· Public charity
Lake County Bar Foundation
The foundation was established in 1960 to promote the education of lawyers and advance the science of jurisprudence.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 7 grants below total $260,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $266,000 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $6,000 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k5 grants · $60k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $200k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| NIU FOUNDATION | $100,000 |
| DEPAUL UNIVERSITY | $100,000 |
| NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC | $20,000 |
| CASA LAKE COUNTY | $10,000 |
| DRINKWATER FAMILY SERVICES | $10,000 |
| COALITION LEGAL | $10,000 |
| PRAIRIE STATE LEGAL SERVICES | $10,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY25–25, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
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.
CASA of Cook County's vision is to protect abused and neglected children by providing them in court, a safe and permanent home, and an opportunity to grow, learn and thrive.
Illinois legal aid online (ilao) opens opportunities for justice by educating illinoisans about their rights and connecting them to lawyers, solutions, and each other, especially people for whom the legal system was not designed. through…
Legal services and legal education
The organization provides community based legal services and education to the under-served and disadvantaged in Chicago metropolitan areas.
Elder Law & Wellness Initiative (ELWI) is committed to increasing our senior citizens' access to and understanding of our legal and social support system. ELWI's objective is to work with seniors and their caregivers to nurture and promote…
PILI engages, inspires and empowers those advancing equal access to justice.
Advocate for tort reform in Illinois by communicating with public officials and staff to influence legislation and administrative action designed to create a more equitable and balanced judicial system in Illinois.
Strengthen United Way movement in Illinois
First Defense Legal Aid mobilizes lawyers and community members to fill gaps in public defense and create, protect, and engage replicable alternatives to the criminal system, starting with its entry points.
At legal aid chicago, we work together to provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.through advocacy, education, collaboration, and litigation we empower individuals, protect fundamental…
Using public schools and libraries as community centers, the Chicago Law and Education Foundation provides free legal services and education to low-income communities in Chicago.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic and the most unlike its peers is Northern Illinois University Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
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 NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DEPAUL UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds NORTH SUBURBAN LEGAL AID CLINIC ↗
- Who funds Waukegan To College NFP ↗
- Who funds ART IMPACT PROJECT NOT FOR PROFIT ↗
- Who funds DRINKWATER FAMILY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds LAKE COUNTY CRISIS CENTER ↗
- Who funds PRAIRIE STATE LEGAL SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds COALITION LEGAL ↗
- Who funds Highland Park Community Foundation ↗
- Who funds CASA LAKE COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds THE WAUKEGAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 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 tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: The Lake County Community Foundation · John and Kathleen Schreiber Foundation D/B/A Schreiber Philanthropy · First Bank Chicago Foundation · AbbVie Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · National Philanthropic Trust · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile 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 Lake County Bar 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.
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.