at all
58report 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

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.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Kovler Family Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Kovler Family 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.

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 264 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 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